Mulling over the TBRW Awards

[Will]

I'd like to add another Honorable Mention for the Belanger to Dan Murphy.  As I already said in my notes on the game, this guy just wouldn't call Hitting from Behind or Roughing for either team, when it was plainly obvious to everyone else what was going on.

[atb9]

Sammy Paolini, good to great?  How about not good to great?  If he were a football player, he would have been redshirted his freshman year since he barely knew how to skate but then again, I don't think many football players are good skaters...  ;-)



Post Edited (02-29-04 21:40)

[Greg Berge]

I'm going by my finest "I told you so" moment, which is that I feverishly argued with everybody all through his freshman year that he had an excellent upside if he could only earn the ice.  Nya, nya, I knew more than anybody.  :-}

(OK, I also said the same thing the very first shift I saw Joe, but so did half the people in the building. :-D  )

[rhovorka]

+ Peter Natyshak Award, Career Improvement - Tough award.  I'm going to say Greg Hornby just from his transition from being an "unguided missle" his freshman year to being a "guided missle."  His relentless hitting added an entertaining dimension to this team early in his career, but he developed into someone we can trust handling the puck, and someone we can count on for all-out hustle.  Half of his '02-'03 goals were GWG.  Consider he has less PIM this year (30 in 29 games) than he did in his freshman year (38 in 5 ECAC games); he has become a very disciplined, efficient, and valuable enforcer.

+ Randy MacFarlane Award, Transcendent Beauty and Skating Prowess - Seeing that Cook and Vesce rightly have enough support here, I'm going to throw out Cam Abbott's name.  How many really expected this guy to have several breakaways?  A tough guy who can skate and split defenses?  I think that's a beautiful thing.

+ Dave Shippel Award, Scrappiness and Effort - I've flip-flopped often on this.  As time was winding down vs. Clarkson, I saw Greg Hornby dive to get the puck out of the zone.  He never can be criticized for lack of effort.  However, I'm going to cast my vote for Mike Knoepfli.  He gets absolutely pounded in the corners every game, and stands up to the abuse as well as he takes it.  Be it holding the puck on the PK for as long as it takes, or being a human target on the low-cycle, I get the feeling he'll do whatever it takes for betterment of the team.

+ Terry Gage Award, Determination in a Supporting Role - Jon Gleed.  With the defensive losses, CU needed someone to fill some huge skates.  Gleed did just that, despite suffering a big injury.

+ Mike Schafer Award, Leadership and Passion - Vesce and Wallace. There's a reason the rest of the team gave them those letters.

+ Pierre Belanger Award, Most Loathed Referee - Whether the rest of the league saw it as whining or not, Schafer had a point about Joel Dupree in January.  Looking from an unbiased perspective, Scott Hansen's answer in the Colgate game was pretty interesting.  I'm in the minority of thinking the overall reffing wasn't too horrible this year.  Really, I want to give it to whomever decreed that there must be at least 1 "contact to the head" modifier-penalty called every game.  Even though it doesn't mean anything significant, it annoys me.  It's right up there with the overuse of the "obstruction" qualifier the first year that existed.  (And I still think "obstruction interference" is redundant)

+ John Carter Award, Most Respected Opponent - No question.  Dave Steckel, Ohio State.  He was terrific in all aspects of his play at Lynah: faceoffs, defense, offense.  3 points, including the game-winner with under 1 minute left.  Oy.  I was thrilled he didn't play in the Everblades Final.  Thrilled.  (in-league, I'll give a surprise nod to Yale's Christian Jensen, who really impressed me at Lynah)

+ Kevan Melrose Award, Least Respected Opponent - I almost abstained from this.  I'd like to give it to every media member/coach who continues to perpetuate the myth that "all Cornell does is clutch-and-grab."  I'll give it to the two Bowling Green players who couldn't even dive without getting penalized for it.  I mean, you really have to be a bad actor to get called for diving at this level.  So Brett Pilkington and Kevin Bieksa, BGSU, this one is for you.  (In-league vote: Steve Silverthorn, Colgate.  A goaltender jumping into a fight is some good theater, and we appreciate you taking the DQ, but that didn't win any sportsmanship points.  Of course, I still think Noah Welch is an overrated putz.)

+ Doug Dadswell Award, Most Valuable Freshman - Dave McKee.  Talk about big skates to fill.  Byron Bitz plays like a sophomore, but you can't not give this award to McKee.  7 straight down the stretch allowing 1 or fewer goals more than made up for the offensive woes.

+ Joe Nieuwendyk Award, Most Valuable Player -  Ryan Vesce.  The face-off skills alone are worth more to me than repeating his '03 offensive numbers.  Played through injury, and I'll never forget the game he played in New Jersey this season.  Defensively underrated.  Always one of the first forwards back to play defense as well.  Great player to watch play, and a very worthy Captain.  Honorable mention: Matt Moulson, who seemed to be in the middle of many huge plays this year, including 4 GWG and 2 GTG.  Mr. Clutch.