It happened even faster than I figured, but Leino has taken over the top C spot with Pominville and Vanek, while Luke Adam gets put on the wing with Derek Roy and Drew Stafford. Still, it’s not a bad place to be, as Derek Roy is a point per game guy when healthy, and Stafford can be a solid goal scorer. But it’s still not the same as being between two guys in the top 10 for scoring in the entire league. This could be a short-lived experiment if Vanek and Pominville look lost with Leino out there, but Lindy’s thinking is to get both lines going. I can’t fault him for that. Roy is an important player who hasn’t gotten going yet (1G 3A) and it’ll be interesting to see if Adam can help with that. It’s a good test to see if he’s really a benefit to his linemates, or he was simply the beneficiary of sitting between two of the best point producers on the Sabres.
Tag: Calder Watch
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Calder Watch – Luke Adam
I did this for Tyler Myers during his eventual Calder winning season, so I thought I’d bring it back for Luke Adam with his hot start. Centering Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville certainly agrees with the young man, as he is second in rookie scoring with 8 points (3G 5A). He’s getting solid minutes, including 2 minutes a game of power play time. With what amounts to the top line center role, he’s facing tough competition each night. He’s had a few offensive lapses, but it seems Lindy is going to stick with the kid through them.
Adam’s main competition for the Calder trophy so far would be Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (5G 4A) and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (4G 2A). Both have more goals early on, but what they have on Luke that would really help them is name recognition. Assuming both stay with the big club and don’t get sent back to a Junior team (where applicable), both are recent high draft picks that are highly touted. I feel Adam and other lesser known potential candidates like Craig Smith or Raphael Diaz would have to significantly outperform RNH and Landeskog to get the trophy. Still, it’s not out of the question for it to happen, especially if Adam keeps getting time between Pominville and Vanek. I’ll be updating this weekly throughout the season.
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Congratulations to Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers!
The title says it all, congratulations to Ryan Miller for winning his first Vezina trophy, along with the NHL Foundation award for his charity work. Both well-deserved honors, and I’m very happy for him. I’m also happy that some of the out-of-town media got to hear him give a speech, as he got a lot of praise for being thoughtful and articulate. It’s cool that we get to hear him all the time.
Tyler Myers took home some hardware of his own, taking the Calder trophy in a landslide. He had 94 first place votes, and the next closest was Jimmy Howard with 24. I’ve been banging the Tyler Myers for Calder drum since he made the team, so it’s pretty satisfying to see him up there towering over everyone with the trophy. Sweet.
One thing that’s always interesting is to check the voting numbers for the various awards, which you can see here. Of note:
- Miller was 4th for the Hart, with 13 1st place votes.
- Tyler Myers got 6 5th place votes for the Norris trophy.
- Jochen Hecht had a 3rd place vote and 4 5th place votes for the Selke. Grier, Connolly and Gaustad also got votes.
- Lindy Ruff had 2 2nd place and 7 3rd place votes for the Jack Adams.
All in all, an impressive showing for our boys, and you can’t help but feel the future is bright for this team. Here’s hoping for more Calder candidates, and oh yeah, a Stanley Cup in there somewhere would work.