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.

May's Must See Moments

5: Colangelo Named Executive of the Year - The Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was named the NBA's Executive of the Year for the '06-07 season. During the off-season, he signed Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa, traded for T.J Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and Kris Humphries, re-signed Chris Bosh and drafted Andrea Bargnani. Colangelo's latest move was signing reigning NBA Coach of the Year Sam Mitchell to a contract extension. This was the 2nd time he has received this award as he won it 2 years ago in Phoenix.

4: Tocchet Pleads Guilty to Gambling Charges - Former NHL player and assistant coach of the Phoenix Coyotes plead guilty to multiple gambling charges at the end of the month Tocchet will probably avoid jail time for being a 1st time offender and the door is apparently open for him to come back to the NHL.

3: Captain Crosby - Sid the Kid was named captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins a couple days ago. Last year, he served as an assistant captain for the Pens. He also led the league in points with 120 of them and got the Penguins a playoff berth as an elite team. This is the 1st time the Penguins have had a captain that wasn't Mario Lemieux in a long time. This past year, the Penguins went without a captain to honor Lemieux's achievements throughout his career.

2: NBA Draft Lottery - For the 1st time in a long while, the Raptors weren't gunning for a high draft spot. Instead, it was the Grizzles, Celtics and Bucks going for the #1 spot. They all lost out as all of them got picks from 4-6. The 3 teams that were left for the final 3 picks were Atlanta, Seattle and Portland. Portland had the worst odds to win the NO.1 pick as they only had a 5.3% chance of getting the 1st overall pick. But the Trailblazers beat the odds getting the 1st pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.

1: Stanley Cup Final - The Stanley Cup Final began a few days ago with the Ducks and Sens battling it out. The Ducks took the 1st 2 games of the series, and Ottawa now finds themselves in a big hole. Their NO.1 line really needs to step it up.

Captain Crosby

The news came up yesterday, and now it's official. Sidney Crosby is the Pittsburgh Penguins captain. The team made the announcement this afternoon. He is only 19 at this time, making him the youngest captain in NHL history right ahead of Vincent Lecavalier.

Last year, he served as an assistant captain for the Pens. He also led the league in points with 120 of them and got the Penguins a playoff berth as an elite team. This is the 1st time the Penguins have had a captain that wasn't Mario Lemieux in a long time. This past year, the Penguins went without a captain to honor Lemieux's achievments throughout his career.

After the announcement, the Penguins addressed the media. "Sidney has done so much for this franchise in his first two seasons, made so much history, that you have to keep reminding yourself that he is only 19 years old," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said in a statement.

"But Sid's contributions extend far beyond statistics and his incredible achievements on the ice. It is obvious to all of us - coaches, players, management, staff - that he has grown into the acknowledged leader of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"It is only appropriate that he wears the C as team captain."

"I don't think it will be that much different than last year. The C adds a little bit, but it's just a letter," defenceman Ryan Whitney told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "He's been a leader and will continue to be. This shows the rest of the league that he has completely arrived."

Sid the Kid

It's amazing what he's done at only 19. Pittsburgh Penguin's Sidney Crosby right now is on pace to win the Art Ross trophy as leading scorer in the league. He also has been the face of the NHL since he came into the league as he has been in multiple NHL and NIKE commercials. One more thing he's done is bring some hockey to not only Pittsburgh, but all of U.S.A as a Boston - Pittsburgh game on NBC had higher T.V ratings than a Phoenix Suns NBA game on ABC. At 19 he has made great strides and will only get better.

He started this year as many predicted scoring a goal and 1 assist in win over Philadelphia. He then went in a sort of slump he only got points in 1 of his next 4 games. But then in mid October, Crosby went on a scoring streak as he got 15 points in his next 8 games. In November, Crosby had 7 out of 11 games where he scored 2 or more points. In December Sid scored 26 points in 14 games to grab all of the NHL's attention. Crosby would continue on this pace to get to an eventual 116 points as of March 30th! That gave him a 11 point cushion on 2nd place Joe Thorton in the NHL Art Ross trophy race!

If Crosby continues on this pace he will become the youngest player ever to lead the league in scoring. The scary thing about him is that he is only 19! He will get better which will be amazing to watch. He may have a great chance off hitting those 150 and 200 point marks that only legends like Lemieux and Gretzky have been able to achieve. It will be fun to see how he grows up and matures on the ice.