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Darryl Hunt: Worcester Sharks 2009-2010 Season Awards

With the Worcester Sharks playoff run coming to an end last week, it’s time to start with the end of season paperwork. Up first are the “210 Awards”. Coming up soon will be the end of season report card.

For those new to the “210 Awards”, they are a mix of serious and (hopefully) slightly humorous awards named for the moniker this writer uses on many message boards. This season’s winners are:

Best Forward: Logan Couture averaged 1.26 points a game in the 42 AHL contests he played this season, and had he not been recalled for the last portion of the season would have been the runaway favorite for the AHL’s Rookie of the Year award.

Best Defenseman: Danny Groulx wins this one going away. His team leading 66 points and being the winner of the Eddie Shore Award as best AHL defenseman make this one a lock for the veteran blue-liner.

Tough Guy Award: Often given to the best fighter on the time, this year it goes to the best grinder in Andrew Desjardins. There is no Worcester player better along the boards, and Desjardins’ tough style and tenacious play earned him an NHL contract during the season.

Best Single Game Performance: Dennis McCauley’s Hat Trick at Springfield 2/3/10 is this season’s winner.

Seven Hills 7th Player: In probably the most wide open category, we’ll give this season’s award to Dan DaSilva. An eight time Sharkspage player of the game, DaSilva had his best season as a pro setting personal highs in goals, assists, points, and plus/minus.

Rookie of the Year: Because of this writer’s wish to spread the hardware out, we’ll give this award to John McCarthy. Not as flashy as Stalock or Couture, McCarthy stepped into Worcester’s third line and helped raise it to a new level by having nearly as many points in his rookie pro season as he had in four seasons total at Boston University. His +36 on the season set a new team record.

Most Improved: If you don’t know why Michael Wilson is the winner here you haven’t been paying attention to the Worcester Sharks the last couple of season. Comparing last season to the current one, it was like a completely different player was out on the ice. And many times, it was.

Most Valuable Player: When you have one of the best goaltenders in the AHL in your net, this award is easy to hand out. Alex Stalock came out of the gates fast and never really looked back, many times keep Worcester’s young squad in games by himself early in the season and proving to be he backbone of Worcester’s success for its too short play-off run.

The Sharkspage Player of the Year: Alex Stalock, who was named Sharkspage player of the game ten times over the course of the regular season.

So now that we’ve gotten the serious awards out of the way, here’s a few that this writer thinks should be handed out….

Grand Entrance Award: Michael Wilson, for tripping over the doorway and landing on all fours with his stick sliding slowly away from him as he started his first home shift of the season.

The Milton Berle Award: WorSharks broadcaster Eric Lundquist, for his cross dressing Christmas carolling story at the Booster Club’s Holiday Party.

The John Hancock Award: Frazer McLaren, for adding his autograph to Alex Stalock’s Minnesota-Duluth game used signed stick.

The Patrick Traverse Award: Nick Petrecki, for his end to end goal against Syracuse on 1/23.

The Buzzer Beater Award: Danny Groulx, for his goal at 19:59.9 of the third period against Hartford on March 10. How close was it to not counting? The green light went on before the goal judge could light the red one. Referee Mark Lemelin correctly called the goal good.

The Nostradamus Award: Eric Lundquist, for mentioning that in “Friday Night Lights”, the video that was shown during the seven hour bus ride from Norfolk to Wilkes-Barre, the team always seemed to win on the last play…only to have Ryan Vesce score the game winning goal for the WorSharks with 8.1 seconds remaining in the game.

The Double Double Award: Brandon Mashinter and Dennis McCauley, for becoming the first and second WorSharks players with double digits in goals and fights in a season.

The Bell Ringer Award: Alex Stalock, for hitting the post on an empty net chance at Norfolk in March.

The Grab A Line-Up Award: Head Coach Roy Sommer, for putting down Jamie McGinn’s name on a shootout list only to put it next to Nick Petrecki’s number, meaning the rookie defenseman had to shoot instead of McGinn. Petrecki, who had been benched earlier in the game, had a slightly less than spectacular attempt in his only shootout appearance of the season.

The Door Man Award: Frazer McLaren, for his huge open ice hit on Patrick Davis in Lowell after stepping out of the penalty box.

The Tyler Willis Award: Dennis McCauley, for being a good sport while while an absolutely ludicrous presentation was going on at the Worcester Sharks Booster Club Awards dinner.

The Tim Gunn Award: Frazer McLaren, for showing up to the same Booster Club awards dinner in jeans, which was slight under the dress code for the team.

The Groundhog Day Award: Kevin Henderson, for having to score his first pro goal twice. Henderson had his first first pro goal taken away while in the shower, and his second first pro goal given to him while in the shower, he will also win the first ever “Goal in shower” award. Unless, of course, the official scorer decides to take it back again at a later date.

The Get Over Yourself Award: Referee Jamie Koharski, for screaming at and then giving a game misconduct to Danny Groulx AFTER the game was over when Groulx skated over to Koharski to ask about a totally undeserved unsportsmanlike conduct minor Koharski had given Groulx just after Providence had scored an empty net goal.

The Two-By-Two Award: Danny Groulx, for having the most PIM without major. Groulx did have one that totally undeserved game misconduct penalty against him, but he would still easily win the award if we removed the 10 PIM that came with it.

The Buddy Ryan Award: Dennis McCauley, for his most goals by a player in Worcester pro hockey history signed strictly to be an enforcer.

The Dead-Eye Award: Nick Petrecki, for having the lowest shooting percentage of any player with 50 or more shots on goal.

The Derek Diener Award: There is no winner for this slightly less than prestigious award, and it’s only being mentioned because it was renamed last year for a current member of the WorSharks. After the season he had, we’ll change the name back to its original.

The David Haas Award: For the third time in four seasons, there is no winner of this “prestigious” award that goes to the player with the most talent that chooses to use none of it. Unfortunately, for the first time ever we have to dust of the its playoff equivalent.

The Jim Campbell Award: Steven Zalewski, for absolutely disappearing in the playoffs for the second season in a row. Zalewski’s play was so bad and so uninspired he could have possibly played himself right out of the organization.

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