Adam Hartog Hockey Award

Award: Gary Bettman Award
For: Worst Management

Nominees:

1. New York Islanders- About thirty people on Long Island actually know they exist. 27 out of those 30 people don't know what the Islanders are

2. Philadelphia Flyers- Getting an all-star goalie, good. Giving away your two best players (one the captain and the other an alternate captain) to get that goalie, bad

3. Atlanta Thrashers- Ran the team into the ground, and out of the country

AND THE WINNER IS...

ATLANTA THRASHERS

Adam Hartog Hockey Award

Award: Islanders Fishsticks Award
For: Worst Jersey

Nominees:

1. Colorado Avalanche- Only the name of the team on the front and only the players name and number on the back. We know what team you are, you can put something cooler on your jersey

2. Dallas Stars- It says Dallas. Nothing else

3. Oilers.- About two different colors. You couldn't even afford to have the stripe go al the way around the jersey

AND THE WINNER IS...

DALLAS STARS

Adam Hartog Hockey Award

Award: Phoenix Coyotes Award
For: No Business Being In a Team's Current Location

Nominees:

1. Phoenix Coyotes- Do they even know what ice is in Phoenix?

2. Atlanta Thrashers- Unknown about by people living in Atlanta. Left the country

3. New York Islanders- Long Islanders don't know that the Isles are there. The few that do don't know what they are, however

AND THE WINNER IS...

PHOENIX COYOTES

Adam Hartog Hockey Award

Award: Alexei Yashin Award

For: Most Overpaid Player

Nominees:

1. Scott Gomez- 7 goals in 82 games, yet getting paid $7.357 million until 2014

2. Ilya Kovalchuk- 31 goals in 81 games played, and still making $6.667 million until 2025

3. Vincent Lecavalier- 25 goals in 65 games played. Making $7.727 until 2020

4. Rick DiPietro- A beyond injury prone nightmare for the Islanders. Has played 39 games in over THREE years. Still making $4.5 million until 2021

AND THE WINNER IS...

RICK DIPIETRO

Adam Hartog Hockey Award

Award: New York Rangers Award
For: Most Overrated Team

Nominees:


1. San Jose Sharks- Every year this team has what it takes to win the Cup, or at least get to the finals. Every year, they fall short. They make it far and do well compared to most teams, but coming close is never, ever good enough. Yet, people still choose them as the favorite to win it all, despite constant failure.

2. Philadelphia Flyers- They almost completed the puzzle. They were so close. They had a scoring offense the best defense in the league, but not enough strength in net. They had a young star in Sergei Bobrovsky, and luckily they kept him. Instead of signing Thomas Voukoun, they had to get Ilya Bryzgalov. He is an amazing goalie, but to get him they had to give away their two biggest stars and team leaders. Big mistake

3. Washington Capitals- We are just about to enter the 6th straight season in which the Caps are predicted to win the Stanley Cup, and we are all still waiting for them to make it pas the second round of the playoffs. They never seem to disappoint the doubters. Their players need to understand that just because the weather starts to get warm, doesn't mean the season's over. They need to show up to one or two playoff games

AND THE WINNER IS...

THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Adam Hartog Hockey Awards

Award: Mark Streit Award
For: Most overrated player
Nominees:


1. Henrik Sedin- Has great regular seasons, but disappears during the playoffs. Good, but nowhere near good enough.

2. Daniel Sedin- See above

3. Roberto Luongo- Starting to see a pattern here. All three nominees are on the same team. They are all nominated for the same reason.

AND THE WINNER IS...

ROBERTO LUONGO

Adam Hartog Hockey Awards

Starting today, Adam Hartog Hockey will be giving out the 2011 Adam Hartog Hockey Awards. They will be posted on this site for you to read and feel free to leave your responses. Don't forget though, all comments must be approved before they appear on this website.

Should Sidney Crosby Be Taken High In Fantasy Hockey?

Right now, it is hard to tell. With no time table for his recovery, no one has any idea when he will return to on ice competition. If he is able to return to full health by the month of November, I would take him in the top 3. Once he gets back, he will be returning to the form that had him on pace to set career highs last year, until he got injured exactly halfway through the season. Despite playing half the time of most people, he still managed to finish 30th out of about 1,000 NHL players. Anyway, once he returns he will be playing on a line with a healthy Evegni Malkin, and James Neal. Neal was criticized for under-performing after he was brought in at the trade deadline by Penguins GM Ray Shero but don't forget he has never played with Crosby and/or Malkin, so his point total will also increase, meaning Crosby's most likely will to. If Crosby does not return before the month of December, I would say take him in the 2nd or third round of the draft. If Crosby is ready to play and at full health by the start of the season and is in the form he was in last year, don't be surprised if he manages to rack up 117 points, or something around their. But as I said before, with no time table for his return, it is impossible to tell what do do with him once it comes time to draft your fantasy team.

Can the 'Nucks Bounce Back?

They were so close. The Vancouver Canucks came within one game of winning the Stanley Cup, something that has never been accomplished in the 41 year history of the Canadian based organization. One game, four goals. Yes, coming so close and failing, not to mention on your own home ice, is heartbreaking, but don't forget, everyone gets over it eventually. The veteran Canucks still have most of the roster that won them the Presidents Trophy (1st place in the league) with a 117 point regular season intact, and they will be back with more motivation. Coming so close makes people want to work so much harder to get to that point that eluded them only months ago. The Canucks witnessed two groups of people parading around on the Rogers Arena ice in the past two year. One was team Canada winning the gold medal in the Olympics and the other was the Boston Bruins in June parading around while hoisting hockey's holy grail over their heads (just pointing out that when Bruins captain Zdeno Chara held e Cup, it was the highest that it has ever been, 6'10"). Although some of the Canucks were on the Canadian team that won the gold in 2010, none of them were celebrating a Stanley Cup victory this year. The Canucks still have Roberto Luongo, whose stellar play earned him a Vezina Trophy nominee for league's best goalie (although he did lose to Bruins goalie Tim Thomas), and Luongo will most likely be great again in net for the Vancouver team. That is in the regular season. Come playoffs, Luongo's play tends to slip a bit, most notably this past postseason. If his playoff performance does not start to improve , the Stanley Cup Runners-up will have a tough time getting anywhere, and Luongo could even be in danger of losing his job to Cory Schneider, who is a reliable goalie that also performed marvelously when called upon in the regular season and the playoffs.

Adam Hartog Hockey Now Hiring

Adam Hartog Hockey, an award winning hockey blog, is now hiring new employees. This is your chance to join a company that started with one person writing on their computer in their home office, to a large operation that consists of many writers and journalists all composing stories from the Adam Hartog Hockey main office. Apply for the job by emailing the president of the company, Adam Hartog, at adamhartog@rocketmail.com.

NHL 12 Demo

I just downloaded the NHL 12 demo. It is free, and is available for download on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 marketplaces. There are only a few things to do on the demo, but everything will be available to use on the actual game. On the demo, I played a standard game. That EA Ultimate League are the only things to on the game. You can only play as two teams, the Boston Bruins, or the Vancouver Canucks (the two teams that played in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final). Vancouver is automatically the home team, and Boston the away team. That cannot be changed in the demo. You can change the jerseys (only to either home or away), and the standard settings (being difficulty, camera view, and sound effects). You cannot change the roster, the line change settings, or the shot aim (being automatic and manual). The game is played only in the third period, with whatever team you are playing as being down 2-0 at the start. You can either come back and win in regulation, or send the game to overtime. From there you can either score the OT winner, or send the game a step further to the shootout. That is pretty much a basic overview of what I know about the demo so far, but I did not play the EAUHL yet.

NHL 12- They're Back!

NHL 12 has a new feature that makes it different from other NHL games. That feature, is legends! Returning to the game will be such legends such as Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Ray Bourque, and Mark Messier. There are more past superstars that will be in the game, those are just a few. Although in some of the past NHL games you could input the name of a legend in the Create a Player mode and the game would automatically create a player with the skill they had in their playing days, this will be the first NHL video game to feature the legends already created and ready to play with. It will be interesting to see if they make legends untouchable, or if they will have trouble keeping up with today's stars, and if they will have trouble or ease in scoring on today's goalies. Also, it might be fun to create a current all star team to use in a game against an all legends team. Anyway, that will be one new feature in the game that is set to release on September 13.

Adam Hartog Hockey Magazine

Adam Hartog Hockey, an award winning hockey blog, is now available to hockey fans as a monthly magazine. The magazine features informative articles, news about players, and much more. The magazine for the month of September is currently on sale for $5.00. The main article in September's issue focuses on the NHL returning to Winnipeg. If you would like a copy of the magazine, just leave a comment saying your name and address, and a copy will be sent to you from the Adam Hartog Hockey main office. You will get a confirmation once it is sent. Once you get the confirmation, you must send the $5.00 to the main office. You will be given the address of the main office in a private message. You can return the magazine, but it must be in the same condition you received it in. You can expect full credit for all acceptable returns.

Crosby Still Has Concussion Symptoms

Pittsburgh Penguins superstar captain Sidney Crosby, one of the game's best players and the face of the NHL, is still suffering from post concussion symptoms, according to team general manager Ray Shero.

Crosby has not played in an NHL game since January 5, after suffering two concussions in the span of one week.

Shero does not know how fit Crosby will be when training camp opens next month, but said he will continue to train.

Penguins fans, and the league as a whole, have much concern over Crosby's ability to have an injury-free career following this battle with concussion symptoms.

It's clear that the Penguins are taking the process with the most caution, and will not push Crosby to be ready by a certain point.

The Boston Bruins are going through a similar issue with center Marc Savard, who is the team's best playmaker.

Savard was viciously checked by Penguins forward Matt Cooke in March of 2010, has played sparingly since and is still having concussion symptoms.

Savard's best choice may be to retire, protecting his long-term health and well-being.

The NHL has had a serious concussion problem for a few years now, and there have been rule changes to limit the aggressiveness of the game slightly in order to prevent the frequency of concussions.

The NFL had major issues with concussions last season, so the issue is not solely a hockey matter.

Crosby represents the NHL's worst fear; losing the league's best player and the face of the sport.

Crosby's situation does not appear as serious as Savard's, but when he does return to the ice, how good will he be?

He will certainly be less aggressive and more passive on the ice, which is how any player with concussion issues would play.

The Penguins coped very well without Crosby and fellow center Evgeni Malkin, who injured his knee and needed surgery, last season.

With Malkin back, the Penguins will make the playoffs and remain a top team, so there is no need to rush Crosby back.

Crosby is an all-time great player, and his importance to the league, the Penguins and the sport is too great to be taken lightly.

If it takes a year to recover, so be it. Crosby has much more of his amazing career to play.