Calder Finalists Announced

[CenterIce 83]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=419551

[dat's sick 1,002]

Not surprising. I was hoping for Berglund to get nominated but I can't say these choices are bad. Mason's the obvious winner, even though he hasn't been as strong the last couple of months.

Norris nominees revealed tomorrow, could be interesting.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Not surprising. I was hoping for Berglund to get nominated but I can't say these choices are bad. Mason's the obvious winner, even though he hasn't been as strong the last couple of months.

Norris nominees revealed tomorrow, could be interesting.

It'll be Lidstrom, Green, and somebody who doesn't stand a snowball's chance. Not much drama there. The Hart and Selke nominees are going to be more worth watching.

[CanadaBoy 151]

Are these trophies based solely on regular season performance? If so then Mason FTW!

[wmubronco420 25]

Norris candidates will be Lidstrom, Chara, and Green. Green will most liekly win it

[Hitchhiker 9]

Are these trophies based solely on regular season performance? If so then Mason FTW!

Yes.

[toby91_ca 620]

Are these trophies based solely on regular season performance? If so then Mason FTW!

Yes, based soley on regular season and voting has already happend. WHat is being released really isn't the nominees, it's simply the 3 that had the most votes.

[Guest Shoreline]

Good choices, but pretty sure Mason should win this, assuming they don't have bias regarding how the team performs in the playoffs.

As for the Norris candidates tomorrow, my guess is Chara, Green, Lidstrom, with Green winning it in June.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Shoreline

[toby91_ca 620]

Good choices, but pretty sure Mason should win this, assuming they don't have bias regarding how the team performs in the playoffs.

As for the Norris candidates tomorrow, my guess is Chara, Green, Lidstrom, with Green winning it in June.

As I already pointed out, voting has already happened, so it would be impossible to have any bias regarding playoffs. Also, voters are not given 3 different people to vote for, they are simply asked to vote. The 3 you see released today were simply the ones that had more votes than the rest.

[Wombat 26]

I'm sort of surprised Rinne didn't end up as one of the top 3 Calder guys... he had a good season.

[toby91_ca 620]

I'm sort of surprised Rinne didn't end up as one of the top 3 Calder guys... he had a good season.

Pretty sure Rinne is too old to be eligible.

[Wombat 26]

Pretty sure Rinne is too old to be eligible.

Ah, thank you for pointing that out for me, I did not know there was an age limit.

[Chunkylover 26]

As average as Lidstrom's season was, and if he must be a runner-up, I really hope it's not to Green. I know the award is not based on the playoffs but he's not a good defenseman. If it must be someone else let it be Chara. He's the better, all-around defenseman.

Edit: Since this is a Calder thread I should probably comment on the finalists. I think Versteeg and Mason flew under the radar since all the talk was about Stamkos and Turris. I like Versteeg, but it'll definitely be Mason. Ryan has prior experience even though he's still considered a rookie. Heck Helm is still eligible for the Calder next season right? That seems kind of silly, that a player could win the Cup two seasons before winning the Calder.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Chunkylover

[Mors 201]

As average as Lidstrom's season was, and if he must be a runner-up, I really hope it's not to Green. I know the award is not based on the playoffs but he's not a good defenseman. If it must be someone else let it be Chara. He's the better, all-around defenseman.

Agreed, I think Chara is overdue for a win, although I don't think people will see past Green's point totals.

[Guest mindfly]

Ryan should get it

[mjlegend 155]

Leino got robbed!

[dat's sick 1,002]

As I already pointed out, voting has already happened, so it would be impossible to have any bias regarding playoffs. Also, voters are not given 3 different people to vote for, they are simply asked to vote. The 3 you see released today were simply the ones that had more votes than the rest.

They should definitely have a re-vote once they've settled on the 3 finalists. That is the most fair way to do it imo.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

As average as Lidstrom's season was, and if he must be a runner-up, I really hope it's not to Green. I know the award is not based on the playoffs but he's not a good defenseman. If it must be someone else let it be Chara. He's the better, all-around defenseman.

Edit: Since this is a Calder thread I should probably comment on the finalists. I think Versteeg and Mason flew under the radar since all the talk was about Stamkos and Turris. I like Versteeg, but it'll definitely be Mason. Ryan has prior experience even though he's still considered a rookie. Heck Helm is still eligible for the Calder next season right? That seems kind of silly, that a player could win the Cup two seasons before winning the Calder.

59pts and +31 isn't an average season. He's won it recently with a 62pt total- and that was with a full season. He missed 4 games this year (so if you average it out he'd have put up about 62pts if he had played all 82 games).

He's not a lock like we're used to seeing, but then again he is almost 40, so what else do you expect? He's far and away the best defensive player that will be nominated, however he'll be the second best offensive player nominated (since Green ended up with insanely good offensive numbers). Still, all I can do is hope the voters understand that Green is 6th defensive in PK minutes per game on his own team. In other words- he's the last roster defenseman chosen by his coach to play on the PK. A Norris winner should, at the very least, be trusted on the PK by his coach, and in all honesty, should be one of his coaches first choices on the PK! Instead he plays twice the PP minutes of any of the other candidates and just skips the PK.

In the instructions handed out to the voters, the Norris is described as being the trophy awarded to the "defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position".

However, given the amount of press Green's gotten this year because of his super-awesome ability to be a forward playing the point, the "greatest all-round ability" part will likely be ignored so they can give the turn-over king some props.

That's the price Lidstrom has to pay for winning 6 of the last 7 Norris trophies. Voters get sick of voting for the same perfect player and would rather vote for the exciting new guy on the block, regardless of his decidedly poor defensive capacity (hell- you could try to argue it all the way up to 'average', but even that's a stretch).

Edit: Torry Spelling

Edited April 22, 2009 by Drake_Marcus

[Chunkylover 26]

59pts and +31 isn't an average season. He's won it recently with a 62pt total- and that was with a full season. He missed 4 games this year (so if you average it out he'd have put up about 62pts if he had played all 82 games).

He's not a lock like we're used to seeing, but then again he is almost 40, so what else do you expect? He's far and away the best defensive player that will be nominated, however he'll be the second best offensive player nominated (since Green ended up with insanely good offensive numbers). Still, all I can do is hope the voters understand that Green is 6th defensive in PK minutes per game on his own team. In other words- he's the last roster defenseman chosen by his coach to play on the PK. A Norris winner should, at the very least, be trusted on the PK by his coach, and in all honesty, should be one of his coaches first choices on the PK! Instead he plays twice the PP minutes of any of the other candidates and just skips the PK.

In the instructions handed out to the voters, the Norris is described as being the trophy awarded to the "defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position".

However, given the amount of press Green's gotten this year because of his super-awesome ability to be a forward playing the point, the "greatest all-round ability" part will likely be ignored so they can give the turn-over king some props.

That's the price Lidstrom has to pay for winning 6 of the last 7 Norris trophies. Voters get sick of voting for the same perfect player and would rather vote for the exciting new guy on the block, regardless of his decidedly poor defensive capacity (hell- you could try to argue it all the way up to 'average', but even that's a stretch).

Edit: Torry Spelling

The sports media live in their own little galaxy where once something is said it echoes around until everyone believes they thought of it first. Nick certainly deserves consideration, and possibly even to win it, but I think the writers are getting sick of putting a new spin on the same old story and instead of learning to be better writers they're going to try to affect the outcome of the story.

It's not that I don't think Nick's good, it's just that right now, in spite of the reality you stated, Mike Green is the sexy pick 'cause he has that ******-bag hipster faux-hawk.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Chunkylover

[Drake_Marcus 890]

The sports media live in their own little galaxy where once something is said it echoes around until everyone believes they thought of it first. Nick certainly deserves consideration, and possibly even to win it, but I think the writers are getting sick of putting a new spin on the same old story and instead of learning to be better writers they're going to try to affect the outcome of the story.

It's not that I don't think Nick's good, it's just that right now, in spite of the reality you stated, Mike Green is the sexy pick 'cause he has that ******-bag hipster faux-hawk.

Funniest sentence I've read all day.

[Guest Shoreline]

I'm going to laugh my ass off if Green wins the Norris, just to see the haters whine.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Shoreline

[TheOwl 77]

I'm going to laugh my ass off if Green wins the Norris, just to see the haters whine.

Green is like a diet Dan Boyle, not as cool, not as effective, but people like him because he's new. Green is not the best defensemen in the NHL, put Zetterberg on D and he'll win the Norris. It should be all about defensive ability. The best D man in the world could have 0 points and be a minus 0 for the season. That's a perfect defensemen.

This whole award thing is completely f***ed. Why should it only include the regular season? I mean seriously. The regular season is more or less meaningless. You could be a 50 goal scorer a year, but if you can't score in the play-offs, your useless. Sure, hand out the Hart, Art Ross, Jennings and whatever stat based trophy, but things like the Selke, Vezina and Norris should be decided after the play-offs. How good could you be if your team doesn't make the play-offs anyways?

Look at Lidstrom, perfect so far in the play-offs. How's Green doing? Terrible. How's Chara doing? Just fine. A D-man who disappears in the play-offs shouldn't be a Norris candidate. He obviously can't play real hockey. The play-offs are for men. And Green is no man, and shouldn't win the Norris just because he scored 30 goals in the regular season.

[R.Rabbit 0]

I think the boys will gladly pass on the smaller metal to lift Lord Stanley once again.

Back to the topic - The Calder - probably Mason, but I'm sure he'd gladly trade it for the Cup.

[Frozen-Man 144]

The sports media live in their own little galaxy where once something is said it echoes around until everyone believes they thought of it first. Nick certainly deserves consideration, and possibly even to win it, but I think the writers are getting sick of putting a new spin on the same old story and instead of learning to be better writers they're going to try to affect the outcome of the story.

It's not that I don't think Nick's good, it's just that right now, in spite of the reality you stated, Mike Green is the sexy pick 'cause he has that ******-bag hipster faux-hawk.

It's funny because it's true

[toby91_ca 620]

As average as Lidstrom's season was, and if he must be a runner-up, I really hope it's not to Green. I know the award is not based on the playoffs but he's not a good defenseman. If it must be someone else let it be Chara. He's the better, all-around defenseman.

Edit: Since this is a Calder thread I should probably comment on the finalists. I think Versteeg and Mason flew under the radar since all the talk was about Stamkos and Turris. I like Versteeg, but it'll definitely be Mason. Ryan has prior experience even though he's still considered a rookie. Heck Helm is still eligible for the Calder next season right? That seems kind of silly, that a player could win the Cup two seasons before winning the Calder.

Ryan is younger than Versteeg and had less NHL+AHL experience coming into this season than Versteeg.