Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Checking out the Czech Award Winners
The Czech Extraleague and the Czech Hockey Association gave out their various awards last night. Let's have a final look at the Extraleague's best for this season...
It was a big night for Tomas Kaberle as he took home the regular season MVP, Best Defenseman, and Top Player (as voted by the fans) awards.
Ales Hemsky surprised me by beating out Jan Lasak for the Playoff MVP award. Lasak didn't go home empty-handed, fortunately, as he won the absolute Golden Helmet award for his spectacular save against Liberec's Lukas Pabiska.
The one atrocity was the Best Goaltender Award that was given to Milan Hnilicka as awarded by the newspaper 'Pravo'. Hnilicka finished about 10th in every meaningful goaltending statistic, and was nowhere near the best goaltender in the league. This would be like giving the NHL's Vezina Trophy to Dan Cloutier.
Edmonton Oilers fan-favourite Jiri Dopita was also presented with a 16 year-old bottle of whiskey as thanks for helping Pardubice win their first title in 16 years.
Winner of 1st Division Promotion: HC České Budějovice.
Best Rookie: Tomáš Pöpperle (Sparta Praha).
Most Sporstmanlike Player: Martin Procházka (Rabat Kladno).
Best Referee: František Rejthar.
Best Coach: Vladimír Vůjtek (Vítkovice Steel).
Best Goaltender (Právo): Milan Hnilička (Liberec White Tigers).
Best Defenseman (Blesk): Tomáš Kaberle (Rabat Kladno).
Best Shooter (Sport): Jaroslav Balaštík (Hamé Zlín).
Golden Helmet: Ján Lašák (Moeller Pardubice).
Top Scorer Award: Michal Mikeska (Moeller Pardubice).
Playoff MVP: Aleš Hemský (Moeller Pardubice).
Boza Modry (MVP as voted by the players):Tomáš Kaberle (Rabat Kladno).
Playoff Champion: Moeller Pardubice.
Player #1 (Voted by fans): Michal Mikeska (Moeller Pardubice).
Best Player (Voted by fans): Tomáš Kaberle (Rabat Kladno).
