SBNation Mid-Season NHL Awards

well he’d probably at least have a winning record then…19-14-5-1 (so 19-20) sure doesn’t sound like the kind of record a Vezina canidate should have, especially considering he isn’t in the top ten in any of the major statistical categories….if Jimmy wanted to get a Ranger on his list he should have included the Hart, at least you can make a case for Gaborik without seeming like an ABSOLUTLY blind home town fan

Without Miller, Buffalo would be in the toilet.

If he had a league average SV% (i’m using .915 since that’s what 15-17th place has right now, which is right in the middle, rather than doing the sum total of all shots) , Buffalo goes from +22 in goal differential (6th in the league) down to -1 (16th in the league) Since teams roughly fall into the standings of goal differential, that’s a pretty big leap.

Or if you believe in GVT (goals versus threshold) as an indicator, Miller’s hands down the #1 goalie in the league. That would also give you Ovechkin as the MVP, with H. Sedin, Crosby and Gaborik right on his tail, and Duncan Keith as your Norris winner.

if you check with the Hockey Hall of Fame……

In 1981-82, the trophy’s definition changed. The Williams M. Jennings Trophy was introduced for the goalkeeper with the lowest goals-against average, while the Vezina Trophy then became an award for the goaltender judged to be the best at his position in the opinion of the general managers. The first Vezina Trophy went to George Hainsworth, who, ironically, replaced Georges Vezina in goal for the Montreal Canadiens.

But personally I think you can build a stronger case that Miller in Buffalo or Bryzgalov in Phoenix are more valuable to thier teams than Lundqvist to the Rangers if that’s how you want to go, I mean if you combine Buffalo’s two leading scorers they only have 13 more combined points than Gaborik has on his own and Phoenix’s top two scorers only have 1 more point combined than Gaborik……..granted Buffalo has a more balanced attack than the Rangers, but your talking about – if any one player was removed from a team right…..the post by Ranger Smurf makes some good points on this as well.