The door is closing on individual awards for the Penguins this season as Alex Ovechkin keeps scoring goals and Connor McDavid has usurped the points lead with no signs of slowing down. There is still a chance for an individual award and Kris Letang will be the Penguins representative to win it. Kris Letang has been nominated for this award three times now. It is for the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. On the surface it sounds like a great award, but in reality you are only getting the nomination because you are coming back from serious injury or from a time period where you were terrible on the ice.
The voting for this award is strange. Kris Letang lost out to Devan Dubnyk in 2015 because Dubnyk figured out how to play the goaltender position again. Letang was coming back from a stroke. That’s when I gave up caring about the award. It is also tough to take it serious when you have members of the PHWA nominating players for being a role model the same season they drive an automobile through a Tim Horton’s (not the drive-thru).
Regardless, it’s another bittersweet nomination for Letang who continues to show his resiliency in coming back from terrible health events in his career.
Pittsburgh’s 2017 nominee for the Masterton Trophy is now an expert on Pawn Stars (that show is still going?).
Marc-Andre Fleury made an appearance on Pawn Stars as an "expert" when someone was selling his expansion draft jersey 😂😠pic.twitter.com/ZoJRgjAb2r
— Hockey Central (@HockeyCentraI) March 2, 2018
Zach Aston-Reese could be making his return to the lineup. With the roster being close to 100% healthy we are going to start getting a glimpse into what the playoff night lines and pairings will be. Tom Kuhnhackl should be the odd man out for Aston-Reese’s return.
Thanks for reading!