The 2014 NHL Awards will be handed out tomorrow. You can catch the action at 7pm EST on CBC or NBCSN as the award ceremony will be shown live from Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. I also suggest checking out the NHL.com Awards page to get up to date on all the awards stories from the past few weeks and to keep up with the winners tomorrow night.
The Wynn Casino in Vegas always ranks high in reviews of casinos online and it will no doubt be a classy environment for the 2014 NHL Awards.
But let’s get right to it. I will go through all of the awards below, add the odds I found online from Bodog.eu and bold my picks in the odds list!
Hart Memorial Trophy
- Sidney Crosby 1.01
- Ryan Getzlaf 13.00
- Claude Giroux 26.00
You can’t be a bigger favourite that Crosby is for the Hart Memorial Trophy this year. It’s almost a guarantee that he will win. I’ll just say it’s a good thing that the voting doesn’t take into account playoff performance.
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
- Ryan O’Reilly 1.15
- Patrick Marleau 6.00
- Martin St. Louis 15.00
The Lady Byng trophy is supposed to be an award that goes to a player who combines sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct with a high level of hockey. This basically just ends up meaning any player with 65+ points who barely got any penalties all season. O’Reilly fits the bill as he had his best season yet and only picked up 1 minor penalty. Marleau’s 16 minutes are just too many.
Vezina Trophy
- Tuukka Rask 1.50
- Semyon Varlamov 2.90
- Ben Bishop 10.00
Bishop’s strong numbers on a team that actually still gave up quite a few goals is impressive to me. I think he is a dark horse here and could be a good bet at 10.00 odds.
Calder Trophy
- Nathan MacKinnon 1.06
- Ondrej Palat 12.00
- Tyler Johnson 13.00
MacKinnon is the obvious choice here. The top draft picks always get a small boost in the voting for these awards and Palat and Johnson also might have harmed each others chances by being on the same team. In the end MacKinnon also had the most points with 63, which will definitely play a factor.
Norris Trophy
- Duncan Keith 1.40
- Zdeno Chara 3.75
- Shea Weber 7.50
Keith’s production dipped a little bit near the end of the year, but I still think he did enough to win this award. His 61 points were only second to Karlsson’s 74 for defensemen and he was a +22. Weber was a -2, which will hurt him in the voting and Chara only had 40 points which will hurt him. Whether voters look at +/- or point production Keith is near the top of both categories.
Jack Adams Award
- Patrick Roy 1.17
- Mike Babcock 6.00
- Jon Cooper 11.00
I personally don’t like this award because coaches with strong teams pretty much just can’t win it. It’s the award for doing the most with the least and although I do think Roy has the upper hand for completely turning the Avs around and winning the Central Division over St. Louis and Chicago, some voters may look at Detroit’s depleted lineup and say making the playoffs with that team was more impressive. Just because of the odds I’m taking Babcock in this one.
Frank J. Selke Trophy
- Patrice Bergeron 1.29
- Anze Kopitar 3.75
- Jonathan Toews 16.00
Bergeron was a ridiculout +38 this year to finish second in the league and has now come 1st, 6th and 2nd in that category over the past 3 years. Kopitar was a +34 this year on a Kings team that was only +32 compared to the Bruins being +84. I think Bergeron’s reputation may get him this award, but there is a definite case to be made for Kopitar and he also had a stronger offensive season than Bergeron.
Once again, head over to Bodog.eu to place your bets on any of these awards.
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