In Lou We Trust

At tonight's NHL Awards show, Brodeur won his fourth Vezina trophy - his second consecutive trophy. A list of all the winners can be found at NHL.com. The big winners were Alexander Ovechkin taking home the Hart and Pearson, Nicklas Lidstrom winning his sixth Norris Trophy, Pavel Datsyuk winning both the Lady Byng and Selke (John Madden finished second) trophies, Bruce Boudreau winning the Jack Adams, and Patrick Kane winning the Calder. All deserving winners and equally deserving was Gordie Howe earning the league's first lifetime achievement award. No prize goes to the producers for getting a really un-entertaining host to run this.

According to TSN.ca, the Vezina trophy voting was very close between Brodeur and Evgeni Nabokov, who did the ridiculous and picked up Brodeur-ian numbers in as many games as Brodeur. Here is the key section:

Brodeur, who some argue is the best goaltender to ever play in the NHL, garnered 113 points, while San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov totaled 106 points and Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist had 13 points.

Lauding Brodeur as one of the best and highlighting a Ranger's failure in one sentence? Niiiiice. That does not get old.

Brodeur did mention one interesting tidbit during his acceptance speech. Namely, he is hoping the Devils get a better team next season. Yes, he actually said that. Not for nothing, that in of itself isn't news - who doesn't want to better? No one is going to wish their team to be worse next season. However, saying so outloud after receiving an award is a bit surprising. I don't think it's the call out some may think it to be; but it is a message that at least one Devil wants to see some improvements.

There is one thing I didn't understand. Brodeur, oddly enough, was not named to the NHL's first team but rather to the second team. Not that it's a bad honor, it's just proof that the PHWA (who vote for the NHL first and second team) doesn't agree with the general managers (who vote for the Vezina) as to who the top goalie in the NHL was last season. It's still odd, as even noted by journalist James Mirtle. The voting for this and more is revealed at Gulitti's Fire & Ice.