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Time to Start Thinking "Awards"
Posted by Les Lazaruk on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 02:24:00 PM.
It's three weeks until the season is over for the Saskatoon Blades...or seven games remaining...at the time of this writing, take your pick.
The annual Blades' Awards Gala will be held Monday, March 17 at T.C.U. Place...and, yours truly, will climb onto the stage and read out the names of the winners of the 17 awards handed out by the club each season.
Voting is done, almost exclusively, within the management and coaching offices with the Blades...with minimal input from the media (to some, that may be a good thing, lol!) But, that won't stop me from throwing in my "two cents worth" on the awards that I feel I have a qualified opinion to vote on...as follows:
Hardest Hitter: Colton Gillies, no question. Watch opponents put their heads on a swivel when they go after a loose puck near the boards when #18 is on the ice!
Diamond in the Rough: Chris Langkow...quite a revelation since his acquisition from Spokane as part of the Justin McCrae trade. Darian Dziurzynski would also be a good choice.
Hardest Working Player: Chris Langkow. His arrival brought out the best of Curtis Hamilton and Travis Toomey and his work ethic was infectious to others as well.
Brian Skrudland Trophy (Best Defensive Forward): Chris Durand...hands down. Need a defensive zone face-off won...or kill off a penalty...or win a battle for puck possession? Durand was the most reliable.
Most Gentlemanly Player: Derek Hulak...skates well enough that he doesn't need to foul an opponent and doesn't lose his cool easily.
Most Dedicated Player: A combination of most improved and a "comeback" player award. Ryan Funk would get my vote. Missed almost all of last season and got better as this season went on.
Most Improved Player: Travis Toomey...at both ends of the ice, offence, defence, in the face-off circle, his growth as the season went on was dramatic.
Rookie of the Year: Stefan Elliott & Jyri Niemi...I can't choose between them, but I know they're both around for the next two seasons at least!
Defenceman of the Year: Sam Klassen...The +/- stat is one that can be misinterpreted quite often. This time, it tells quite a tale to me.
Most Valuable Player: Colton Gillies...as of right now, since he became the captain, the Blades' record is better than .500. And, a lot of that had to do with a "player's only" meeting in Edmonton following a 4-0 loss to the Oil Kings. Throw in the fact Gillies leads the team in goal-scoring and he gets the nod from me over a host of other players who made significant contributions to a team that struggled for the first half of the season, but has come on in the last seven weeks!
Those are just my opinions...yours are welcome!
7 Comment(s) | Leave a Comment
Comments
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| from casual fan on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 08:32:37 PM |
| Have to agree with most but i think Braden Holtby is most surely the MVP. kept a poor team that can not score in many games and has gotten much better as the season went on and workload increased. |
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| from Got my Vote! on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 11:15:07 PM |
| Good choices Les! |
| Thoughts |
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| from Dude Ranch on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 12:43:27 PM |
| Niemi has a BLASTER!!!!!
Elliott is calm as Mike Green!! Gillies is a Cannon ball! Big Bang Boom is back! THL Line! |
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| from Roger Mistanik on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 07:18:05 PM |
| Based on the whole year not just recent events
Hardest Hitter (For good bad or ugly) Gillies Diamond In The Rough: Niemi Hardest Working: Flatters Best Defensive Forward: Durand, could have been Patterson given more oportunity and not been injured. Gentlemenly: Wintoneak Dedicated: Zemlak....yes he had to be the most dedicated!!!! Improved: Gilles.....some of us were scratching our heads for a while!! Rookie of the Year: Elliot Best Defensemen: Zahn, Klassen close behind MVP: Hulak (day in and day out) or Holtby (saved a team that had trouble scoring.) |
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| from Blades Fan on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 07:59:42 PM |
| Holtby hands down for MVP! |
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| from stanley on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 12:01:53 AM |
| Hardest hitting can only be Flatters. Think about hits on Hotzen of Lethbridge and Ennis of Med. Hat. Open ice, offensive zone, defensive zone, on boards, front of net and when allowed, more fearsome than Gillies as a forward. |
| Reich |
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| from Thaine on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 01:12:09 PM |
| Deticated!!!! In the many years of watching and following hockey at many levels, i have never came to the rink being excited to watch a kid play hockey,like i am whan i come to CUC to watch Mike Reich play. I understand the game of hockey well, and realize that Mike is a role and energy player for the blades. This kid is one of the reasons the blades have turned things aronud in the last ten games, everytime he is on the ice he is delivering a big hit, in the face of the opposing team or developing the play, but getting into a scrap and igniting the CUC croud. I hope that is mike dosent move on to a pro league next year , he is given a serious look at the begging of the year as to be an overage with the blades, a player like that is also a dimond in the rough and has turned the blades aroun in many levels. great pick up Lorne |