Morning Skate: Projections

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

It’s also another game-free day for the Bruins, though the team is expected to return to practice today after a couple of deserved days off.

The Seattle Kraken will be in town tomorrow, so until then...you get to chill.

As many of the league’s teams cross the official halfway mark of the season, we’re starting to see some “who’s going to win the major NHL awards” articles, a midseason staple (along with trade rumors, of course).

From a Bruins perspective, the two clearest shots for the team to take home any major hardware are the Jack Adams Award and the Vezina Trophy.

(Excluding the obvious case of Patrice Bergeron being in the running for the Patrice Bergeron Selke Trophy.)

Barring some kind of spectacular late-season collapse, you have to figure Jim Montgomery is essentially a lock for the Adams.

It’ll be interesting to see how the voters twist themselves into knots to not vote for Montgomery (“he inherited a good team” or “the Bruins were supposed to be good” are my bets).

The Athletic, sure to anger many here, released their midseason projections yesterday and placed Linus Ullmark fourth in the Vezina, which...yeah.

I certainly understand the use of some of the more advanced measurements, but sometimes, when it looks like the best goalie, walks like the best goalie, quacks like the best goalie...it’s the best goalie.

Interestingly, that same Athletic piece placed Hampus Lindholm second in the Norris rankings, citing his outstanding defensive numbers.

Anyways, these are all subject to change with half a season left to play, but they’re fun to argue about regardless.

Today’s discussion topic

Argue about postseason awards when it’s entirely too early to bother, it’ll be fun!