Giroux finishes 4th for Hart
Daily News Flyers blog
Giroux finishes 4th for Hart
Claude Giroux stood in the middle of the stage at the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas on Wednesday night, accepting a prestigious honor at the NHL Awards.
It just wasn’t the award Giroux wanted. Not even close.
Giroux, 24, was presented as the next cover boy for EA Sports’ NHL 13 video game, as voted by the fans. A link to the new cover is here.
Instead, Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin – whom Giroux’s teammates helped render inconsequential in their first round playoff series – won his first Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in a runaway as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Giroux finished fourth in voting, narrowly missing out on a finalist spot. He was beaten out by Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
Close but no cigar was the theme of the night for the Flyers. Somehow, none of their 12 rookies – which combined to lead all teams in rookie scoring – were nominated for an All-Rookie team or the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
Matt Read, who led all rookies in goals, finished 4th in Calder voting. Sean Couturier, 19, was a distant 9th.
Giroux was also left off the first and second NHL All-Star teams.
Worthy candidate Paul Holmgren finished 5th in voting for manager of the year. Peter Laviolette barely cracked the Top 10 in voting for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. Former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock took the Adams.
Back in April, we disclosed our full ballot as a member of the PHWA. Giroux probably should have beaten out Stamkos as a finalist, considering his 60 goals weren’t even enough to get the Lightning to the playoffs.
Here is how Giroux finished in the Hart voting:
Pts. (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
1. Evgeni Malkin, PIT 1,473 (144-4-1-0-0)
2. Steven Stamkos, T.B. 598 (1-54-24-24-18)
3. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR 556 (3-35-36-28-17)
4. Claude Giroux, PHI 458 (0-25-34-28-29)
5. Jonathan Quick, L.A. 357 (1-22-23-19-21)
6. Jason Spezza, OTT 134 (0-2-14-11-17)
7. Pekka Rinne, NSH 64 (0-4-2-6-8)
8. Erik Karlsson, OTT 52 (0-0-4-7-11)
9. Henrik Sedin, VAN 40 (0-2-2-5-1)
10. Ilya Kovalchuk, N.J. 38 (0-1-2-5-6)
11. Mike Smith, PHX 16 (0-0-0-4-4)
12. Zdeno Chara, BOS 15 (0-0-1-3-1)
13. Shea Weber, NSH 12 (0-0-1-2-1)
14. Pavel Datsyuk, DET 11 (0-0-1-1-3)
15. Brian Elliott, STL 10 (0-0-1-1-2)
16. Ray Whitney, PHX 8 (0-0-1-1-0)
17. Marian Gaborik, NYR 8 (0-0-1-0-3)
18. Patrice Bergeron, BOS 7 (0-0-0-2-1)
19. David Backes, STL 6 (0-0-1-0-1)
20. Brian Campbell, FLA 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
Radim Vrbata, PHX 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
22. Jamie Benn, DAL 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
James Neal, PIT 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
24. Marian Hossa, CHI 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
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You decide: Flyers Stay or Go
More whining...starts NOW.— beegal99- The NHL Awards ceremonies are difficult to watch, not because of the players, coaches or celebrity presenters. It's the writing...awful, awful writing. They cut away to shots of Tortarella with an expression on his face of, "What the F- am I doing here?"
Disgraceful.— Chasev - It is over and done with time to move on and get ready for the up coming season! As fans we know what Giroux mean to this team and we show himevery game he plays. It is an honor to be named to thwe cover of EA Sports hockey game cover! But the real honor is winning the CUP and that is what we the fans need to hold our team accountable to get it done meaning that Hommer needs to sign better back line guys to protect Bryz! We need to find soneone wgho can play nasty like our fallen captain Chris Pronger and play big minutes a player likeishardto fine but SheaWeber comesto mind it maybe hard to land him but it can be done so homer get it done! ALSOS NO MORE MATT CARLE!— srcdaddy1216
- Giroux left off 1st and 2nd team All Stars? You joking?
— MichaelZoe - As an outsider, I will tell you this organization will never win while Ed Snider is in control. He is to the NHL what Al Davis was to the NFL. Ed Snider is afraid to bring in folks to make important decisions, and would rather have "yes" men with whom he feels comfortable around. As with Al Davis, Ed Snyder cannot move on from the Broad Street Bullies' days. The team cannot evolve with Snyder at the helm. Think I'm wrong? What's happened since 1975?— beegal99
- What's happened since 1975? The Flyers have more wins than any other franchise, except for possibly Montreal. They may have passed them the past couple of years. Very few teams have the expectation that not only will they make the playoffs, but have a legitimate shot at playing for the Stanley Cup.
— Bazalite - What's happened since 1975? The Flyers have more wins than any other franchise, except for possibly Montreal. They may have passed them the past couple of years. Very few teams have the expectation that not only will they make the playoffs, but have a legitimate shot at playing for the Stanley Cup. (HTML deleted)— Bazalite
- none of these accolades matter, only the Flyers winning the cup does...and I have another summer to yet again wait for that special day— jamarder
Comment removed.- Whats happened since 1975 is clear...No Goaltender...the Flyers have for years downplayed the need for a quality goalie////then last year they panic because Snider told them to sign BRYZ and they give away the store to a backup...now we are screwed royally with another 8 years with no shot at the cup...you can add all the D men and young forwards that you want you do not win with a goalie who has an 875save %— flyers1000
- NOTHING MATTERS BUT THE CUP!— AnukKrakatoa
- Comment removed.
- Stamkos shouldn't have beat out Giroux on an INDIVIDUAL AWARD because his team wasn't as good as the Flyers? That makes absolutely no sense. Stamkos had SIXTY F'ING GOALS! Giroux was the king of the secondary assist on the man advantage.— jbruder02
- 60 goals >>>>>>>>>>> 65 assists Does the writer not realize that the MVP is an individual award and not a team award? Giroux is the secondary assist on the Power Play master...— jbruder02
- It's not the "Offensive Player of the Year Award". It's the "Most Valuable Player". How can you be the player in the league that's most valuable to your team when your team finished 10th place and missed the playoffs? What, if they didn't have Stamkos they may have finished 13th? That makes him the 2nd most valuable player in the entire league? If you really want to make a twisted argument you could even say that made him a negative value last year, since 13th place would have still missed the playoffs but they would have gotten a better draft selection. Not saying I'd personally make that argument, but it just seems silly to me to give that much MVP consideration to a guy on a terrible team that did nothing.— dennis27
