After picking up the pieces from the devastating end to the Caps season, I finally was able to think about hockey again.  I logged into my @BaltimoreCaps Twitter account and decided to watch part of the NHL Awards on Versus last night.

The consensus since before the season ended amongst Caps fans I know was this:

  • Ovechkin had an awesome year but was injured and suspended, therefore making it nearly impossible to collect a Hart, Art Ross or Richard Trophy
  • Mike Green is the best defensemen in the league, except he scores goals like a second line winger, therefore he will lose in the Norris voting to Duncan Keith
  • Jose Theodore had an incredible run this season, overcame immense personal tragedy, will probably not be a Capital in 2010-11, and is a terribly handsome dude.

All of these things came to fruition during the awards ceremony.  This was all very easy to predict from a Capitals perspective.  Ovi fell just shy of the Richard Trophy (most goals), the Art Ross (most points), and lost the Hart (MVP) to Henrik Sedin.  I sort of though, since he’d won it two years in a row and all, that the players’ association would vote him their MVP.  They did.  And Ovi took the opportunity to do a lot of shout-outs.  More shout-outs than time would allow.  Instead of sheepishly wandering off the stage when the wrapup music tried to play him off, he just waited until they turned his mic back on.

“NOT EVEN KEYBOARD CAT CAN PLAYING ME OFF”

The NHL Awards themselves were a train wreck.  They went for spectacle, had the show in Vegas, and it was so uncomfortably awkward.  Kudos to them for trying to spice up the awards, but I’m not even sure the “celebrity” presenters (Natasha Henstridge?!  2010?!) knew the show was being televised.  Mark Wahlberg inexplicably tried to give the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year, actually won by Tyler Myers) to “Tie Domi,” who is 41, and was not present.

Jay Mohr hosted the show and did a Norm MacDonald impersonation.  Do I need to elaborate?  Cirque de Soleil and the band Shinedown were involved.  Someone made a joke about Chris Chelios being old.  It was predictable, stupid, and a perfect way to kill a few hours in a hotel room on a Wednesday night.

2010-11.  It can’t come soon enough.