Halfway through the NHL Awards Show
Early update from halfway through the Awards Show... Pavel Datsyuk missed previous NHL Award Shows but attended this one. Datsyuk joked Henrik Zetterberg - a fellow Selke Trophy finalist - got him free tickets to Thursday's show. "I showed up," Datsyuk said. Good thing, because Datsyuk won his first Selke Trophy, given to the best defensive forward in the league, and won his third consecutive Lady Byng (gentlemanly play). In the race for the Selke Datsyuk had 537 points (43 first place votes), outdistancing New Jersey's John Madden (447 points) and Zetterberg (425 points). Having Zetterberg as a teammate, said Datsyuk, pushed him to a good season. "We had a good year, a lot of fun," said Datsyuk, who added the Selke meant a little more to win than the Lady Byng. "The biggest for me was the Stanley Cup," Datsyuk said. Datsyuk won the Lady Byng with a staggering 984 points (75 first place votes). He became the first player since the Rangers' Frank Boucher between 1933-35 to win the award three consecutive years. Tampa's Martin St. Louis was second to Datsyuk with 261 points (2 first place votes). For allowing the league's fewest amount of goals, the Wings' Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek won the Jennings Trophy. Only Hasek attended, as Osgood had spent the previous few days doing a media blitz in Los Angeles. "Ozzie is a little bit tired from sitting on television (shows) and the celebrations," Hasek joked on television. Hasek said "it's a real team trophy, you have to have everyone on the team playing well defensively, or you have no chance to win." Coach Mike Babcock (Jack Adams Trophy) and Chris Chelios (Masterton) were finalists, but didn't win.
