NHL News

The NHL Awards took place on Thursday, and Sidney Crosby made up for last year, when he went home with nothing.

At only 19, Crosby was presented the Hart Trophy as the League MVP. He got 91 1st place votes and 1225 overall points, beating Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo for the Trophy. Crosby also won the Lester Pearson Award as the league's most outstanding player. With the Art Ross Trophy he already recieved earlier in May, he becomes only the seventh player in league history to pull off the Ross-Pearson-Hart triple.

Other players who won trophy's are:

Martin Brodeur - Vezina Trophy
Evgeni Malkin - Calder Trophy
Alain Vigneault - Jack Adams Award
Pavel Datsyuk - Lady Bing Trophy
Nicklas Lidstrom - Norris Trophy
Rod Brind'Amour - Frank Selke Trophy
Saku Koivu - King Clancy Memorial Trophy
Phil Kessel - Bill Masterson Trophy

In other hockey news, the some coaching moves happened.

Mike Keenan, one of the best coaches in NHL history has been signed by the Calgary Flames. Keenan, 57, joins his eighth NHL team as either a coach or general manager. He last worked in the league for the Florida Panthers but abruptly resigned as GM in September 2006 with more than two years remaining on his contract amid rumours of differences with head coach Jacques Martin.

''You never know how the game is going to call you back do you?'' Keenan said Thursday when he was introduced at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Lewis expressed his feelings on what happened Friday on a Boston television network. ''As a coach, you go into a new organization not really sure what you have and not sure what you need. By the end of the year, I knew what we had and I knew what we needed and then you just don't get a chance to start on with the next season,'' Lewis said Friday in an interview with Boston's WHDH-TV.

The Bruins look to have a new coach by July 1st.

Darryl Sutter also talked about the hiring of Keenan. One of Sutter's 1st jobs was as an assistant coach along side Keenan. ''We've coached with each other, against each other and for each other, all those things,'' Sutter said. ''I can't say that I've been associated with a coach or worked with a coach that has a more focused vision than him.''

Things are looking up for the Flames, but in Boston, they just keep going down.

Former Detroit coach Dave Lewis was fired Friday in his 1st year as the Bruins head coach. He led the Briuns to a last place finish in the Northeast Division with 76 points. 'I have great respect for both of those men and what they've done in the past and what I think they will accomplish in the future,'' Chiarelli said on a conference call with reporters.

''You see a level of play that you expect and want and it teases you, and obviously something wasn't getting through,'' Chiarelli said. The general manager said he doesn't expect ''top level play'' all the time, but insists the team be more consistent on the ice.


Assistant coach Marc Habscheid was alsol et go by the Bruins, but both coaches will be assigned other positions in the Bruins franchise.