Summers or Thunder - Who will Win the Daisuke Kanou Trophy?

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Summers or Thunder - Who will Win the Daisuke Kanou Trophy?

 

 

Hello everyone, I decided to take the week off doing trade reviews and instead give everyone an inside perspective of someone who is struggling to decide on who should take home the Daisuke Kanou Trophy for Playoff MVP.  For me this comes down to two players, in goaltender Lachlan Summers and defender Jake Thunder, both members of the Continental Cup winning Davos Dynamo.  I have really been debating this one back-and-forth, and as you may have expected so are many others in the Board of Governors.  Therefore, I thought I would put a little article together based on my own thoughts and opinions on the award and the likelihood of one player winning over the other. 

 

I will start with Jake Thunder who has been the person I think most people would think will win after putting up a very strong 10 goals, 22 points, 59 hits and 33 blocked shots over the sixteen-game stretch.  His finals was pretty strong as well with 9 points, 26 hits and 10 blocked shots during the six-game series.  For most of the series he carried Davos’ play offensively as he drove it the entire way, but admittedly did fair a lot better against weaker competition in the other matchups.  He finished the playoffs with the second-most points, first in goals and fifth in assists among all players (not just defenders).  He also finished third in hits, fifth in blocked shots and had a remarkable four game-winning-goals, including the Continental Cup winning one.  Certainly if he were to be voted in, it would be pretty hard to argue it and he would be absolutely deserving.

 

Lachlan Summers has been someone that has looked better and better with every review.  At first, I thought he looked like a goalie that had a really good playoff campaign, but simply didn’t have the incredible eye-catching results that Thunder had across the board.  As I continued to inspect the situation a bit further though, I realized he really stepped it up quite a bit during the Continental Cup Finals.  Summers faced well over 40 shots per game over the six-game series and had a .943 Save Percentage, and as seen below, he was absolutely dominant in all four victories.

 

Lachlan Summers Continnetal Cup Finals

Game 1: 4.00 GAA, .911 SV%, 41/45 (Loss)

Game 2: 4.00 GAA, .909 SV%, 40/44 (Loss)

Game 3: 2.00 GAA, .960 SV%, 48/50 (Win)

Game 4: 1.00 GAA, .974 SV%, 37/38 (Win)

Game 5: 2.00 GAA, .957 SV%, 44/46 (Win)

Game 6: 2.00 GAA, .951 SV%, 39/41 (Win)

 

As seen above, Summers’ best argument is definitely that in the final four games (all of which Davos won) he stepped it up above everyone and carried them to their Continental Cup victory.  With that being said, he was no where near as good in the other series’ so while he may have been the biggest x-factor during their final series, it was Thunder who drove them to the Finals in the first place.  That’s why I struggle to decide on who realistically should be the victor and admittedly I am pulling for a draw myself so that both can take home the honour of being the Daisuke Kanou Trophy winner. 

 

So who will take home the Daisuke Kanou Trophy? I think Thunder will take it by perhaps a single vote, but I definitely think it will be a close one and it would very appropriate if both tied and shared the honour.  That’s what I’m honestly pulling for but obviously both are very deserving candidates and it will be a great one to watch going into the VHL Awards Ceremony.

[Anthique 218]

Both had an amazing playoffs run for us, but the stats of Summers in those finals games really give us the victory!