Trophy haul took some of the edge off Cup loss
It was small consolation for losing the final, but following the 201011 season the Canucks, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, cleaned up at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas. The disappointment of losing the final in Game 7 versus the Bruins was still there, but the Canucks were rightly honoured for being one of the NHL’s most dominant teams. Ed Willes was there, and he wrote:
Mike Gillis watched as Daniel Sedin was named the best player by his peers in the NHL Players’ Association and Ryan Kesler run away with the Selke as the league’s best defensive forward.
He also watched Wednesday as his goaltending tandem of Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider carted off the Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL, then watched as Canucks Alain Vigneault, Luongo and Sedin were edged out for, respectively, the Adams, Vezina and Hart trophies.
Somewhere in there, Gillis was also named the league’s general manager of the year as voted on by his fellow GMs.
So given, the NHL Awards Show looked like a Canucks team photo, it’s hard to think of the team’s season as being a failure.
But when asked if hardware haul eased the pain of losing the Stanley Cup Final in Game 7 on home ice, Gillis said: “No.”
He didn’t elaborate. Then again, he didn’t need to.
“So much success is built on failure and understanding what it takes to get that extra little push,” he said. “There’s a ton of material out there about how you have to fail before you succeed. I’m hopeful if we keep all our players together, we’ll be able to push at the end.
“(This season’s experience) might be good. It might be bad, I don’t know.”
But this market is dying to find out. The NHL Awards Show offered a two-day respite for Gillis after the two-month playoff grind and before the real meat of his season. The
NHL draft goes this weekend in St. Paul. Free agency starts July 1 and the Canucks face huge decisions with pending UFAs Kevin Bieksa, Christian Ehrhoff, Sami Salo, Chris Higgins, Raffi Torres, Max Lapierre and others.
The good news is the NHL’s salary cap is going up to the $64-million range. The not-sogood-news, as Gillis pointed, is players will be looking for raises after the Canucks’ season. “When you have the year we had, people are deserving of more money,” Gillis said. “We have to keep our players first, then we’ll look at other players.
“(All the Canucks’ UFAs) have been assured we’re going to get to them.”
In winning the GM award, Gillis collected 96 votes to 61 for Tampa’s Steve Yzerman and 55 to Nashville’s David Poile. Former Canucks GM Brian Burke voted for Gillis.
Interesting.
Daniel Sedin, meanwhile, was edged out by Anaheim’s Corey Perry for the Hart but was voted the league’s outstanding player by the NHLPA membership. He also won the Art Ross as the league’s leading scorer and, with brother Henrik, was named to the NHL’s first All-Star team.
In ’02-’03, the Canucks’ Markus Naslund won the same award in Daniel’s third season with the Canucks. Naslund was also beaten out for the Hart by Colorado’s Peter Forsberg.
“It meant a lot to Markus and it means a lot to me, too,” Daniel said.
“We should be happy with the guys we have on this team and the organization should be proud of our team,” he continued. “We’re going to have a lot of years going forward where we’re going to have a good team. We should be excited.”