The 2011-2012 season officially ended last night with the 2012 NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas. While the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup, the big winners on the year were St Louis, Sweden and, in my opinion, Nashville, even though they didn't go back to Music City with as much hardware as they would have liked.
For a season that started with a record breaking number of Swedish hockey players selected in the NHL Draft and specifically in the first round, there were many reasons for the Swedes to wave their flag proudly. It was highlighted by a majority of those players helping the Tre Kronor win gold at the 2012 World Junior Championship in Alberta and followed by an unofficial "Team Sweden" at the 2012 NHL All Star Game in Ottawa as every Swede, with the exception of rookie Gabriel Landeskog who missed out due to a coin flip, was selected to the team captained by Daniel Alfredsson.
There was a disappointing quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic at the 2012 World Championship co-hosted by their home country, but last night the blue and gold flags were once again waving in full force as Ottawa's Erik Karlsson won the Norris Trophy as the leagues best defenseman, Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog won the Calder Trophy as the leagues best rookie, Alfredsson won the King Clancy Award for leadership and Henrik Lundqvist won the Veizna Trophy as the leagues best goaltender capping a tremendous 12 months for the Swedes.
In St Louis, hopes were high at the start of the season as everyone from management on down was thinking the time was now for all of their pieces to fall into place and their young core to start making an impact felt around the league. It didn't take long for reality to set in as they underachieved and found themselves in the NHL basement. They brought in Ken Hitchcock as their new head coach, who emphasized the importance of playing two-way hockey on all 200 feet of ice. It took awhile to not only adjust to his system, but buy into it as well, but once they did, they seemed unbeatable as they climbed higher and higher in the standings and finished second in the Western Conference as Central Division Champions.
They suffered an earlier than expected loss in the second round of the playoff to LA, but the future looks bright for the Blue Note and last night reinforced that belief as Hitchcock was awarded the Jack Adams Trophy as the leagues best coach and Doug Armstrong was named General Manager of the Year.
The Predators capped of their most successful season in franchise history with four nominations - Pekka Rinne for the Veizna, Shea Weber for the Norris, David Poile for the General Manager of the Year and Mike Fisher for the Foundation Award for his commitment to community service - and a finalist for the cover of EA Sports NHL13 in Rinne. Only Fisher went home with hardware, but for the Predators to be so well represented in Las Vegas it's a true testament to the upward direction that organization is taking.
It's been a tumultuous ride for Smashville these past few years, but now that the ownership situation is more stable and they've been able to develop a passionate fan base fueled by on-ice success, the purse strings are opening just a tad and they've been able to be a bigger player on the free agent and trade markets in an effort to reach the next level and go on a long playoff run. This is an important offseason for the Preds as they hope to hold on to their big-ticket free agents, but no matter how that shakes out, Poile hasn't been nominated as GM of the Year for three straight years for no reason. Have some faith, Smashville!
In regards to the show, I liked it - at least the parts I saw as I ran back and forth between the media workroom and the interview area - and I wasn't opposed to the no host format. Some of the jokes were rather lame, but I liked the video skits and how quickly the show seemed to move.
Today, is the official start of the 2012-2013 NHL season as the schedule will be released and then tomorrow, 30 bright-eyed kids with visions of Lord Stanley in their heads will be selected in the first round of the NHL Draft in Pittsburgh with more players selected on Saturday.
Below, you'll find pictures from last night's festivities on the Red Carpet and some fun tidbits I learned along the way. If you like them, be sure to
follow me on twitter because I'll be doing much of the same from Pittsburgh.
Julie
When Adam Henrique was recalled from the AHL early in the season, he decided that he needed some new suits, so he and his mom went shopping and while he was making his selections, he joked that if he was a finalist for the Calder he'd wear this suit and here he is rocking a killer three-piece suit.
Gabriel Landeskog was remiss in forgetting to thank his teammates and former coaches in his acceptance speech which he corrected in his press conference, but he also recognized his fellow nominees saying Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would have won had he not gotten hurt and that Henrique would have won had the vote happened after the playoffs. Despite the successful season he had with the Avalanche as their leading scorer at 19 years old, he's probably right.
Colin Hanks was a huge hit on the Red Carpet and even chirped a local reporter - one that does not cover hockey, but was covering this event - for not knowing his NHL history, specifically about the original expansion era when LA got their franchise. It was spectacular!
David Poile, was dropping a few one-liners on his way into the theater. My favorite is when he called himself the Susan Lucci of the NHL Awards for his three consecutive nominations and no wins….yet.
For all you Mighty Duck fans, Charlie Conway (aka Joshua Jackson) was a presenter last night. I think it would have been more fun if he wore a Ducks jersey…or at least had a duck call, but no one asked me….
Julie
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