Hall, Rinne take top NHL awards
New Jersey’s Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player Wednesday in the hockey world’s annual postseason awards show in Las Vegas.
“If there is one thing I’m proud of, it’s to be the first Devil to win MVP,” said Hall, who had career highs of 39 goals and 54 assists as the Devils improved from 70 points in 2016-17 to 97 points in 2017-18. “At the start of the season, people wrote us off. People have wrote me off, and it feels pretty good standing up here now.”
Nashville’s Pekka Rinne won his first Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid won the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player in a vote of the players’ union.
Vegas’ Gerard Gallant won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach. His team went 51-24-7 and won the Pacific Division before reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in its inaugural campaign.
Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman won his first Norris Trophy as top defenseman, while New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal won the Calder Trophy in a landslide as the top rookie.
⏩ The Sharks will open their 2018-19 season at home against the Ducks on Oct. 3, the NHL announced. The league will release its entire schedule Thursday.
⏩ Police in Tennessee arrested Nashville Predators forward Austin Watson on a charge of domestic assault.
Franklin police Lt. Charles Warner said Watson was arrested Saturday evening, but has been released from jail on $4,500 bond. Watson is due in court June 28.
Given the choice to clear the course of fans or return the following day, Green played on and captured his first major by one stroke, even making birdie at the 16th hole.
He outlasted Lee Trevino on the back side of the final round of the 1985 PGA Championship in Denver.
⏩ Billy Connors, who served as a pitching coach with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees before becoming a confidant of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, has died. He was 76. Connors also appeared in 26 games with the Cubs and New York Mets from 1966-68, posting an 0-2 record with a 7.53 ERA.
Tennis: Recently crowned French Open champion Simona Halep withdrew from next week’s Nature Valley International grass-court tournament in Eastbourne, England.
The top-ranked Halep said that she felt Achilles tendon pain and inflammation during her title run in Paris “and it has yet to fully recover.”
⏩ Top-seeded Marin Cilic set up a quarterfinal with Sam Querrey after coming from a set down to beat Gilles Muller 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 at Queen’s Club grass-court event in London. Querrey beat Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1.
⏩ Yuichi Sugita defeated third-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-2, 7-5 at the grass-court Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. Also, seventhseeded Kei Nishikori lost 6-2, 6-2 to Karen Khachanov.