Bruins’
center Patrice Bergeron has always been considered one of the top two-way players
in the NHL. He has had the reputation of playing like a veteran, even though he
is only 26 years of age. With his youth came great poise, leadership, and a
Stanley Cup championship.
On
Wednesday night, Bergeron added another piece of hardware to his repertoire. He
was crowned as the Frank J. Selke Award winner for being the best defensive
forward in the league. The other nominees for the award were David Backes of
the St. Louis Blues and Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings, who had won
three straight Selke Trophies from 2008-2010.
Bergeron
led the league in plus/minus with +36. He also led the Bruins in assists with
42 and finished second in points with 64. Bergeron possesses a knack for
winning face-offs as he has become one of the most prolific face-off winners in
the league. During the 2011-12 season, he led the league with 973 face-off wins,
which was good for a 59.3% win percentage.
Wednesday night also was the announcement of the Norris Trophy for "best defenseman." The trophy went to Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators. He led all defensemen in points with 78 and finished with a +16 rating.
However, the idea of the Norris Trophy is to give it to the best DEFENSEman. Just because you can rack up points does not mean you are worthy of an award. In fact, the Senators kept him on the bench during the penalty kill. Now isn't that where a true defenseman is supposed to step up?
Zdeno Chara, who was also nominated for the Norris Trophy, is still one of the top blue liners to ever play the game. He finished third in the league with a +33 rating and averaged 25 minutes of ice time per game. No big deal.......
Anyway, other notable awards that were giving out were the Hart Trophy (league MVP) to Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vezina Trophy (best goaltender) to Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers.
Coming up on Friday night is the NHL Entry Draft. Let's see what the Bruins do.
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