Congratulations to Nicklas Lidstrom for winning his 5th Norris Trophy and Pavel Datsyuk for winning his second Lady Byng Trophy Thursday, June 14 at the annual NHL Awards. Lidstrom is in an elite class of his own and Datsyuk is one of the most electrifying players to lace up the skates in the NHL today. Both had stellar seasons. The NHL doesn't have an award for "Toughest S.O.B." but if it did, Tomas Holmstrom would surely claim that hardware.

Speaking of Red Wings, the pieces are starting to come together for next year. Chelios just signed a one-year contract and Hasek announced his return for another run. Signing Chelios is a bargain. He makes under a million dollars, plays with a warrior mentality, and is a great teacher for the younger kids. And obviously Hasek coming back is huge. The Dominator was stellar all last season and won't claim much salary, allowing the Red Wings to go after free agents.


The National Champs
The 2007 National Champions of college hockey have garnered a lot of attention state-wide. One of the first things I remember in my time interning on Mackinac so far was a co-worker from the sister paper here telling me how awesome that game was. Granted this person is a U-M fan and a CMU grad.

Matt Bishop, who is currently interning for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), told me that the Spartans are slated to visit the White House sometime in June and that Rick Comley threw out the first pitch at a Tigers game a few weeks ago. Apparently, the crowd gave him a great ovation that impressed first-base coach Andy Van Slyke.

Snoop
In a previous post I mentioned how great a CBC interview with rapper Snoop Dogg was at an Anaheim Ducks hockey game. Below is the link to the video. It's a can't miss.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EbOomu0mo-Y