Hart-less leaf - Another Woeful
Tale In "Storied" leaf History
Quick! Who was the last leaf to be selected as the
NHL's Most Valuable Player? Were you alive in '55?
The Hart Trophy is among the NHL's most prestigious post-season awards.
After each regular season, The Professional Hockey Writers' Association votes
for one player who is deemed to be the league's best. It has been
presented annually in every year since 1924.
Not surprisingly, since 1956 it has always been awarded to a player who is also
honored with a selection to either the NHL's first or second All-Star team at
year-end. Often, the annual winner of the Hart Trophy also wins the Art
Ross Trophy as the NHL's scoring champion, like Peter Forsberg last season.
So fittingly, the player with the most points sometimes wins MVP recognition as
well.
So what happened in 1955? Sadly, that was the last time a leaf was voted
MVP in the NHL. But where the tragedy lies is the fact that the
presentation of the award to Hall-of-Famer, Ted "Teeder" Kennedy that year has
been viewed as an irreversible error of the NHL politics of the time. Nobody
denies that Ted Kennedy was a great former leaf captain and a deserving inductee
into the HHOF. His performance in that particular 1954-55 season however,
just didn't merit a Hart Trophy award.
Kennedy was the last player to win the Hart Trophy and not also be selected to
that year-end’s All-Star team. In 1955 Ted Kennedy did not finish in the
top ten in scoring. He wasn't even the top leaf scorer that year.
His feeble total of 10 goals paled in comparison to the 38 put in by 'Rocket'
Richard and 'Boom Boom' Geoffrion that season.
It wasn’t even as if Teeder’s leaf had a great season that year either.
They finished a distant third out of six teams in the regular season and then
promptly got whipped in four straight by the Red Wings in the opening round of
the playoffs.
Kennedy’s Hart Trophy was a retirement gift for past accomplishments. He
was a mercy pick. That was wrong and the kind of injustice that was caused
to other more deserving recipients that year has not since been repeated.
Nor has any leaf ever won the Hart Trophy again.
By the way, the only other leaf in their entire team history to win the Hart was
Walter 'Babe' Pratt in 1944. Two years later, the NHL expelled him for
gambling on hockey. Some MVP, eh?
Should we take a peek at how many times a member of one of the other, more
accomplished "Original Six" teams has picked up the Hart Trophy since 1955?
Why not? Bashing the stupid leaf is so easy and so much fun. Since
1955, a Montreal Canadien has won it 7 times, a Bruin 5 times, a Red Wing 4
times, a Blackhawk 4 times and a Ranger twice. Altogether, there have been
48 leafless Hart presentations since the Kennedy scandal of '55.
In 1970-71, the NHL players themselves began to contribute to the MVP selection
process as the NHL Players association instituted the Lester B. Pearson Award
for the league's most outstanding player. Not coincidently, some past
winners of the Pearson have also been winners of the Hart in the same year, as
was Joe Sakic in 2001. Gretzky was another guy who often carried home both
of these silverware items in the same evening.
Hey guess what? No leaf has ever won the Pearson Award. It seems
even the NHL players themselves can never find any outstanding leafs. Or
maybe the players just can’t stand the leafs, like most of us.
So I ask you again, if you're a leaf fan, just what the hell is it you're
cheering for anyways? Certainly not an MVP performance - EVER.
I hate the leaf
Blow leaf blow
Leafhatred.
EXCLUSIVE!!!!
Corson Located in Tibet
In an unprecedented move last spring, Shayne Corson deserted his teammates in the heat of battle, going AWOL on the leaf in the middle of their first round of the playoffs.
Corson decision capped off a tragic career that ended in turmoil, as most do when they end with the leaf. He was drafted by Montreal in the 1984 amateur draft and played three games for the Habs in 1985-86 but did not play in the playoffs that season and thus, did not qualify for a Stanley Cup ring. In 1992, he was traded to Edmonton and with Corson gone, the Canadiens were able to pick up their next Stanley Cup that very next season (’93). Meanwhile, the Oilers Cup winning seasons had ended, their last Cup having come in 1990. So no Stanley Cup rings again for Corson. In 2000, he made what proved to be a catastrophic career move by signing with the leaf as a free agent. In three disastrous seasons with Toronto, Corson averaged just nine goals a year. He flopped big time and finally gave up, walking right out on a team rife with rifts and dressing room dissension.
Pictured here outside the playing facility in Xiahe, Gansu Province, after a rigorous morning practice with his new team the “Yellow Hats” in the Buddhist Monk league of Tibet.
Shayne decided to get as far away from the ugly leaf as possible and has decided to pursue a career in the semi-pro, Buddhist Monk league in Tibet. “Among the things I miss the most are the downtown night life and the players’ wives. These monks have their own little cliques just like we had on the leaf but all they do after the game is go back to the monastery and pray”.
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