Good Luck Hank!

Tonight is the NHL Awards show. It will be on Versus for the extremely bored. While I don't care for awards shows, or Versus for that matter, there is some interest as a Ranger will be involved.

While Brandon Dubinsky got jobbed in the Calder contention (Two Blackhawks? C'mon! They were terrible and Dubi solidified the game of a slumping superstar while helping the Rangers make the playoffs. Playoffs. Remember them Chicago? Didn't think so.), Henrik Lundqvist made the final three nominees for the Vezina Trophy as best goaltender.

His competition will be fierce: Evgeni Nabokov had a helluva year while Fatso - Marty Brodeur - made it on reputation. Again.

While their goals against average were both slightly better, neither Nabby nor Fatty can claim to have put together 10 shutouts behind a defense that features such stalwarts as Marek Malik, Christian Backman, Jason Strudwick. And neither the Sharks nor the Devils played as poorly as the sloppy, chemistry-challenged Rangers did for several stretches over the season. For all of the Rangers stupid penalties, they killed 84.6 of them - two percent higher than the Devils - and you know that a team's best penalty killer is its goaltender. Granted, Nabokov led San Jose to the best p.k. in the league (NY was sixth), but I'll ignore that part. Aren't stats great??

So on that note, we wish Henrik Lundqvist the best of luck as he heads to Toronto for the third straight year as a nominee for the Vezina Trophy. Let's hope this one is the charm and he brings back the hardware to Broadway!