Yokels

While watching the NHL youngstars game this past week, I was thinking about Phil Kessel, and how he'll probably be nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy this year. The Bill Masterton Trophy, as you know, is bestowed upon the player who is the embodiment of dedication, sportsmanship, and perseverance.

This year, Phil Kessel got lucky enough to get himself some testicular cancer and come back to play a month later, so he's pretty much a shoo-in for a nomination. A nomination, at the very least.

In 1994, Cam Neely battles knee and joint calcification problems and comes back to score 50 goals in 45 games or something:
Masterton Trophy.

In 2002, Saku Koivu finesses his way past an ovarian cyst:
Masterton Trophy.

In 2004, Bryan Berard somehow squints his way back into respectability after almost losing an eye:
Masterton Trophy.

The weird part about this whole award is that Bill Masterton is the only guy to have ever died on the ice on an NHL rink. Bill Masterton was a minor-leaguer, and only got a shot at the NHL because of expansion. As a new team, the North Stars drafted Masterton in 1967. Bill was working at a K-Mart or something at the time. His dedication, sportmanship, and perserverance soon earned him his lucky break, when he was checked to the ice and broke his skull - and died before you could say "perserverance". That's a lucky break, right?

Bill Masterton is a guy you should name an arena after, or maybe a street. There's a Bill Masterton scholarship, and that seems fitting. But to give the Bill Masterton Award to people who overcome their medical issues - as Bill wasn't able to do - smells backwards to me. It's almost like a celebration of things Bill Masterton couldn't do.

As such, I give this year's Alan Linquist award to Zdeno Chara.