Mike Smith Jersey
Posted: January 25th, 2019, 12:52 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) The Latest on NHL awards show at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (all times local):7:15 p.m.New Jersey forward Taylor Hall has won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player.Hall beat out Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon in a contest between three first-time finalists for the award.Hall finished sixth in the league with 93 points for the Devils. He is the first New Jersey player to win the Hart.Hall Mike Smith Jersey , the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft, likely got the nod over two worthy contenders because of the way he carried the Devils offensively while they reached the playoffs for the first time in five years. He scored 41 more points than rookie Nico Hischier, the Devils’ second-leading scorer.—6:52 p.m.George McPhee has been named the NHL’s general manager of the year in the fourth trophy given to the Vegas Golden Knights at the NHL Awards.Exactly one year after his remarkable performance in the expansion draft, McPhee was a no-brainer choice for the award after his masterful assembly of the most successful debut team in recent sports history.The Golden Knights went 51-24-7 and won the Pacific Division before reaching the Stanley Cup Final, setting innumerable records along the way for first-year success.McPhee beat out Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff and Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman for the award.McPhee joins coach Gerard Gallant, Lady Byng winner William Karlsson and Mark Messier Leadership Award winner Deryk Engelland with trophies from the annual show in the Golden Knights’ hometown.—6:40 p.m.Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne has won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie.The 35-year-old Finn won his position’s top honor for the first time, beating out Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.Rinne was a Vezina finalist for the fourth time. He finally got it after a standout regular season for the Presidents’ Trophy winners in Nashville, where he has been a stalwart in goal since 2008.Rinne went 42-13-4 with eight shutouts, a 2.31 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage for the Predators. He also earned his 300th career victory on Feb. 22.Rinne struggled along with his teammates in the postseason, but voters didn’t hold it against him.—6:18 p.m.Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights has won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach.Gallant was an obvious choice over Colorado’s Jared Bednar and Boston’s Bruce Cassidy after he masterminded the most spectacular expansion season in recent sports history. The Golden Knights went 51-24-7 and handily won the Pacific Division before winning 13 postseason games and reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their first playoff campaign.The 54-year-old Gallant was named the Golden Knights’ first coach in April 2017, and the veteran NHL coach provided steady leadership while turning Vegas’ expansion roster into a cohesive, motivated team. Gallant’s players praised his steady, intelligent approach to the postseason, which ended in a five-game loss to the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals.Gallant previously coached in Columbus and Florida, but his teams had never won a playoff round before Vegas’ remarkable run.—6:10 p.m.Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar has won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward.Kopitar won the trophy for the second time in three years, beating out perennial candidate and four-time winner Patrice Bergeron of Boston, along with Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier.Kopitar led all NHL forwards in ice time during another standout season for the Kings, who were the NHL’s top statistical defensive team. The Slovenian star played extensively on the penalty kill and took 1,816 faceoffs.Kopitar was a finalist for the Selke for the fourth time in five seasons. Bergeron has been a finalist in seven straight seasons, passing Pavel Datsyuk’s NHL record.Kopitar is also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP.—5:56 p.m.New Jersey’s Brian Boyle has won the Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication to hockey.The other finalists were Florida’s Roberto Luongo and Carolina’s Jordan Staal.The 33-year-old Boyle was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia during training camp, but he made it back into the Devils’ lineup in November and eventually represented New Jersey at the All-Star game after teammate Taylor Hall couldn’t go because of injury.Boyle put together an outstanding season even while his 2-year-old son, Declan, also had significant health problems.—5:47 p.m.Vegas Golden Knights forward William Karlsson has won the Lady Byng Trophy as the player best combining sportsmanship and ability.After Columbus made a deal with Vegas to take Karlsson off its hands in the expansion draft, the talented Swede had a breakthrough season for the expansion Golden Knights, racking up 43 goals and 35 assists with only 12 penalty minutes. Karlsson had never scored more than 25 points in any of his three previous NHL seasons with Anaheim and the Blue Jackets.”Who would have thought?” Karlsson said with a smile after picking up his award.Karlsson’s trophy is the first individual player honor earned by the Golden Knights. Coach Gerard Gallant, general manager George McPhee and defenseman Deryk Engelland are also up for awards later in the ceremony in the Knights’ hometown.—5:39 p.m.New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal has won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie, beating out Vancouver’s Brock Boeser and Arizona’s Clayton Keller.The 21-year-old Barzal became an immediate star while scoring 85 points in 82 games for the Islanders in his first full NHL season. The 16th overall pick in the 2015 draft scored 20 points more than any other rookie, racking up 22 goals and 63 assists while centering the Islanders’ second line and providing a formidable one-two punch behind star John Tavares.Among his many superlatives, Barzal became the first rookie in NHL history to post at least three five-point games since Montreal’s Joe Malone did it way back in 1917-18 – the NHL’s inaugural season.Barzal is the Isles’ fifth winner of the Calder Trophy, joining a trio of Hall of Famers – Denis Potvin (1974), Bryan Trottier (1976), Mike Bossy (1978) – and Bryan Berard (1997).—5:29 p.m.A few trophies awarded in Las Vegas carried no suspense because they were earned based on statistical achievements in the regular season.Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin won his seventh Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal-scorer, and Los Angeles’ Jonathan Quick won the Jennings Trophy for the second time as the goalie for the team allowing the NHL’s fewest goals.Edmonton forward Connor McDavid is not a Hart Trophy finalist after winning the award last season as the NHL’s most valuable player, but he already won his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy as the league’s scoring champion. McDavid also got the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL’s most outstanding player chosen by the players’ union members.—5:25 p.m.Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman has won his first Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman.The imposing Swede beat out finalists P.K. Subban of Nashville and Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty, who won it last season. Hedman got 94 first-place votes to 52 for Doughty.Hedman scored 17 goals and racked up a plus-32 rating in another dominant season for the Lightning. While his 63 points were down from last season, he set a career high while playing nearly 26 minutes per game.—5:15 p.m.Connor McDavid has won the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL players union’s choice as the league’s most outstanding player.The Edmonton Oilers superstar beat out Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and New Jersey’s Taylor Hall for the first award of the night at the NHL’s annual postseason gala award show in Las Vegas.McDavid won the award for the second straight year. He also won the Hart Trophy in 2017 as the NHL’s most valuable player – but he isn’t a finalist for the Hart this season, with Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar taking the third spot alongside MacKinnon and Hall as the finalists.The 21-year-old McDavid led the NHL in scoring for his second consecutive season, earning the Art Ross Trophy with 108 points.—5:07 p.m.The NHL is handing out its postseason awards in its annual gala show from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.The show will close with the awarding of the Hart Trophy for the NHL’s most valuable player. The finalists in the wide-open race are Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar , New Jersey forward Taylor Hall and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.— NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Goaltender Pekka Rinne wound up in a most unfamiliar spot in two of the most important games of his life.On the bench having been chased not once, but twice.In the Stanley Cup Final.Now Rinne is back in the postseason once again, and the 6-foot-5 Finn is a big reason why the Nashville Predators won the Presidents’ Trophy with the most points during the regular season. As Rinne prepares for Game 1 on Thursday night against Colorado, he insists last year’s Final provides not so much motivation as experience to use to his advantage along with so many good memories from that thrilling playoff run.”It’s a different year, obviously different situation, little bit of a different team,” Rinne said. ”But I’m sure you’ll look back at last year’s run, I think there’s a lot of things we can take, a lot of positives all the way through the finals and even after the finals. I think it was an unbelievable experience. I think you try to use that to your advantage.”Rinne carried last-seeded Nashville all the way to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final by going 12-4 with a .945 save percentage, ranking among the best postseasons by a goalie.Then came the Final.In Game 2 against Pittsburgh , Rinne was pulled by coach Peter Laviolette after Nashville gave up three goals in the first 3:18 of the third period of a 4-1 loss. Game 4 was even worse as Rinne gave up three goals on nine shots , lasting only the first period before being replaced by Juuse Saros again. The Predators lost in six games.Laviolette believes Rinne took the bulk of the blame for those losses when the Predators could have played better in front of their goalie. He also noticed what Rinne did to improve himself.”Let’s be honest,” Laviolette said. ”He’s been the backbone of this franchise. He was really good down the stretch in order to get us in the playoffs last year, and when the playoffs came, he was on point. And that was a big part of it. It was more for me just a continuation. I think there’s always changes. I think Pekka does a terrific job of trying to watch, trying to learn, trying to understand the game better, trying to work at his craft.”Washington coach Barry Trotz has seen how driven Rinne is. He wants to stop every puck – even in practice.”He’s extremely competitive and extremely proud , that he plays hard on every puck,” Trotz said of his former goalie. ”It doesn’t matter how tired he is. … He plays every puck to exhaustion. And to me that’s allowed him to stay sharp mentally, and I think it’s allowed him to stay sharp physically because he’s 35 and he still is as quick and explosive as he’s ever been.”Rinne started working early to prepare for this season. He has worked on his stance in and around the net with Predators goaltender coach Ben Vanderklok to tighten his stance. Planting his skates inside the post rather than outside allows Rinne to be faster tracking a puck, able to push off a post to slide quickly to the other post.Not a big change for a goalie who turned 35 last November.”It’s hard to do any drastic changes at this point of your career,” Rinne said.Rinne has rebounded from losing the Final with a season that finally might win him the Vezina Trophy he missed three other times.The goalie, who won his 300th career game during the season, posted a career-high eight shutouts with the second-best save percentage of his career at .927. He finished third in the NHL with 42 wins and fifth in goals-against average (2.31). Down the stretch, Rinne was at his best going 23-5-1 with five of those shutouts.”He was the best goalie of the year,” Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen said.Rinne also should be rested for the postseason having played only 59 games, two fewer than last season and his fewest in an injury-free season since 2009-10 when playing 58 games. Laviolette stuck to a plan trying to ensure Rinne would be as fresh as possible for the playoffs while developing Saros.As winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, the Predators will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Smashville is where Rinne went 25-6-2 this season and an impressive 9-2 last postseason, which provides a certain sense of comfort.”When you think about it, if you take care of all the home games, you win the Stanley Cup so I mean that’s huge,” Rinne said.—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno and AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed to this report.—