Isau DaMoose Considers The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

[Eynhallow 412]

I was cruising the pressers today, looking for TPE opportunities, TPE hound that I am, and found this question:

 

“The NHL has the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for the player who exhibited outstanding sportsmanship. What should the name of that trophy be in the VHL?”

 

That surprised me a bit as there are a number of trophies awarded for a variety of things.  In my fog of excessive eggnog, turkey sandwiches and Mini-Hedgehogs I thought I should make a case for a VHL(M) trophy of a similar nature. So, off to the Hall of Fame portal to discover that we did have the Mikka Virkkunen Trophy that was “awarded to the player deemed to be the most sportsmanlike”.  This trophy was retired, for some reason, in Season 58.  I get this.  I mean there isn’t a real objective way to determine a clear winner for an award like this. Some of our trophies are clearly defined e.g. The Kevin Brooks - Goals Leader and the Alexander Beketov - Assists Leader.  However, there are others that look at more than one set of statistics e.g. The Scott Boulet - The Top Two-way Forward.  In any event, in a lot of cases, subjectivity can lead to controversy and I, for one, try like Hell to stay away from that stuff. So, how could STHS stats be reasonably applied to determine a clear winner ?  Clearly, there would have to be a minimum number of games played.  I arbitrarily chose 60.  I also wanted to look at some stats that reflected the players prowess as a player (Points), but in a multidimensional way (+/-), and sportsmanship (Penalties in Minutes).

 

I went looking through the current VHLM index for a player that would win the “Lady Byng” if such a trophy existed and Robert Bouchard’s @Gaikoku-hito numbers kind of jumped off the page. In 72 games he scored 109 points, was a +46, and only racked up 18 penalty minutes.  Those are Lady Byng stats in my book. I am sure that with a little investigation a VHL player could be found.  Guy Lesieur @KC15, for example, played 72 games, scored 90 points, was a +28, and only had 10 penalty minutes.

 

Of course, we can’t use the term”Lady Byng”, as it is already being employed by the NHL, so we would have to come up with a new name.  I am not well enough versed in the history of the VHL(M) to suggest naming it after a former illustrious player, so I was tossing around ideas like “The Madonna”, or better, yet, “The J.K. Rowling Trophy''.  Rowling said, in her Harvard commencement speech,  "I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I succeeded at anything else, I might not have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged." 

And maybe that’s what this award should be about.

 

Of course, these meanderings are purely speculative, and open to discussion or positive criticism.  In fact, I encourage the latter as that would get the conversation rolling about a return to a Lady Byng or something like it.

 

507 Words

Claiming for Week of Jan. 10

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Eynhallow

[Gaikoku-hito 1,643]

9 hours ago, Eynhallow said:

“The Madonna”

LOL!! I like the idea of being called the Madonna of the league. LOL!!

 

9 hours ago, Eynhallow said:

we did have the Mikka Virkkunen Trophy that was “awarded to the player deemed to be the most sportsmanlike”.  This trophy was retired, for some reason, in Season 58

I would suggest that we bring this back and I agree with the aspect of what you consider the key stats when determining the reward of such a trophy with points, +/- and PIM being key factors but you would also need to consider cut off for each like X amount of points, X amount of plus/minus and X amount of PIM.

 

You would also have to consider the following players and then allow a vote to happen either by the players or the GM's of the teams:

Florent Vericel (SSK)         114pts, +32 and 22 PIM

RJ Thatcher (MEX              96pts, +39 and 38 PIM

Darius Marimoto (PHI)       89pts, +24 and 14 PIM

[Xflexz 158]

Great job! It's a little funky to read on dark mode but I wont fault you for that. Also happy to see you trying to revive some old things! 9.99/10

[KC15 340]

Thanks for the shout out!  Guy is in his pentultimate season, so let's get him award quickly.  lol  Did score the most goals in the league this season, so maybe there's that.

[fyrefly 172]

Review: I personally think you make a great case for this VHL Lady Byng trophy. I like how you nominated some guys for it right now, and considered naming it. The spacing is good, and the whole thing being bold is quirky but fine. The different colour for the quote is really good.

9/10