The 2007-2008 NHL season is over. Detroit, a somewhat-popular preseason pick to win it all, downed Pittsburgh, another somewhat-popular preseason pick to win it all, in 6 games. That's a game more than I expected, which speaks to Pittsburgh's skill. Detroit, despite the advanced team age, has most of its big pieces under contract. Many of the Penguins key players, on the other hand, are going into restricted or unrestricted free agency. It's going to be a huge task for the Pens to keep some semblance of a team nucleus together in the future...apparently there are some issues with the players and coach as well.

My personal and professional interest isn't the Wings or the Pens but rather the Washington Capitals. DC Sports Box published a recent article I wrote on the Caps postseason expectations: The Calm Before Washington's Off-Season Storm; and my most recent Caps podcast with Craig Stone discusses specific players more in-depth.

Next week is the NHL awards ceremony. For the first time in approximately forever the Caps have multiple players up for awards.
-Alexander Ovechkin for the MVP (Hart Trophy), along with Evgeni Malkin and Jarome Iginla.
-Ovechkin again for the MVP as voted by players (Lester B. Pearson Award), also along with Malkin and Iginla.
-Nicklas Backstrom for Rookie of the Year (Calder Trophy), with Chicago's Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
-Bruce Boudreau up for Coach of the Year (Adams Trophy) along with Detroit's Mike Babcock and Montreal's Guy Carbonneau.
In addition, Ovechkin has already won the Art Ross Award for most points and the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals.

All of the awards take only the regular season into account. Ovechkin has to be the prohibitive favorite for the Hart and Lester B. Pearson MVP awards. His goal-scoring, his physical play, his role in Washington's late-season surge to the playoffs have all been well-documented. There were some questions raised about his legitimacy as an MVP candidate if the Caps didn't make the playoffs, but they did, so that point is moot. Iginla might be a dark horse for the Pearson, as he's had many more years to impress his NHL colleagues. Malkin is on the list for his points. The ephemeral Pen provided no team leadership and his lack of visible personality makes it hard to believe any journalist or player would feel sympathetic to his cause.

Backstrom is a long shot to win the Calder. Toews and Kane are both from the same team and might split votes, true, but Toews led rookies in goals and Kane was a huge contributor down Chicago's stretch run. Toews and Kane are #1a and #1b in Chicago. Backstrom plays second fiddle to Ovechkin, and Semin, Fedorov and Huet as well towards the end of the season. He certainly still belongs in that first tier of NHL rookies, along with maybe Phoenix's Peter Mueller.

Boudreau for the Adams is more of an unknown. His presence and offensive system was, without a doubt, the key to Washington's playoff run. Boudreau was not coach for the entire season, which hurts him, and is much less of a known quantity than Babcock and Carbonneau, either of whom could garner Martin Scorsese sympathy votes for career achievements. Personally, I don't see how it can't be Boudreau. Babcock and Carbonneau helped teams that were expected to be great realize their greatness. Boudreau took a team that was basically a laughingstock and helped it achieve greatness. Sounds like Coach of the Year to me.

I'll likely write a short recap of the award ceremony for DCSB, and a preview for the entry draft at the same time. A short list of predictions for the other awards, winners in bold.

Vezina (Best Goalie): Evgeni Nabokov (SJ), Henrik Lundqivst (NYR), Martin Brodeur (NJ).
Norris (Best Defenseman): Nicklas Lidstrom (DET), Dion Phaneuf (CGY), Zdeno Chara (BOS).
Lady Byng (Sportsmanship): Pavel Datsyuk (DET), Jason Pominville (BUF), Martin St. Louis (TB).
Selke (Defensive Forward): Pavel Datsyuk (DET), Henrik Zetterberg (DET), John Madden (NJ).

All the popular picks, but really there isn't too much room for discussion. I can see Madden or Zetterberg winning the Selke, the rest should be chalk.