An Article From Lloyd Robertson of the Kyle County Post
KYLE COUNTY, ED -- The Trojan Condom Dome, the former home of the Kyle County Ice played host to the 2009 SHL Awards. The 20,000 plus arena was at capacity for the awards show. Jim Carr of Dionland�s 640 AM The Heat was the MC for the evening. Several entertainers graced the sell out crowd including country music superstars Eric Church and Billy Currington. Comedian Dane Cook also made a ten minute stand up appearance.
The first award presented of the evening was for Rookie of the Year. It was rumored even though there was tough competition for rookie forwards consisting of Twisters Bobby Ryan and Patrik Berglund, Grrrowl Kris Versteeg, and Falcon Mikhail Grabovski there was a hands down winner. Fort Macfie goaltender Steve Mason reportedly tallied all votes and became the first goaltender in SHL history to win the Rookie of the Year award. Mason led the entire league in shutouts in his rookie campaign.
The second piece of hardware handed out was for Defenseman of the Year. Hands down the winner was Mike Green of the expansion Markerville Six Guns. Green won every single vote tally besides one vote going to Scott City�s Andrei Markov. Green led all defensemen in points in the regular season with 73, nine points ahead of Markov.
There were four records made in the 2009 SHL Awards show. Steve Mason broke the first by becoming the first goalie to win the ROY Award. He was also included in the second. For the first time in the history of the SHL Awards there was a tie for goaltender of the year. Fort Mac�s Steve Mason and Scott City�s Mikka Kiprusoff both ended up with the same amount of votes to become the first dual recipients of the Goaltender of the Year award.
The recently created Managerial Staff of the Year award was the next piece of hardware presented. Being the only third year it was presented. It was previously handed out to regular season champions Gilmore and Bergland in 2007 and 2008 respectively. This year the award went to the Cinderella Fort Macfie Gangbang organization. Fort Mac battled injuries all season long to end up with the sixth and playoff spot on the last day of the regular season by a hair. They ended up winning the next two rounds only to lose in the Copenhagen Cup Final to the Grrrowl. Fort Mac GM Craig Macfie was present to receive the award on behalf of the Gangbang. Bergland finished one vote behind Fort Mac for the Managerial Staff of the Year award.
The last and most important award presented was for the leagues Most Valuable Player. Nominees included Bergland�s Alexander Ovechkin and Zach Parise, Brantown�s Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby of the Natives, and Pavel Datsyuk from the Markerville Six Guns. In the end, Alexander Ovechkin won the trophy for the second straight year as a Icehole. Ovechkin led the league in regular season goals with 56 and added an impressive 54 assists finishing second in all scoring behind Brantown�s Evgeni Malkin by three points.
The third and fourth records were broken by Ovechkin and Kiprusoff by becoming the first players in SHL history to win the same awards (MVP and Goaltender of the Year) twice.
The 2008-2009 SHL season has officially drawn to a conclusion. It was a succesful one with the league bringing in a revenue of well over $2.3B. The regular season finished with the most exciting finish in league history with five teams finishing within 3 points of each other for the last playoff spot.
The 2009-2010 season will commence with a draft in late September at a location to be determined at the leagues annual summer meeting in August. |
