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After last night’s showing in Las Vegas at the NHL Awards, maybe it’s time we put the ‘B’s do-it-all forward Patrice Bergeron is the most underrated player in the league’ narrative to bed.
Bergeron’s biggest win undoubtedly came with his second career Selke Trophy, edging out Anze Kopitar and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews, but didn’t end there. The 28-year-old also took home the NHL Foundation Players Award for his charitable work throughout Boston (headlined by Patrice’s Pals, a staple of home games at the TD Garden), and Bergeron even beat out Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban in a fan-vote as the coverboy for NHL 15. In terms of the Selke, it was a runaway for a Boston center that nabbed 112 of 137 first-place votes. And when you win a fan vote over somebody as popular as Subban, you’re certainly a known name in the hockey world.
By now, everybody should know what a great talent Bergeron is. He just wrapped up a 30-goal season for the Black-and-Gold (the second of his career and first since 2005-06), is perhaps the league’s best possession forward, and has in essence become a tale of hockey folklore. This is a player that played with a hole in his lung during last year’s Stanley Cup Final. He wears his scars proudly, but doesn’t let them shine brighter than the ‘A’ on his jersey. Bergeron would die out there before making an excuse.
If you’re a parent, Bergeron is a player you’d want your kid to play like.
He’s not the flashiest scorer in the league, but he gets the job done in all three zones. And honestly, that’s more than enough for Boston Bruins. It’s nice to see him get some league-wide recognition, too.
(I honestly can’t wait to unlock the Jabbawockeez in NHL 15. We can do that, right?)
Elsewhere, the B’s took home another award by way of Tuukka Rask’s first career Vezina Trophy, earning the award over Lighting goaltender Ben Bishop and Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov. The win seemed like a no-brainer for the 27-year-old Rask, who led the league in goals against average (2.04), save percentage (.930), and shutouts (7). His 36 wins, an obvious help in Boston’s first Presidents’ Trophy in 24 years, were also the fifth-most in the league.
Receiving 16 of the first-place votes cast by NHL general managers, it was funny to see Rask, a player that’s usually so cool when there’s a shooter barreling down on him, so nervous up on stage.
In the case of Chara, who came in second for the Norris Trophy to the Blackhawks’ Duncan Keith, it’s just not that surprising at this point. Last night was Chara’s sixth nomination as a finalist for the trophy since coming to Boston in 2006, and his lone win came in 2008-09.
That’s a shame. No other way to put it, really.
Perhaps we’re missing out on the idea of the Norris Trophy -- which awards the best all-around performance by a defender -- but this is just insane, really. I think that Keith is a tremendous defenseman for what he is, but is he a perennial Norris guy? Nope, not really. I mean, Keith doesn’t even log his team’s toughest minutes. That’s a role played by guys like Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjarmalsson. And hey, Keith finished with a sexy 55 assists this year, yeah, but did you know that 35 of those were secondary helpers? That was the second-most in the entire league.
Again, this isn’t to pile on Keith (though I didn’t even have him in my top five), but my goodness does it seem like we’re really losing sight of what this award represents. That or we’re just thinking that guys like Zdeno Chara come around often. (They don’t.)
And because I can, here are some offer thoughts on the NHL Awards...
- Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper was straight-up robbed of the Jack Adams. Think about it: The Bolts lost their best player to a broken leg in Nov., their captain whined his way out of town (more on that in a bit), and they had rookies all over their top-six. That didn't stop them from posting the second-best record in the Atlantic Division. That's an insane accomplishment, and it's a shame that it went without the recognition it deserved.
- I'm still baffled by the fact that Marty St. Louis somehow ended up as a finalist for the Lady Byng. Again, this dude moped his way out of Tampa Bay. His teammates noticed a change in his attitude prior to the trade. His own teammates. He was the captain! That's an insane no-no in the hockey world, and it was just strange to hear him talked about as a finalist and what a great guy he is/was throughout the 2013-14 season.
- Cuba Gooding Jr... Need I say more? Doing God's work, baby.
- Is there a written rule somewhere that states that you have to disappear for several years in order to perform at the NHL Awards? You might remember the night's DJ, DJ Steve Porter, as the internet sensation of 2010. Or Matisyahu, from the year 2005. It just really sucks that Dem Franchize Boyz and the dude that wrote Crazy Frog were busy.
- I still need an explanation for the weird mime Elvis and Marilyn Monroe that were backstage all night. Who were they talking to? What is happening? Why did I watch this?
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com