Last night, members of the Boston Bruins were recognized for their achievements during the 2014-15 season. The Bruins handed out awards for skills on the ice, and the team revealed who were the Three Stars of the Season. Here’s a break down of the awards and see if you agree with the choices of this year’s recipients.
The Eddie Shore Award is awarded to the Bruins player that displays the most hustle and determination throughout the season. This year’s winner was Milan Lucic. I got to be honest, I really can’t agree with this one. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and even Loui Eriksson showed more drive than a noticeably slower Lucic.
Lucic had trouble finding his game for a good part of the season. It wasn’t until he was paired with a pair of AHL players did he truly find his stride. The addition of Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak helped the veteran winger to find the game he couldn’t seem to find earlier in the season.
The Bruins then awarded the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy. This award was voted on by members of the Boston chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. It went to the player that had the best performance during home games. The hockey writers chose Tuukka Rask as this year’s winner.
Rask did have an impressive stretch at the TD Garden this year. Rask went 21-8-6 in the thirty-five home games he played. His goals against average at home was an impressive 2.03, and put up a solid .930 save percentage. Rask put up two shutouts while playing before the home crowd.
Puck Prose
The final big award was the John P. Bucyk award(Bucyk himself was given award by the leaders of the Bruins team for his fifty-eight years of service to the Bruins organization). The award given by “The Chief” himself, goes to a player who dedicates a lot of his off-time to charitable organizations.
This year’s award was given to Princess Elsa, er… Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton has made the rounds all around the Boston area, visiting hospitals, cancer wards, and in all doing good wherever he could. It’s nice to see one of the younger players get this. (We can’t have Patrice Bergeron being the perpetual Patron Saint of Causeway Street can we?)
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While these awards are important, the fans usually clamor most over who will be the Bruins’ Three Stars of the season. This year, the B’s got it absolutely right.
The Bruins Third Star of the Year went to Brad Marchand. He’s tied for the lead in goals (22). He’s tied for fifth in overall scoring (40), and leads the team in penalty minutes (95). While Marchand had a few rough spells during the season, he was one of the players that was consistently there for the Bruins every night.
The Bruins Second Star went to Tuukka Rask. While Rask didn’t have the season he had last year, he still put up some impressive numbers this season for the Black and Gold. He currently has thirty-four wins (tied for seventh), a .924 save percentage (tied for fourth), and a 2.27 goals against average(tied for eighth).
Rask has been one of the players that have kept the team centered as they have clawed their way back into playoff contention.
The Bruins First Star of the Season is given to the player who is considered to be the best of what the Bruins have to offer. No surprise it went to Patrice Bergeron.
Bergeron has been the total leader on and off the ice for the Bruins. He became the visible leader of the Black and Gold when Zdeno Chara went down with an injury. He has played consistent hockey the entire season, and he leads the team in overall scoring with fifty-four points. He’s also the only Bruin that has put more than two hundred shots on goal this season.
The Boston Bruins have only one award left to collect this year, and it’s still available to them if they want it bad enough.