The Peerless Prognosticator: 06/13/08

Friday, June 13, 2008

Stars of Stars

The NHL all star and all-rookie teams also were announced yesterday.

Nicklas Backstrom, who finished second in the Calder Trophy voting for rookie-of-the-year, was selected to the first all-rookie team.

Alex Ovechkin was selected to the first all-NHL team for the third time in his first three years in the league. He is the first player since Terry Sawchuk (1950-51 through 1953-53) to be so honored. He is the first skater in the history of the NHL to be selected to the first all-star team in his first three full seasons. Here are the teams:

2007-2008 NHL First All-Star Team

G Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose Sharks
D Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
D Dion Phaneuf, Calgary Flames
C Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
RW Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
LW Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

2007-2008 NHL Second All-Star Team

G Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
D Brian Campbell, San Jose Sharks
D Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins
C Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks
RW Alex Kovalev, Montreal Canadiens
LW Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings

2007-2008 NHL All-Rookie Team

G Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
D Tobias Enstrom, Atlanta Thrashers
D Tom Gilbert, Edmonton Oilers
F Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals
F Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
F Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

Congratulations to all...

photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Home Team Depot

What a haul of hardware. The Capitals announced once more that they will be a team to be reckoned with in the years to come as they exited the NHL awards ceremony with five of the six major awards for which Caps were finalists (two -- the Ross and the Richard -- already belonged to Alex Ovechkin by virture of his leading the league in overall and goal scoring).

Only Nicklas Backstrom -- for the Calder Trophy -- was shutout, and one wonders if he wouldn't have won if his full 82-game results were like his last 61 (that is, after Bruce "Adams" Boudreau was behind the bench for all of it). For those keeping score -- and we do -- his last 61 games were a 17-63-80, +24 pace. But, for the record, here are your winners: