Friday, April 9, 2010

Habs win! (Yes. They do.)

Regular season is winding down, and I know this because people are winning things.

Allow me to stop you before you say "not games, ha ha."

After the news that ~czechtacular's favourite person, Guy Boucher, (I'm not exaggerating... if he's not her favourite person then he's definitely in the top 10) was named the best coach in the AHL, the Habs' two end-of-season awards were... um... awarded.

The 2009-10 cumulative Molson Cup was awarded to Jaroslav Halak... not much of a surprise there, he played consistently well throughout the season, was named a star of the game quite often, and only missed the games where he didn't start. He won by a pretty big margin too - 63 points to runner-up Carey Price's 48. Tomas Plekanec came in third in the standings with 43 points, and if you're surprised not to read any other names here, they were probably injured at some point this season.

This year's Jacques Beauchamp trophy (apparently now the Jacques Beauchamp-Molson trophy, I guess it got married or something), awarded by the media to the team's "dark horse" went to Josh Gorges. Or in formal terms, the member of the Canadiens who played a dominant role during the regular season, without earning any particular honor. But that sounds a little condescending. Personally, I'd have given it to him last year (that's what she said?) when it was awarded to Maxim Lapierre. Don't get me wrong, Max was fantastic last season, but he got the positive attention he deserved. So maybe this was like Scorsese's Oscar for The Departed... because honestly, if anyone doesn't know by now that Gorges is a good hockey player and an important part of this team, then they're an idiot. When I was in California, rewatching the Habs-Kings game on TV, the commentators noted that as a younger player in San Jose, he didn't really have a specific role on the team, nor was he secure on the roster. Then, he was traded to Montreal right around the time I started watching a little bit of hockey (and thus decided to keep an eye on the new guy that everyone hated for replacing Craig Rivet), and now, just as the LA guys said, he's an important part of our defense. Plus, he nearly got his head cracked open and still played the next game.

Runner-up was the very deserving Glen Metropolit, who works hard and is an all-around good guy. He skated today! Injury be damned.

(By the way, at press time that Canadiens.com article said Gorges was last year's Masterton nominee for this team, when in fact it was Patrice Brisebois. I know that, and they forgot? Do they need an extra pair of eyes over there? Because I'm not that busy right now.)

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