Is there a more widely misunderstood NHL award than the Ted Lindsay Award?
Formerly the Lester B. Pearson Award, and renamed for the Detroit Red Wings legend in 2010, it's voted on by members of the NHLPA and given annually to the "Most Outstanding Player" in the NHL.
Again: "Most Outstanding." Yet every season, you have media and teams and more media referring to the Pearson/Lindsay as the "MVP award voted on by NHL players" when it's nothing of the sort.
Check out the 2010-11 finalists announcement, and look for the words "value," "valuable" or "MVP." You won't find them. Yet the Lindsay is, to this day, treated like some kind of minority report on the Hart Trophy for league MVP because it's the players' voice heard instead of that of the media -- only the scribes are voting based on stats and intangibles, while the players are voting for the de facto "NHL Player of the Year" award.
Hence, Hart Trophy finalists Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks are up for the Lindsay, having led the league in goals and points respectively; and Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning is the third finalist, his statistical season impressing his peers more than that of Marty St. Louis, who was the other finalist for the Hart.
Since 1990, there have been five instances in which the Hart winner didn't take home the Pearson/Lindsay: In 2000, when Chris Pronger won MVP and Jaromir Jagr won the Pearson; in 2002, when Jose Theodore won MVP and Jarome Iginla won the Pearson; in 2003, when Peter Forsberg won the Hart and Markus Naslund won the Pearson; in 2006, when Joe Thornton won the Hart and Jaromir Jagr won the Pearson; and last year, when Henrik Sedin won the Hart and Alex Ovechkin won the Lindsay.
Assuming Corey Perry and Daniel Sedin are your two favorites, will we see deviation between the awards again? That depends on one thing: The players' opinions on Daniel.
Perry will, we think, win the Hart due to the timing of his offensive dominance (late in the season, during the voting) and the fact that he excelled while Ryan Getzlaf was injured.
So are 104 points better than 50 goals for the players? When Thornton and Jagr split, Thornton had more points while Jagr had a huge (54-29) goal advantage. Ditto Forsberg (29) and Naslund (48) in 2003.
In 2010-11, Daniel trailed Perry by just nine goals. That goal scoring, and leading the league in points, should mean the Lindsay for Sedin to go along with, we think, Perry's Hart.