Zdeno Chara won the Mark Messier Leadership Award and Tim Thomas surprised nobody by winning the Vezina Trophy for the second time in three years, adding two more trophies to the Bruins' loot for 2010-11.
It was, of course, not as many trophies as the Bruins should have won, because Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy for league's best defenseman, which should have been Chara's, but we're not really in an arguing mood tonight. Or at any point in the last week, for that matter.
Thomas' victory was predicted by Vancouver's Roberto Luongo, who won something because his backup goaltender was awesome for six months, but didn't actually take home any hardware himself. C'est la vie, right?
The win puts Thomas in elite company: since 1982 when the current Vezina standards were adopted, only Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek and Ed Belfour have won multiple Vezinas.
Vancouver, of course, cleaned up at the awards; Ryan Kesler won the Selke, Mike Gillis won GM of the Year, Daniel Sedin won the Art Ross and the Lindsay Trophies. What they didn't mention is that all the ballots for those awards were voted on by members of the Vancouver Police Department.
During the broadcast, CSNNE.com's Joe Haggerty broke the news that the Bruins will open next season at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, which is acceptable only under the condition that all teams from Canada, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins are disbanded.
The NHL's releasing the full schedule for next season around 2 PM tomorrow, so I'm holding off on a schedule post until then.
The 2010-11 NHL season now completely being wrapped up, what was your most memorable/favorite goal/game/moment/series from the past 12 months, and who are your closet sleepers for next year's NHL awards?