The Toronto Maple Leafs once again disapointed in the NHL Playoffs, but that doesn't mean there isn't something really fun to look forward to.
After scoring nearly 70 goals and being nominated for an award for the NHL's best defensive forward, Auston Matthews is a shoe-in to win the League's MVP Award.
Oh Wait? What's that? The Awards a joke and Matthews wasn't even nominated for the Hart?
As embarrassing as this is to the Professional Hockey Writers Association, it's actually what happened. The ignorance is off the charts, but what can you do? Auston Matthews, apparently, wasn't even one of the three best players in the NHL this year.
Of course, if you watched one second of the NH's 2023-24 season, you know that's a farce, but people hate the Leafs, what can you do?
Always, let's recap the rest of the awards, be thankful that not all of them are picked by the writers.
Who Has Won NHL Awards So Far, and What Awards Are Still to Come?
The NHL used to have a very lame ceremony with a 20-years-outdated musical guest that was nearly unwatchable, so while I was looking forward to host Sinbad with musical guest Dishwalla, this year they will just randomly shout out who won the awards every few days during the playoffs.
The Mark Messier Leadership Award for "Best Leader."
This award must be a joke, since I don't know how this could be measured or compared, but whether it is or not, they gave it to Jacob Trouba who is apparently the "most leadery."
The Bill Masterson Award
This one is for percerverance and usually goes to the player who overcame the most adversity to turn his career around. A nice award and this year it goes to Connor Ingram.
The Frank J. Selke Trophy
This bad boy goes semi-annually to Alex Barkov of the Florida Panthers. He is the NHL's best defensive forwards. He used to trade off with Patrice Bergeron, but now that Patrice has retired it's Barkov's trophy to lose.
Auston Matthews was nominated, but did not win.
The Best Coach Award
Named after Jack Adams, the NHL awards a coach every year for not getting fired. That coach is then inevitably fired. It's a pretty meaningless award since coaches get blamed for everything, eventually. This year's future ex-coach of the year was Rick Tocchet. Great job Rick!
King Clancy Award- Given out to whoever Gary Bettman thinks should have won the Mark Messier award. It is as of yet unrewarded, as are all of the following awards.
The Lady Byng - in a sport where repeatedly bashing a fellow human in the spine with a six-and-a-half foot piece of graphite is barely against the rules, this award is pretty subjective. No one cares about it and the players never even seem to want to win it. Auston Matthews will likely get it as the writers troll him by denying him the Hart and Selke he so richly deserved.
GM of the Year: This like winning a Grammy in that no one cares who wins this award or has won it. In a sport where moves usually take five years to properly analyze, this award is like winning a trophy for best personality. I can tell you one thing: It won't be going to Brad Treliving.
There are so many more awards, it's honestly exhausting. No wonder they cancelled on Sinbad! The ones people care about will be left to last: The Vezina, Hart, Calder and Norris.
The Vezina is for best goalie, and no Leafs goalie has won it since 1965. For further embarrassment to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a member of the Buffalo Sabres has won it seven times, and a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets has won it twice.
The Hart is for best player, and Auston Matthews should have won, but didn't. What a joke.
The Calder is for rookie of the year, and maybe if Joseph Woll didn't miss half the season he'd have been nominated. He was a candidate before he sprained his high-ankle!
The Norris Trophy is for the NHL's best defenseman and if a Toronto Maple Leafs player ever wins this one then you best shelter in place because it is one of the main signs of the apocalypse. If you're reading this then the streak is still in tact: no Leafs player has ever won this award, even in olden times.