Connor McDavid Robbed by Auston Matthews
Auston Matthews was nominated for an award - when it should have been Connor McDavid nominated instead.
Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports - Connor McDavid Robbed by Auston MatthewsEDMONTON -- With the playoffs comes award season.
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Although the Edmonton Oilers begin their second round series tonight against the Vancouver Canucks - the NHL has been revealing the finalists for every award that can be voted on. Yesterday the Hart Trophy nominees came out. Today, it was the Ted Lindsay award.
Connor McDavid found himself as a Hart nominee yesterday - yet mysteriously left in the dust for the Ted Lindsay award today. The three nominees for the Ted Lindsay award are Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews.
Now the major difference between these two awards is two-fold. For starters, the Hart is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association and the Ted Lindsay is voted on by the players. Secondly, the Hart is for most valuable to their team while Ted Lindsay is for outstanding player.
Personally, I believe Connor Hellebuyck should have been nominated for the Hart while McDavid should have been nominated for the Ted Lindsay. I don't have the time to get into the Hart trophy debate with this piece - but here are my thoughts on the Ted Lindsay.
Matthews is not more skilled than McDavid. Is Matthews a better shooter? Clearly the answer is yes. But also, he only scored five more goals this season than McDavid did last year. McDavid is a better passer, and possesses better skills with the puck at high speeds (and virtually all speeds).
What's more impressive - scoring 60+ goals or gathering 100 assists? Considering that way less players have gotten 100 assists than 60 goals, I'd wager it's the assist benchmark that is more difficult to attain.
I'd be curious to see where exactly McDavid fell in terms of the Ted Lindsay voting - to be honest, it feels like he was nominated for the wrong award. I'm also not sure how someone with 25 less points than McDavid gets nominated for an outstanding player award ahead of McDavid?
Inquiring minds want to know.
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