NHL Awards 2009: No Masterton for Zednik

The NHL Awards show was last night and the player Panthers fans were hoping to see win an award wound up disappointed as the Masterton was awarded to Steve Sullivan.

But, Sullivan most definitely earned the award. And, not to belittle what Richard Zednik did, Sullivan missed a full season and spent months rehabbing to come back from multiple back surgeries and an injury that impacted his daily life for some time. Either player could have made a case for the award (and so too could Chelios, but not so much as Sullivan or Zednik) and I'm not let down in the least. If what Sullivan went through to get back to the NHL isn't perserverance and dedication to the game of hockey, I'm not sure what is.

If you run through the winners, only a few seem to be surprising (like Mike Richards losing out to Pavel Datsyuk for the Selke, despite receiving more first place votes).

Hart: Alexander Ovechkin
Norris: Zdeno Chara
Vezina: Tim Thomas
Jack Adams: Claude Julien
Calder: Steve Mason
Lady Byng: Pavel Datsyuk
Selke: Pavel Datsyuk
Lester B. Pearson: Alexander Ovechkin
Art Ross: Evgeni Malkin
Maurice "Rocket" Richard: Alexander Ovechkin
William Jennings: Tim Thomas/Manny Fernandez

For the awards determined by votes, no Panther had any impressive showing in the final numbers, but a couple did still receive a handful of votes in a few categories:

In the parentheses that follow the points awarded through voting, you'll see the number of first place through fifth place votes received for each Panthers player.

Norris: Jay Bouwmeester - 9 (0-0-1-0-4)
Vezina: Tomas Vokoun - 1 (0-0-1)
Jack Adams: Peter DeBoer - 3 (0-1-0)
Calder: Michael Frolik - 12 (0-1-1-0-0)
Lady Byng: Stephen Weiss - 6 (0-0-1-0-1)
Lady Byng: Richard Zednik - 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
Lady Byng: Cory Stillman - 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Selke: Stephen Weiss - 1 (0-0-0-0-1)

For the 2008-2009 NHL All-Star Team voting, Jay Bouwmeester came in fifteenth for defensemen with seven points, all third place votes. Tomas Vokoun was tenth for goaltenders, picking up six points with a pair of second place votes.

That's it for now, though. I have to go to work.