Montreal Canadiens: Are Price’s Trophies Irrelevant?

Jun 24, 2015; Las Vegas, NV, USA;

talks to media after winning four awards during the 2015 NHL Awards at MGM Grand. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Given out on a stage, with dressed-to-the-nines players accepting their individual awards, there is a process by which they are decided.

First, the Awards are voted on by different groups. Some trophy winners are decided by the general managers of each team. Some are decided by the hockey writers who cover these teams and these players for the majority of a 12-month period. And one – the Ted Lindsay Award – is voted upon by the players.

The process is as follows – for most of the trophies (the Vezina has top 3 candidates voted upon):

"…each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 points system. Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the playoffs."

Next, the spirit of the NHL Awards is what we need to examine.

This isn’t the Academy Awards. I’m a former Hollywood-awards watcher (I no longer partake) so I used to bemoan the process. Films pitted against each other for “Best Picture” were incredibly anomalous. How can you compare “Gone with the Wind” to “The Wizard of Oz” in the same category? But there they were.

Apples and oranges.

Not so with the NHL Awards. In the category of Vezina, for example, it’s goalie vs goalie. Judged on the same scale.

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The Norris is for defensemen only. Again, on the same level, same position.

Some other awards are more ambiguous – the Calder is given to rookies. The Selke to defensive forwards.

Each trophy can be interpreted different ways but the interpretations don’t have the broadest range. It’s still hockey player vs hockey player.

During the season, hockey analysts, as well as fans, begin to see players emerge as dominant in their particular niches. It was not long into 2014-15 that the Vezina trophy began to be whispered about with each Habs game – win or loss – and Carey Price’s name along with it.

By March, it was being asked in polls, surveys, “Question of the Day” type tweets and so on, and Price’s name was consistently brought up as Vezina winner.

It wasn’t just the Vezina, though. There were other teams who had players burst forth and stand out, and trophies were brought up as possibilities for these players.

There is one team that will win the Cup every year. Just one team. 20+ players, a coaching staff, GM, front office; that’s it. One city celebrates.

What about the others, those who came close? We know that history doesn’t remember silver-medal winners, but the NHL Awards do.

Carey Price was honored as the Best Goaltender this season (Vezina), the Most Outstanding Player (Ted Lindsay Award – as voted on by his peers), and the overall Player Most Valuable To His Team (Hart).

As the regular season ended, he and Corey Crawford split the William Jennings Award – which is the award given to the goaltender who let in the fewest goals all season.

The Jennings Trophy is awarded based on statistics. Every other award Price won is based on subjective voting. That makes each one extremely meaningful.

All in all, he was thoroughly recognized for the historic season he had.

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