Vegas NHL blog, part IV: Niedermayer, Getzlaf in final voting.
Adjudging who gets an invitation to Las Vegas and who doesn't is hardly fair. The NHL has known for months who would win each of the awards that were presented tonight. Yet only the top three were announced as finalists and invited to enjoy the ceremony in person (and, you know, the rest of Las Vegas). Why not the top four? Top five, maybe?
The league would really have needed to stretch it out to get Ryan Getzlaf in the building tonight. He finished 15th in the final Hart Trophy (MVP) voting by collecting one third-place vote and two fourths. Alexander Ovechkin won the award, gaining 115 of a possible 133 first-place votes. Evgeni Malkin was second and Pavel Datsyuk was third.
No other Ducks player received a vote. Getzlaf led the team with 91 points in the regular season (25 goals, 66 assists), which tied for sixth in the league. Only five players had more points in the playoffs than Getzlaf's 18 (4 goals, 14 assists), although votes were tallied at the end of the regular season.
Meanwhile, Scott Niedermayer tied for ninth in the Norris Trophy voting for best defenseman, which was won by Boston's Zdeno Chara. Chara collected 68 of a possible 133 first-place votes and was followed by Washington's Mike Green, Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom, Nashville's Shea Weber, San Jose's Dan Boyle, Chicago's Duncan Keith, Montreal's Andrei Markov, the New York Islanders' Mark Streit and Detroit's Brian Rafalski, who tied Niedermayer in the final tally.
Niedermayer led all Ducks defensemen with 59 points (14 goals, 45 assists), which tied Lidstrom for third in the league. Only Green (74 points) and Markov (63) had more.
The only current Ducks player (besides Bobby Ryan) roaming the building today? Chris Pronger.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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