Why don’t you suck my reputation you dingleberry.  Datsyuk actually is a good player.  Chara is actually plays defense, unlike Green.  Another piece of garbage from TPSH.  You SUCK.

Posted by yreland from Paul MacLean's Moustache on 06/19/09 at 04:03 AM ET

Again, the problem that I have is that your writing comes off not as “this is my oppinion” and more as “I know everything”.  You can’t tell me that voters voted one way or another for certain unless you’ve actually spoken to any of them.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/19/09 at 06:40 AM ET

Commenting in this thread so I can read all the ensuing insults regarding another poorly constructed and poorly executed post from TPSH via email rather than having to give him extra clicks.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 06/19/09 at 06:48 AM ET

TPSH

I a bit mystified by your comments on the Lady Byng. How can you argue Datsyuk wins in on past seasons???

Criteria – “The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.”

Now I’ll admit I rarely watch Tampa Bay so I suppose I‘ll just compare penalty minutes which is usually I would imagine most voters look at for the first bit (gentlemanly conduct).

PD - 22
MSL – 14

So while it is true St Louis edged out Datsyuk on penalty minutes the question is the second half of the award the high standard of ability. In this case Datsyuk beats St Louis in every number I can find (basic – points, +/- etc.) or more dramatically in things like your own cited (previous post) adjusted +/-, quality of competition. Clearly St Louis played on a worse team perhaps, but as you yourself have noted many times Datsyuk played in front worse starting goaltender.

Overall it seems to me Datsyuk soundly bested St Louis in the second category and his PMs have been fairly constant around 20-22. So I guess you could argue St Louis perhaps recognition for lower his PM total, I don’t buy the Datsyuk won on reputation argument – he only a few more penalties than St Louis and yet more a far better season in terms of points and defensive responsibility.

Posted by Paul on 06/19/09 at 11:09 AM ET

One more thing to consider is that of the top 4 candidates for the LB everyone but St Louis recorded over 60 hits (at nhl.com) vs. 17 for St Louis. That is a significant difference in terms of initiating contact and not getting penalized.

Also Datsyuk has by and away the best Face-off % of any of the top 4 candidates.

Posted by Paul on 06/19/09 at 11:23 AM ET

Paul (1st Paul)

You gave the reason why I picked St Louis over Datsyuk for the Lady Byng and then shrugged it off as a minor thing (when it isn’t).  For a sportsmanship trophy, it is quite significant that St Louis had 14 PIMs and Datsyuk had 22.  Datsyuk actually had 57% more PIMs than St Louis did.  A season as good as St Louis had with as few PIMs is very rare.  The last time a player came close to a point per game and had as few PIMs it was Brad Richards in 2003/04 and Richards won the Byng doing it.  In fact, St Louis had about 200 more minutes of ice time this season in recording the significantly less PIM total.  That is significant.

If you are trying to convince me that Pavel Datsyuk had a better season than Martin St Louis, you are wasting your time.  He did.  Anyone reasonable would say that.  Datsyuk was one of about a dozen players in the league who outplayed St Louis.  That said, St Louis had a very good season.  Getting 80 points and a positve +/- rating (+4) with all the things that went wrong in Tampa Bay last year is quite an achievement.  He certainly didn’t have much support from his team either on or off the ice.  St Louis deserved to be the second all star right winger.  He outscored Marian Hossa (who got that position) with far less support from his team.

I think Datsyuk won because he won the last three years in a row and because he plays in Detroit which is a much more relevant city to the media than Tampa Bay in today’s NHL.  Datsyuk’s season may have been better than those that have won the Lady Byng in the past in terms of his playing level, but he was beaten quite significantly in the sportsmanship area by a player who also had a very good season.  It was Datsyuk’s reputation as reigning Byng winner and as a player on a more newsworthy team that turned the tides in his favor.

Posted by PuckStopsHere on 06/19/09 at 01:19 PM ET

“If you are trying to convince me that Pavel Datsyuk had a better season than Martin St Louis, you are wasting your time.  He did. “

I’m not trying to do that so much as question the one dimensional over weight to just PMs as a measure of gentlemanly play and just focusing on that half of the equation/criteria for the award.

Yes St Louis did mange less penalty minutes than Datsuk this year but as I added I think its telling that he also all but stopped hitting this year, while Datsyuk very much added to his hit total this year out hitting St Louis by around 4:1. That seems striking to me in terms of judging Gentlemanly play – Datsyuk increased his contact game notably over past years yet managed very much his typical 4 year PM norm, St Louis finally dipped below Datsyuk but seemingly at the cost of not hitting…

I’m not sure I buy pointing to Tampa as a team either; they were bad last year as well. By the same token Detroit (as a team) had a worse GA, worse PK, and poorer goal tending, than the year before as well so I call Tampa going from bad to some what more bad a wash.

On balance I guess what I’m getting at is that given the tiny amount of PMs by all the 4 finalist the difference between them is easy inflated by what amounts to 4 penalties and still has to balance against the second half of the trophy – ‘a high standard of playing ability’. Datsyuk clearly demonstrated an across the board better standard of playing ability at the cost of only 4 more penalties.

Posted by Paul on 06/19/09 at 02:24 PM ET