Best of 2011: NHL
Posted December 27, 2011 1:06 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The very first NHL game of 2011 set the tone for the year. Was there a replay we watched more often than David Steckel’s blindside hit on Sidney Crosby? High off leading Canada to an Olympic gold medal victory just months prior, The Kid (then 23) was tearing through the 2010-11 season at better than 1.5-points-per-game pace. HBO had launched a behind-the-scenes reality show, 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic, in anticipation of the New Year’s Day open-air showdown between Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins and rival Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals. Casual fans were giving in. With the league’s stars entering their prime and a quality American broadcaster amping up the limelight, 2011 promised to be a year of good tidings for the NHL.
Promises, much like graphite shafts, can be broken. Or, at the very least, suffer concussion-like symptoms.
But just as every cloud has a silver lining and every bad whistle has a make-up call and every “whiplash” victim has a mom and every riot has a kiss, do not be quick to write off 2011 as an altogether bad year for professional hockey.
True, it is difficult to recall a 12-month period since the 2004-05 NHL lockout (no Stanley Cup winner, remember?) so besieged by tragic headlines. The 11-month absence of the league’s best player seems manageable when put into perspective next to the sudden deaths of enforcers Derek Boogard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, all clustered within a four-month span; the Russian plane crash that robbed the lives of the majority of KHL team Lokomotiv in September; and the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots that left 150 people an a great city’s reputation injured.
If the off-season was a shot to the NHL’s gut, the new 2011-12 season aimed above the neck. At one point in mid-December, the league’s best player (Crosby), most recent Calder Trophy winner (Jeff Skinner), leading goal-scorer (Milan Michalek), leading point-getter (Claude Giroux), and a future Hall of Fame defencemen (Chris Pronger) were all out their respective teams’ lineup with concussions.
But before we get all bah-humbug, let us look to the bright lights. The overachieving teams that prove that the sum can be greater than its parts (Minnesota Wild); the exciting youngster in Edmonton (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) who has jumped into the thick of the scoring race; the affable 37-year-old goaltender who can backstop his Original Six team to its first championship in nearly four decades; and the NHL’s enthusiastic and often hilarious (if a bit creepy) embrace of Movember. And let us not forget, Winnipeg has its beloved Jets back.
Newsmaker of the Year: Sidney Crosby
Runner-up: Brendan Shanahan
If the constant Sidney Watch seems overwrought and over-analyzed, think about all this player has accomplished before his 23rd birthday: a scoring championship, a Maurice Richard Trophy, a Hart Trophy, a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold. Think about how rare these ones come along, and how you couldn’t believe it when, on Nov. 21, No. 87 put on a four-point tour de force in his long-awaited return game. Entire essays have been written about this guy’s backhand.
Replay of the Year: Craig Smith misses world’s most empty net
Runner-up: Patrick Kane dekes Niklas Backstrom
Can’t really get enough of this clip. Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith is having a terrific rookie year (24 points in his first 32 games), but until he posts something positive on the highlight reel, all anyone will remember is this missed gift. The net couldn’t be more wide open if it tried, and yet somehow Smith, in attempt to get stylish on an empty-net breakaway, shoots the puck over the gaping cage. This is the equivalent of watching a PGA star hammer a tap-in putt into the lake.
Rant of the Year: Ilya Bryzgalov
Runner-up: Ilya Brygalov
Take your pick: A lost-in-the-woods Bryzgalov talking after the Flyers’ 9-8 loss to the Jets or a found-in-the-universe Bryzgalov talking to HBO cameras? “I’m very into the universe. You know, like, how was it created? What is it? You know, like, the solar system is so humongous big, right? But if you see our solar system and our galaxy on the side, and we’re so small, you can’t even see it… In the big picture our galaxy is small tiny dot in the universe. And we have some problems here on Earth we worry about? Compared to, like, nothing? Just be happy. Don’t worry; be happy right now.”
Team of the Year: Boston Bruins
Runner-up: Winnipeg Jets
Perhaps even more remarkable than their Stanley Cup victory over the Vancouver Canucks, the favoured home team that jumped to a 2-0 lead in the final series, is the Bruins’ dominance of late. In a season rife with parity, the B’s have won 19 of their last 22 games. One of those rare losses, however, came against the Winnipeg Jets — many Canadians’ new second-favourite team.
Buzz word of the Year: Concussion-like
Runner-up: Realignment
While the daily use (or, in the case of some team officials, avoidance) of the term “concussion” fuelled many a barroom and talking-head and online debate this year, unfortunately an easy answer to the rash of NHLer head injuries is not in sight. Let’s hope that with some commitment to injury prevention (and, let’s face it, better some luck) the Buzzword of 2011 is not the Buzzword of 2012.
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