It was announced that Jaroslav Halak has been selected by the Montreal chapter of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association as their nominee for the Masterton Award.
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Some recent winners include Steve Sullivan, Teemu Selanne, Steve Yzerman and Saku Koivu.
Congratulations to Halak for the nomination.
On the surface, however, this seems like an odd choice. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the Montreal writers continue their love-fest for the Canadiens’ goaltender.
One writer justified the choice by arguing that Halak had overcome the “Price roadblock.”
Does that really embody the terms of the award when it was established in 1968 to commemorate the late Bill Masterton? Minnesota North Stars’ player Masterton died on January 15, 1968, after sustaining an injury during a hockey game.
The media is even willing to re-write history to support their choice. In his article on the nomination, Pat Hickey wrote “Last season, Halak was the better goaltender down the stretch, but Price started every playoff game. That won’t happen this year.” It’s a curious statement by Hickey given that Halak won ZERO starts in March 2009.
If the nomination was truly based on the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, more deserving nominees from the Canadiens would be Glenn Metropolit, Ryan O’Byrne, or Mathieu Darche.
Its unfortunate that the media focus is so singularly on Halak that others didn’t receive more serious consideration. Questioning this nomination should not be misinterpreted as criticism of Halak, but instead the media who made the selection. It should be obvious to fans who follow the team closely that the three players mentioned more closely meet the award’s stated criteria.
Nominations have not yet been announced for all teams. The early front-runners for the award appear to be David Booth, Kurtis Foster and Jose Theodore.
Anaheim: Teemu Selanne
Atlanta: Jim Slater
Boston: Mark Recchi
Calgary: Craig Conroy
Carolina: Rod Brind’Amour
Colorado: Matt Hendricks
Columbus: Jared Boll
Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom
Florida: Bryan Allen
Los Angeles: Brad Richardson
Montreal: Jaroslav Halak
Nashville: Joel Ward
New Jersey: Patrik Elias
NY Rangers: Chris Drury
Ottawa: Matt Carkner
Philadelphia: Mike Leighton
Phoenix: Vernon Fiddler
Pittsburgh: Bill Guerin
Tampa Bay: Kurtis Foster
Toronto: Jonas Gustavsson
Vancouver: Henrik Sedin
Washington: Jose Theodore