Did anyone really expect anything different? The 2023 NHL Awards where awkward and disjointed in classic hockey players fashion as the Boston Bruins and Connor McDavid pretty much swept all the categories.
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk or anything, but there’s really no set of athletes in the world more awkward in front of a camera than hockey players.
The 2023 NHL Awards have come and gone and as everyone could have guessed, the regular season record-breaking Boston Bruins and Connor McDavid dominated the award show with both parties collectively picking up 5 of the 11 awards awarded last night. And, as I’ve said three times now, there really wasn’t any surprises with the winners.
If you thought the NHL Awards were going to host all sorts of surprises and upset winners, you were sorely mistaken as every single favorite won their, respective, award. Now, unlike a draft lottery that is hyped up as being…a lottery, the NHL Awards really should go to the best player in each awards’ particular category.
And that’s exactly what happened as Connor McDavid obviously won the Hart Trophy, Art Ross, Rocket Richard, and Ted Lindsay Awards as he finished with the most goals (64), assists (89), and points (153) scored this past season, Patrice Bergeron won his 6th and record-breaking Selke Trophy, Jim Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award as he won an NHL-record 65 wins this season with Boston, Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy with an NHL-best 40 wins, 1.89 GAA, and .938 SV%, and Erik Karlsson won the Norris Trophy as he was the first defenseman since Brian Leech to score 100 points in a season.
Of course, there were other winners like Anze Koptiar picking up the Lady Bing, Kris Letang winning the Bill Masterton, Steven Stamkos winning the Mark Messier, Matty Beiners winning the Calder, Mikael Backlund winning the King Clancy, the Willie O’Ree Award going to Dean Smith and Jason McCrimmon, and the E.J. McGuire Award going to Conor Bedard…even though he’s never played a game in the NHL yet, but the major ones were the first few I listed.
And, seeing as how Connor McDavid blew away the league in scoring as he outscored Leon Draisaitl (128 PTS) by 25 points and the Bruins had record-breaking tally of wins (65) and points (135), it made sense they won a decent chunk of awards (and maybe a majority if Bruins GM Don Sweeney wins the GM of the Year Award) and were vastly represented on the All-Star teams (5/10 Bruins and Oilers players were on the First and Second All-Star teams).
Nevertheless, what really stood out to me at the NHL Awards night was how awkward and tense nearly every single hockey player looks whenever they’re on camera in a setting outside of their locker rooms or the rink.
There was SO MANY awkward segments (aka: Connor McDavid and that kid talking about his fiancée, Pekka Rinne trying to hype of a dead Nashville crowd, Jack Hughes interview), weird on-stage transitions, really corny jokes (sorry, Sarah Nurse, but you may have had some of the worst), and just a generally deadpan audience…which was made up of hockey players, executives, coaches, etc.
I’m not saying these people need to have the stage presence of comedians, theater actors, or people of that ilk, but at least have a little more personality than a 15-year-old giving a presentation on polar bears in front of his 10th grade environmental class.
I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter and online giving a lot a crap to the TNT crew (Paul Bissonette, Wayne Gretzky, Henrik Lundqvist, Anson Carter, Liam McHugh, and Rick Tocchet) for being a little stiff on-air at times, but they’re 300X better than 99% of the hockey community when it comes to stage presence.
Anyways, congratulations to all the winners and I can’t wait for Connor McDavid to sweep the Hart, Art Ross, and Ted Lindsay awards next season…and the next season, and the season after that for the next 10 years.
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