NHL Trophies & Recognition For Ovechkin & Green

Alex Ovechkin with Pearson, Hart and Richard Trophies on June 18, 2009.
Photo by Ryan Remiorz - AP Photo / The Canadian Press

The NHL handed out it's annual awards last night in Las Vegas, NV. Among this year's winners, both Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green of the Washington Capitals received recognition for their efforts during the 2008-2009 season. As expected, Ovechkin was the big winner of the evening.

Green and Ovechkin were named to the NHL's First All-Star Team. It is the fourth time for Alex and the first time in the Capitals' history that they had two players named to the team for the same season. Ovechkin also collected a few trophies during the event.

For the second year in a row, Alex Ovechkin won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the league's top goal (56) scorer. He also repeated in the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy (Professional Hockey Writers Assoc. MVP choice) and Lester B. Pearson Award (Player's MVP choice). Ovie is the first player to win the Hart two years straight since Dominik Hasek won in both 1997 and 1998.

The choice of presenters for a couple of the awards that Ovechkin won were pretty cool. The Pearson Award was announced by retired Russians Vladimir Konstantinov and Igor Larionov. The Hart Trophy was presented to Ovechkin by none other than previous (1994) winner, teammate and fellow Russian Sergei Fedorov.

For the fourth consecutive year, Russian NHL players voted to award Alex Ovechkin the Kharlamov Trophy for being the best Russian player in the NHL. He received the award at a separate ceremony held June 9th.

Happy 54th Birthday Bruce Boudreau

Bruce Boudreau, head coach of the Washington Capitals, turned 54 years old today. Happy Birthday Bruce! I hope you get the present you want, even if that's "just" a win in tonight's game. I should think winning ten straight at home, and earning an assistant coaching job for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game would be a good one. Good Luck.

Capitals Disrespected, Ted Says Get Over It

Most Washington Capitals fans, myself included, have been complaining since finding out how bad the 2009 NHL All-Star selection process went for our team. Chairman and majority owner Ted Leonsis acknowledges the disrespect, but wants us to get over it.

We have good reasons to be unhappy that Alex Ovechkin was not chosen to be a starter, and that a few others were not chosen at all. Ovechkin was last season's MVP and is currently on pace to possibly repeat. A few other players on the team are probably more deserving of selection than those chosen instead.

Mr. Leonsis, who turned 52 yesturday (hope he had a wonderful day), very wisely suggests we look at the good side and leave our bad feelings behind. After all, what good can come of dwelling on the bad. I say we take his advice and at least try our best to look at the good. Thanks Ted, for trying to point us in the right direction.

No Doubt - "Hella Good"

Crosby, The Asstounding All-Star

I can't believe I'm writing a post about the jerkwad known as Sidney Crosby, but here it is. Don't worry. It's not just about Crosby, and I'll keep it short. Basically, just pointing out the thoughts of a few fellow bloggers, in light of the results of this season's stupid NHL All-Star voting.

Sidney Crosby won first place, breaking the previous record number of votes. Well, good for him. However, Alex Ovechkin didn't even make the starting lineup. That's right. The league's best player will be watching from the bench when the game starts. What the fv[%? The whole process is a joke, with unlimited voting. Lets face it. The basically no real contact allowed policy of the modern day All-Star game makes it a pretty boring event these days anyway.

Over at Caps Blue Line, DMG posted a couple videos that made me think two nicknames for Crosby could easily be "Nut Job" and "Puss On Skates". Meanwhile, Dan Steinberg, of D.C. Sports Bog fumes over the All-Star voting mockery. Finally, check out Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Broudreau's comments on the matter, via Tarik El-Bashir's Capitals Insider.