2010 NHL Awards Winners

Calder Trophy: Tyler Myers (Buffalo Sabres)
Selke Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Art Ross Trophy: Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks)
Ted Lindsay Award: Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)
Jack Adams Award: Dave Tippet (Phoenix Coyotes)
Vezina Trophy: Ryan Miller (Buffalo Sabres)
Masterton Memorial Trophy: Jose Theodore (Washington Capitals)
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Shane Doan (Phoenix Coyotes)
Lady Byng Trophy: Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Mark Messier Leadership Award: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Norris Trophy: Duncan Keith (Chicago Blackhawks)
Hart Memorial Trophy: Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks)



Henrik Sedin took home 2 awards at the 2010 NHL Awards in Las Vegas

Click HERE to see a hilarious skit involving Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks poking fun at the great rivalry between Team USA and Team Canada at the 2010 Olympic Games.

QUICKLINES June 2 - June 27

Anaheim Ducks captain and 4-time Stanley Cup winner Scott Niedermayer has retired. The 36-year old Edmonton native officially hung up his jersey yesterday, June 22, after 18 seasons with the NHL. Niedermayer is the only player in the league who has won every major North American and international championship in his career, including the World Juniors, IIHF World Championships, 4 Stanley Cups, the World Cup and 2 Olympic gold medals. Next up for Niedermayer: a possible induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Evgeni Nabokov's future with the San Jose Sharks is uncertain for the first time in 10 years. It has been announced that the Sharks' starting goalie will not be coming back for the 2010-2011 season. Last season, Nabokov helped his team advance to the third round of playoffs, and his career 50 shutouts is the second highest among active goalies, just beneath the New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur.
Also not returning to his team next season is Dustin Byfuglien, who was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for 24th overall draft pick Marty Reasoner. Byfuglien was one of the key contributers to the Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup victory this year.

Halak Gets The Blues

Jaroslav Halak was arguably the key factor in the success of the Montreal Canadiens this past post-season. His goaltending contributed to the elimination of both the top-seeded Washington Capitals and the defending Stanley Cup champions the Pittsburgh Penguins. For a brief while, Halak's name even became synonymous with the word STOP, and sports stores all over Montreal began selling stop signs printed with his name on it.
So you'd think the Habs, grateful for Halak's help in the 2009-2010 Cup run, would protect their greatest asset for the season to come. Clearly, that wasn't the case.
It was announced today that Jaroslav Halak was traded to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forwards Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. Rumour has it that ever since their elimination by the Flyers, the Canadiens managing team barely kept in contact with their starting goalie, and Halak was informed of his trade via a phone call from head coach Jacques Martin.
Habs fans are understandably outraged, as they credited Halak with the team's playoff success. But this isn't the first time the Montreal franchise has given a player the cold shoulder with little or no explanation. Earlier in the year, the team bought out forward George Laraque's contract and asked him to stay away from the team until the end of the contract. Laraque was officially let go from the team on June 15, 2010.
As for Halak's departure from the Canadiens, most see it as a mistake on the part of the team. While Lars Eller has shown some potential to be beneficial to the Habs, the loss of Halak will most likely injure the team rather than strengthen it.

Oh Captain, Our Captain

Since their failure to make the playoffs for the 2009-2010 season, rumours of a trade swirled around the Calgary Flames team captain Jarome Iginla. Iginla's less than stellar performance during the regular season, and the noticeable lack of passion in the way he played, sparked gossip that Calgary's local hockey hero had had enough of the Flames, and that the Flames had had enough of him.
But on May 26, the team's president and CEO Ken King made an announcement that quelched the rumours once and for all, assuring fans and media that Iginla will return next season with a Flames jersey on his back.
Iginla,who made his NHL debut at the age of 18, has played his entire career with the Calgary Flames, and has always made it clear that he has no desire to leave the team, despite recent struggles in both the regular seasons and the post-seasons.
For Flames fans, the idea of losing Iginla was heart-wrenching. In his tenure with the team, Iginla has become a larger-than-life presence for the Flames, which only increased when he lead them to the Stanley Cup finals in 2004.
Luckily, Iginla's future with the Flames has been secured and the city of Calgary can breathe easy knowing good ol' Iggy isn't going anywhere for a long time.

Hawks Win Fight, Take Flight

The 2009-2010 post-season has been anything but dull, full of shocking eliminations, incredible goalie record-breakers and Game 7 heroics. And on June 9th, the end was just as much of a nail-biter as the beginning.
For the first time since 1961 the Chicago Blackhawks can call themselves the 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Champions. One of the top ranked teams during the regular season, the Blackhawks continued their determined path to Lord Stanley, making it through the playoffs with an unrelenting style of play. The Blackhawks went into Game 6 of the finals with a 3-2 lead on the persistent Philadelphia Flyers and finished them off in overtime.
Though the Blackhawks were the favorite to win the Cup, the Flyers put off a good fight, matching each Chicago goal with one of their own. Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd contributed goals in the first 3 periods, while Philadelphia's Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell kept their team caught up, with Hartnell scoring the last 2 goals.
But it was Patrick Kane who was the difference maker in this high-energy game, delivering a wrist shot less than 5 minutes into the overtime period to clich the title for the Blackhawks. Kane was also responsible for 2 of the 3 assists for the previous goals.
For Marian Hossa, winning the Cup has been long overdue. In the 2007-2008 season he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins and made it all the way to the finals, only to lose to the Red Wings. Determined to get his Stanley Cup ring, Hossa left the Penguins the following year to join the Chicago Blackhawks, only to watch his former team, led by Sidney Crosby, take the championship. And now, for the first time in his 13-year NHL career, the Slovakian right-winger has lifted the Cup.
Youngster Jonathan Toews, who already has an Olympic gold medal in his trophy case, can not only add the Stanley Cup Championship, but the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP as well. With this achievement, Toews becomes only the second NHL player to have won Olympic gold and a Stanley Cup in one year, after Patrick Roy.

Chicago Blackhawks vs Philadelphia Flyers, June 9 2010

The Penguins and a Beatle

It was the house that Mario built, and home to many incredible hockey moments throughout the last 50 years. It was where the hockey fans of Pittsburgh first saw Sidney Crosby lace up his skates as part of the NHL, and where they saw him lift the 2009 Stanley Cup as the youngest captain ever to win the championships. But the last game played in Mellon Arena was not exactly one the Pittsburgh Penguins would like to remember. It was Game 7 of the Canadiens-Penguins series in round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the underdog Habs managed to win the game 5-2, much to the shock of the spectators at the arena, and pretty much everyone watching the game from all around the world.

But the opening of the Penguins' new home is showing much promise for the upcoming season. On August 18, former Beatle and world-renowned musician Paul McCartney is set to perform at the new CONSOL Energy Center for its official grand opening.

McCartney, whose first performance in Pittsburgh was all the way back in 1964 with the Beatles, has played at many historic venues around the world, including the Red Square in Moscow and outside the Coliseum in Rome, and to some Penguins fans, the new arena, the house that Sid built will be right up there with the likes of them.