Bergeron Wins Record-Tying Fourth Selke, Bs Lose Colin Miller In Expansion Draft, Marchand Named To First All-Star Team
Patrice Bergeron joined some pretty exclusive company last night when he tied Canadiens HOFer Bob Gainey with his fourth Selke Trophy win. Gainey was the key shutdown man for perhaps the greatest team in any sport, the 1970’s Montreal Canadiens, and won five Cups and a Conn Smythe as well.
Bergy has won the award in ’12, ’14, ’15, and ’17. No other active NHLer has more than one (Kesler, Toews, Kopitar). The Selke is given to the “top defensive forward” and while not the sexiest award, it recognizes the equally important defensive component to the game. Unlike the Norris Trophy.
By joining Gainey, Bergeron’s legacy just grows even larger and more people become aware of what kind of player and guy he is. Congrats to #37. Now let’s get him another Cup.
As expected, the Las Vegas Golden Knights scooped up Colin Miller in the expansion draft. Bruins Twitter bitches about everything but they were going overboard last night, accusing the team of “letting a guy walk for nothing”. Um, yeah. That’s how expansion drafts work. Your owner gets a shitload of money and you lose a guy from your roster. Shit, the Bs are lucky that GM George McPhee wan’t horny for somebody else on the roster and got to hold them hostage for more loot.
Others were pissy that the Bs protected the other Miller (Kevan) citing the 5 year age gap. Miller was a late bloomer and 26 when he made the NHL. He has just 217 NHL games played for a guy who will turn 30 one month into the season. In other words, he hardly has tread on his tires. And the team certainly got their $2.5M worth out of their tough-as-nails D-man down the stretch and especially in the playoffs, where he averaged more than 25 minutes a game.
Colin Miller was a 5th round pick in 2012 who came to Boston highly-touted and appeared to be on the precipice of becoming a regular in the NHL. But in two seasons here (103 career games, just 114 fewer than Kevan) under two coaches and with numerous jobs up for grabs at various times, Miller couldn’t seize a regular role with a golden opportunity. He showed some nice offensive flair at times but could be a disaster in his own end and failed to grasp a Top-4 spot by the balls. After so many years, “upside” just becomes who you are.
His loss is surely cushioned by Charlie McAvoy’s emergence in the playoffs. With McAvoy and Brandon Carlo penciled in on the top two spots on the right side, Miller was likely looking at third-pair and PP2 minutes even if he was back next season. While he may still blossom in the Nevada desert (he’ll turn 25 the first month of the season), he just didn’t show the Bs enough in two seasons to make him one of three defensemen to protect and the Bs were willing to lose him. The Bs will be fine without him.
Brad Marchand was named to the NHL’s First All-Star Team as the LW with Connor McDavid in the middle and Pat Kane on the right side, Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on D, and Sergei Bobrovsky in the cage. Pretty good feather in the cap for Marchy. He come a long way in six years, from a fourth-line rabble-rouser to one of the league’s premier forwards. Expect nothing less than another killer year from him.
Adidas dropped their much-anticipated unis to mild fanfare, which is a good thing. Because nothing really needed fixing or a major overhaul just for major overhaul’s (read: money) sake. Except for that awful Ducks logo. And throw in that Orca-C atrocity in British Columbia, too. But it was mostly tweaks and minor color changes, like the names and numbers on the backs of the Bruins sweaters getting rid of the never-needed black stripe. Adidas also got rid of that awful piping.
Although they haven’t played a game there yet, hockey in Vegas has certainly felt like a rousing success thus far. The expansion draft gave fans and media something fun to do, play fantasy along with McPhee and select their own expansion roster from what 30 other teams were offering. The enthusiasm for a new NHL franchise and it being the first of the four majors in Las Vegas and all that entails seems genuine. I wasn’t crazy about the logo when we first saw it but I think the jersey looks pretty sweet on an actual player. Unveiling VGK’s picks was certainly one way to get people to tune into the NHL Awards (seriously, why is it such a shitshow every year?). And with a new process, Gerard Gallant, a legit #1, and many more moves to be made, the Golden Knights will certainly be much more competitive than many of their expansion forebears. I, for one, welcome the Las Vegas Golden Knights to the NHL and the blog world. Good luck, gents.