Doughty, who will be 20 years and six months old when the winner is announced in June, is vying to become the second-youngest Norris winner. The youngest was a guy named Bobby Orr, who was 20 years and three months old when he won for the first of eight times.

The other finalists are Washington’s Mike Green and Chicago’s Duncan Keith. The Norris and other major NHL trophies will be awarded during a televised awards show in June in Las Vegas. The Norris, like many postseason awards, is chosen by voting conducted by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Assn.

“It obviously means a lot. Coming in, it’s only my second year and being in that category is a pretty amazing feeling,” Doughty said after the Kings’ game-day skate in preparation for Friday night’s playoff game against Vancouver at GM Place.

“Those other two guys that are there obviously had great seasons, and to be in the top three with them is a pretty big honor.”

To be younger than any winner other than Orr, he said, was a thrill. “It’s pretty cool. Bobby Orr was one of best defensemen to play the game. To be close to doing the same thing that he did is kind of surprising, I guess, to me, but it’s very humbling as well.”

Doughty said he got the news from Luke Schenn, the brother of King prospect Brayden Schenn, in a text that congratulated him. ”I was like, ‘For what?’ I didn’t know they were announcing the finalists today,” said Doughty, the Kings’ top scorer in this series with two goals and six points. ”So he told me and right away I called my dad to look it up on the NHL site to see if it was true, and it was.”

He also said being a finalist wasn’t on his to-do list for the season.

“Before the season I really didn’t think about it at all. My first goal was just to play hard for the Kings and make them a playoff team and then get a shot at making the Olympic team,” he said. “As the season wore on, I kind of knew that I was getting mentioned in that category and from then on I made it my goal to hopefully be a finalist.”

At least one member of the Canucks, defenseman Shane O’Brien, would nominate Doughty for an award for yapping. O’Brien, who was involved in a shouting match with Vancouver assistant coach Rick Bowness during the second period of his team’s 6-4 victory Wednesday in Game 4, said he was fired up because of his ongoing dialog with Doughty and jokingly blamed that incident on the Kings’ defenseman.

O’Brien had been jawing at Doughty and followed him toward the Kings’ bench; Bowness and Coach Alain Vigneault tried to calm O’Brien but he resisted and didn’t simmer down until teammate Roberto Luongo took him aside during a stoppage.

“We should blame Doughty for it, for sure. We should blame a couple of other guys on their team that keep chirping and chirping and chirping,” O’Brien said. “It’s typical playoff hockey. There’s not a lot of fighting in it…. Sometimes they keep talking and talking and I’ve got to show up and do something.

“As the series gets on, it gets older and older and you try and tune it out. If it was a different situation and a different day there might be more repercussions.”

Like if there were no instigator rule?

“If there were a few different rules out there it would be a little different. If it was 1970 here, it would be a little different,” O’Brien said. “They’re going to continue to talk, we’re going to continue to talk. There’s a little emotion. The heat’s getting higher and higher. That’s what playoff hockey’s all about.”

But O’Brien said Doughty deserved the Norris nomination and said he told Doughty that — mixed with some four-letter words.

“I said, ’You’re a great player. You’re a star already. I don’t think you need to talk as much as you do here. Let your hockey and your play do the work,’” O’Brien said. “I remember when I was a young kid … well, I wasn’t in the NHL when I was his age. When I was younger you talk maybe more than you should. He’s definitely getting under some guys’ skins, and I guess that’s what he’s trying to do.”

Another success for Doughty, apparently. “When they get under my skin I like to give it back. I don’t like to be the only one getting the chirps, so I’ll definitely give it back as much as I can,” Doughty said. “I’m not really a tough guy, though, so I don’t really have much to back it up with, but I’ll definitely feed out a few.”

Kings Coach Terry Murray switched three of his four lines, leaving intact only the Ryan Smyth-Anze Kopitar-Wayne Simmonds line. The other combinations are (left to right) Alexander Frolov-Brad Richardson-Dustin Brown; Fredrik Modin-Michal Handzus-Justin Williams; and Richard Clune-Jarret Stoll-Jeff Halpern. The defense will be the same: Rob Scuderi-Doughty; Sean O’Donnell-Matt Greene and Randy Jones-Jack Johnson.

“I changed things a little bit here to get some different looks,” Murray said. “I wanted to put Williams back into the lineup tonight. He’s a player that’s been to the playoffs and has won the Stanley Cup and at this time, in Game 5, we need the experience.

“And I also know that he’s very capable of putting the puck in the net. He’s a creative guy. He can score goals. He can fit with different lines. We can use him on special-team situations. And I’m looking for a big game from him.”

Befitting of the country’s top-ranked team, the traveling trophy traveled back to Denver after the Pioneers pounded Colorado College 7-3 to win the season series with a 2-1-1 record. A sellout World Arena crowd of 7,746 witnessed DU at its best.

“We were really good,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said. “Our puck possession, especially in the offensive zone, and our transition game — the guys were very sharp. I think maybe we wanted it a little more.”

In producing its NCAA-high 25th win, DU scored three times within the first 12 minutes and built a 6-0 lead midway through the game.

“When I came to Denver, I never thought it would come down to the last game of the regular season, and at CC, to get the Gold Pan back for us, but it says a lot about our team,” DU senior Tyler Ruegsegger of Lakewood said. “We wanted it bad. I’m so proud of how we came out tonight. We worked hard and deserve that trophy.”

The Pioneers (25-7-4), who previously won the Denver Cup and MacNaughton Cup as Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season champions, took ownership of the Gold Pan for the first time since 2006. They swept the three trophies for the first time since 2005.

“The frustrations that our seniors went through the last three years (with CC) have been enormous,” DU captain Rhett Rakhshani said. “They’d beat us and rub it in our face. We had enough, and we stood our ground. We had the last laugh. You never know what’s going to happen the rest of the season, but as far as the Gold Pan is concerned, we have it.”

DU junior wing Kyle Ostrow had a team-high three points, including the first and fifth goals. Rakhshani, junior center Jesse Martin and sophomore wing Joe Colborne each had a goal and an assist, and Ruegsegger had two helpers.

CC captain Mike Testwuide, who had the game-winning assist in Friday’s 2-1 upset win at Magness Arena, scored his 19th and 20th goals after the game was out of reach.

“They were good,” CC coach Scott Owens said of the WCHA top-seeded Pioneers, who host 10th-seeded Michigan Tech on Friday to begin a three-game league playoff series. “They’re deep. They played hard. They were hungry. We never got our legs going. . . . It was a reversal from (Friday) night, no doubt.”

The Tigers (18-15-3) finish sixth in the WCHA and open the postseason Friday at fifth- seeded Minnesota-Duluth. CC is tied for 21st in the PairWise Rankings and probably has to win the WCHA playoff title to advance to the 16-team NCAA Tournament.

DU is No. 1 in the PairWise and assured of an NCAA berth.

“Now the regular season is over with and the best part of the season is here,” Gwoz- decky said.

Denver 3 3 1 — 7
Colorado College 0 1 2 — 3

First period — 1, Denver, K. Ostrow 14 (Martin, Maiani), 5:50. 2, Denver, Glasser 3 (Dewhurst, Vossberg), 7:00. 3, Denver, Martin 11 (K. Ostrow), 11:53. Penalties — Marciano, CC (hooking), :45; Johnson, CC (tripping), 13:18; Colborne, DU (interference), 13:49; Wiercioch, DU (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:09; Schwartz, CC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:09.

Second period — 4, Denver, Colborne 20 (Rakhshani, Ruegsegger), 1:19. 5, Denver, K. Ostrow 15 (unassisted), 9:39. 6, Denver, Gifford 2 (Colborne), 9:30. 7, Colorado College, Testwuide 19 (Hamburg), 13:25. Penalties — Wiercioch, DU (tripping), 3:37; Brookwell, DU (tripping), 4:04; Donovan, DU (hooking), 18:32.

Third period — 8, Colorado College, Johnson 13 (McMillin, Marciano), 6:59; 9, Colorado College, Testwuide 20 (Fredheim, Schwartz), 15:33. 10, Denver, Rakhshani 20 (Ruegsegger), 16:07 (pp). Penalties — Prosser, CC (contact to head), 15:45; Dewhurst, DU (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:07; Hall, CC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:07.

Shots — DU 8-19-8 — 35. CC 12-11-13 — 36. Power plays — DU 1 of 4. CC 0 of 4. Goalies — DU, Cheverie (22-4-3) 36 shots-33 saves. CC, Howe (16-14-3) 8-5, O’Brien 27-23. A — 7,746.

Yes, Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal lifted Canada past the United States in one of the most thrilling hockey games ever played, Olympic or otherwise. It also allowed every Canadian to breathe a sigh of relief, their national pride on the line in a climax of epic proportions.

But Crosby’s goal did something else, something much more than just securing the gold medal for his native country in perhaps the most buzzed about, and compelling, tournament in hockey history. It put an end to one of life’s most gripping questions.

Crosby or Ovechkin?

Much like the Olympic flame that was extinguished soon after this thriller of a gold medal game, so too was the debate between these two hockey greats.

Game, set and match, Crosby.

For nearly five years now, people have been split over one of the biggest debates in all of sports. And for the most part, both sides have had compelling arguments, with Crosby and Ovechkin each supplying their respective sides with plenty of ammunition to make a case for them.

Their rivalry has put hockey back into the public eye, but it’s their play that has made it relevant.

Ovechkin grabbed the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year after the 2005-2006 season, edging out Crosby for the distinction. He’s also got two Maurice Richards Trophies (most goals) to his name, an Art Ross Trophy (most points), and two Hart Memorial Trophies (MVP) on his resume. With three All-Star appearances, and one of the most jaw-dropping personal highlight-reels, it’s easy to see why many give Ovechkin the distinction as the world’s premier player.

Read more…

Frank J. Selke Trophy

The trophy was names after Frank J. Selke, the former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.

A list of the recipients and their teams can be found here on the NHL website.

The World Junior Championship Trophies will be in the city on Thursday, part of a tour of eastern Ontario cities.

Canada has won the World Junior title the last four years, and the trophies will be making stops at 16 RBC branches during the next three weeks.

While in Cornwall, the trophies will also visit some local schools where students will be provided with free Cornwall Colts tickets courtesy of RBC.

The trophies will also be available for public viewing in the concourse of the Ed Lumley Arena at the Colts game on Thursday evening.

This year’s World Junior Hockey Championship is taking place from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, in Ottawa.

The trophies will be in Cornwall at the RBC main branch (300 Pitt Street) on Thursday, from 9:30 a. m. until noon.

From noon until 1 p. m., the trophies will be at local schools.

The Cornwall Square will have the trophies on display from 1 p. m. to 5 p. m., before the hardware makes it way over to the Ed Lumley Arena, on display in the concourse area from 6:30 p. m. to 8 p. m.

The Colts host the Gloucester Rangers on Thursday.

Originally posted by Standard Freeholder.

Trophies galore at Badgemore