Mirror Mirror on the Wall... Who's the Bestest Rookie of All?

This year I don't think the Calder trophy race is that clear cut. There's been some pretty high quality rookie talent this year. Lets take a look...

First off lets look at Patrick Kane:



One of the leading rookie scorers in the league has had quite the season as one of the star young forwards in the youth movement that is the Chicago Blackhawks.

Nicklas Backstrom (the forward not the goalie):











No ESPN widget available... sorry. See his stats and profile.

Playing with Ovechkin must be nice. It's shown in his points, he's a quality playmaker that's filled in nicely on #8's line since Michael Nylander went down mid-season.

Another Chicago Rookie Jonathan Toews:



Toews could possibly have been a runaway favourite for this award, but was sidelined for a while in January with a knee injury. Comparatively, to his teammate Patrick Kane, he's on the positive side of the plus/minus stat.

How about Phoenix Coyote Peter Mueller:




Mueller has been a great addition to Gretzky's youth movement and continues to add fire power to a promising young squad

Atlanta's Rookie bluelineer Tobia Enstrom:




The often talked about rookie blueliner is a little undersized but hey, it's the new NHL right? He's a great skater and logs big minutes for Atlanta.

and Finally Montreal's Carey Price



He's only played about half the season, but we all know now that he's the future of the Canadiens and is set to lead his team into the playoffs. Could this be the second coming of Patrick Roy?

Honourable mentions go to Edmonton's super duo leading the late season charge for the Oilers, Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano.


So now it's time for you to decide...

2 Minutes in the Box... for a short blog

Got a few minutes to spare before I head off to my hockey game. That's right, I don't just blog it, I pretend to play as well!

The standings are getting interesting both in the East and West. Nashville won in St. Louis in overtime which sends them into 8th place a point ahead of the Canucks.

Washington beat Carolina 4-1 as well which keeps them in the hunt, 1 point out of 8th behind both Boston and Philadelphia. Ovechkin also potted his 63rd goal this game. However, they're now tied with Carolina for the South East Division lead in points but lose the tie breaker in wins. Keep winning and they could end up in 3rd going into the playoffs.

The Senators are "Free Falling" out of the standings like Tom Petty, as they got shutout by a Koivu-less Canadiens. They're in danger of falling right out of the playoffs.

I'll PVR the rest of this Canucks game and hope for the best...

UPDATE:

A lot can change in a couple hours. I go off to my hockey game, we get blown out. I come home check the score of the Canucks game and... well you can guess the rest.

Canucks lose. Predators win. Go figure.

As we speak I'm fast forwarding through the game to see how it all broke down. Hejduk is still a freakin' Canuck killer.

It'll make the Thursday game against Edmonton I'm going to that much more interesting. Could be the closest thing we see to Canucks playoff hockey this year, and I don't really want to hear my roommate talk about his Calgary Flames.

Also Edmonton is officially out of the playoff race so they'll be extra pissed off on Thursday looking to play the spoiler.

I was trying to think of some witty comment to end this post but... I've got nothing.

Fill in your closing remark here ______________________________.