2006/07 NHL Awards

Calder Trophy: Evgeni Malkin
Rookie of the Year

After going threw all the trouble of moving to the NHL back in the summer of 06' Pittsburgh Penguins Evgeni Malkin made it all worth it when he won the Calder trophy for rookie of the year. The 20 Russian star finished his first season 33 goals and 52 assists crush the competition. His only competitor in second place Jordan Stall who also played for the Penguins this season. If Malkin can keep up the points in the future hell be sure to be one of the destined stars of the NHL.

2006/07 NHL Awards

Jack Adams Award: Michel Therrien
Coach of the Year


Michel Therrien recieves the coach of the year award. Michel came to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005 were they finished 22-46-14 last place in the NHL. Michel built his team along with his staff around young players and this season bounced back to be 2nd in their division and 5th overall in the NHL. Michel's Penguins this seaons made the playoffs, first team to do that with more then a 40 point difference from the previous season.

The Great One's Comments on Sidney Crosby

Sidney crosby get the league MVP leading the NHL with 120 points, 36 goals and 84 assists. The Great One Wayne Gretzky when asked about his thoughts on Sidney Crosby said
"What he is accomplishing now is truly remarkable,""He deserves all the accolades he is getting. It will be great to watch his progress here.""First of all, what he is doing is marvelous and I think he is the premier player in our game. Obviously, we are going to ride the wave of Sidney Crosby for a lot of years to come."

Sidney a player that Gretsky once predicted to be the one to take his throne when watching him as a younger player in Canada, Crosby was dubbed "The Next One."

Cheap Shots- Getting out of hand?

The Past few months as its gets closer and closer to playoffs the play changes as do the appearances of the hockey players. All battered and bruised sometimes the plays seek revenge and would do anything to beat their opponent. Here are two videos of recent fights that i think go way over the line of "fighting" in hockey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upeLPWApt6w - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNH-Ilr0vEE&mode=related&search= - YouTube

In the first video he completely got knocked out cold and in the second the guy on the bottom of the pile had a broken neck. It shouldnt be long till they take better measurments to stop players from seriously getting injured or maybe in a few case lose there life.

Yzerman Number Retired

Steve Yzerman, the recently retired captain of the Detroit Red Wings number was retired on Janurary 3, 2007. Sharing the moment with Steve were some of the Biggest stars that once played for the Wings, Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay, welcoming him to the club of retired numbers. As his jersey was hung at the top of Joe Louis Arena Yzerman asked the fans of Detroit to do one thing
"As you watch it go up and come back in the future and see it hanging there, give yourself a pat on the back because you're a big reason, you're a huge reason, why that jersey is up there," "I just happened to be the person who wore it."

Humble centerman for the Detriot Red Wings, were he played his entire career stretching from 1982-2006. He totalled 1,723 points in 22 seasons with the wings. He still currently holds the record for most consecutive seasons as Captain with 20.

Penguins Evgeni Malkin

Penguins new Russian rookie, Evgeni Malkin starts off his NHL career with the Penguins with more on his mind then just playing hockey. Before Malkin was able to start this season he currently had a contract with a Russian Super League. When the Penguins sign Malkin The Russian league sued The Penguins for breech of contract saying that Malkin was to finish the season in Russia before he could play in the NHL. His hometown team's Director planed to get compensation for loosing Malkin to the Pens when he left his team. The team said that they put to many resources into Malkin and that he was their star that they were building their whole team around. This happened once before with Washington Captials rookie 2004 draft pick, Alexander Ovechkin when he left his team for the NHL and was able to get out of his contract. Just like in Ovechkin's case The Russian Super League was unable to hold onto their star players. As in a few other cases like Malkin's and Ovechkin's other hockey league's in other countries agreed to a fee of 200'000 dollars to the league if one of there players left for the NHL. This is what got Malkin out of his contract. The Russian league said that a player of Malkins skill would make millions more and is worth more to the league then just 200,000. Again, The Super League lost the case because regardless of their talent the fee was 200,000 and that there is no way of proving a players worth.