While the NHL has already revealed many of its award winners, there are still five awards being handed out today. The first of those is the Ted Lindsay Award which the league announced was won by Avalanche winger Nathan MacKinnon. The award is presented annually to “the most outstanding player in the NHL,” as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA.
This was the third time that the 28-year-old was a finalist for the award (2017-18 and 2019-20 were the others) but he is a first-time winner. MacKinnon blew past his previous career bests this season, scoring 51 goals and 89 assists; his 140 points were second-most in the NHL while setting a franchise record in the process. Not surprisingly, he led all Avalanche forwards in ice time.
MacKinnon had a 35-game home point streak, the second-longest streak in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky. He also led all scorers in even-strength points (92) and shots on goal (405), also new career highs. He becomes the second player in franchise history to win the award, joining Joe Sakic, who won back in 2000-01.
The other finalists for the award were Toronto’s Auston Matthews (who led the NHL in goals) and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (who tied for the league lead in assists while recording the most points). Edmonton’s Connor McDavid won the award last year but didn’t quite make the top three in player balloting.
Best player in the league at present.
Honestly, I felt the players would have picked Nikita Kucherov to win the Ted Lindsay Award as he was the points leader for well over 110 days where MacKinnon was only around 30 days for starters. Kucherov to me just had the better season than MacKinnon. Unfortunately, Kucherov doesn’t get the same respect compared to guys like McDavid, MacKinnon, Matthews & such.
MacKinnon is going to win the Hart Trophy primarily because the writer’s association has been favoring him since December & claiming he’s “due” which shouldn’t be the reason to award someone as it should be earned (not saying MacKinnon didn’t) but voting should be on merit not favors.
People value 5 on 5 production over PP production. That’s where the merit comes from.
lol you make it sound like Kucherov only makes his points on the PP. Kucherov was involved in over 50% of TBL’s scoring (whether it’s goals or assists) which is only the 3rd time in the last 2 decades for a player to do that (McDavid did the other 2 times). You don’t get that kind of number just from PP.
Not saying MacKinnon doesn’t have the merit but the reality is favoritism plays into these things especially among the writers.
Get over it man. You said in your other post that you weren’t saying he didn’t earn it, but then you turn around and say he has the merit but still shouldn’t have won it. Sounds like a butt hurt tampa fan
Homer crying about the writers’ bias but he won both the players and media vote.
Kucherov/Lightning fan here. Let’s show some respect here. MacKinnon has been the best player in the league this season. Period. Congratulations to a well deserved award.
End of the season awards should be an event to celebrate hockey and all the talent that make it unique.
LOL. All 3 guys nominated had merit for the award genius. I never said he “didn’t earn it”. Learn some reading comprehension. I said writers shouldn’t give an award because he’s “due”. Many writers already picked MacKinnon to win many months prior to the end of the season. That pretty much says they were picking MacKinnon no matter what the end results were. This isn’t a knock on MacKinnon but on the writers. Don’t be so ignorant.
You’ve missed my point entirely (not surprised) but I guess you just want to be a keyboard warrior instead. Whatever…
Whatever…
And you just want to a keyboard fanboy
, give it up already!
Which writers told you this? It sounds like you have spoken to several and they told you who they were voting for and when they decided right?
And as @Grocery Stick said, he won the players vote too.
You seem like the type of person who isn’t happy unless you have a reason to gripe, so you manufacture your own reasons just to whine.
Also, I was referencing your parenthesis from an earlier post you made “(not saying MacKinnon didn’t)” I wasn’t saying that you claimed he did not earn it, I was stating that your issue with the whole thing was hypocritical of your own words.
Maybe you can sit next to me in reading comprehension 101 and I’ll dumb down the lessons for you, since you are having such a difficult time understanding.