Red Wings’ Datsyuk has respect of peers
DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings felt it was about time that Pavel Datsyuk got the recognition he deserves.
The players were reacting to a National Hockey League Players’ Association poll, conducted along with CBC, that saw the Wings centre win six different categories, several by landslide victories.
Datsyuk was named the smartest player, toughest to get the puck off, the cleanest player, the hardest forward to play against, the hardest to stop for a goalie and the most difficult player overall to play against.
A total of 257 players participated in the poll.
“He’s just greatly respected around the league,” goalie Jimmy Howard said. “He’s here every single day ready to work and he’s always working on his game trying to refine things and finding ways to be more creative. Just when you think you’ve seen it all from Pavel, he comes up with something totally brand new.
“He’s just a special player.”
Despite the high praise from his peers, Datsyuk has only been nominated for the Hart Trophy as league MVP once that coming in 2009.
Both the players and Wings management pointed the finger of blame for that at those who get to vote on most of the NHL awards. Most of the awards, including the Hart, are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
“People looks so much at scoring statistics,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “There’s way more to the game than that.”
Holland, also pointing to Datsyuk’s selection as the first pick overall at last month’s All-star Game draft, said this only reinforces the team’s feelings that the Russian is the best two-player in the game.
Wings forward Dan Cleary has his own theory on how to balance out the process.
“The players, in my opinion, should vote on a lot of awards,” Cleary said. “That’s just how I feel.
“But Pavel has the respect of all of the players in the NHL. It shows in polls.”