The inaugural Kontinental Hockey League awards took place recently and if you're one of those fans who think that the current set of National Hockey League awards needs to be modernized, then what the KHL has cooked up might be right up your alley.
Like the NHL Awards to be held next month in Las Vegas (...baby, Vegas!), there's your standard top coach, defenseman, rookie and scorer awards; but the KHL also recognizes some interesting other categories -- led by "Best Referee."
Is it possible to have this category in the NHL? Who would vote? Stephen Walkom?
What about the award for the earliest/latest goal in a game? Hey! Here's a watch for being so fast at scoring or notching an overtime winner. Enjoy the post-show borscht.
How 'bout the "Ironman" award, given to the player who's played the most games over three seasons? No, this isn't a consecutive-games streak we're talking about. Just being healthy over three seasons is enough. Somewhere, Doug Jarvis is scoffing at this award.
But it's not just the concept of the awards; it's the awards themselves. Like the KHL MVP given to former Pittsburgh Penguins star and Marty Brodeur-killer Alexei Morozov, pictured above. The Hart Trophy might have an interesting look to it, wouldn't you rather take home a sweet-looking, fire-breathing dragon to place on the mantle?
After the jump, a photo diary of some of the KHL's other awards handed out that night.
Jan Marek, who took home the KHL version of the 'Rocket' Richard Trophy apparently had to also do a 45-minute presentation on the pros and cons of the RBK Edge and CCM jersey.
The rookie of the year award, named after the late Alexei Cherepanov, was given to Ilya Proskuryakov. I wouldn't be surprised if the hot chick was the real trophy.
A Liza Minelli lookalike was on hand to bring the pizzazz and belt out her own version of "New York, New York", better known as "Mettalurg, Mettalurg".
Danis Zaripov won the Golden Stick award for regular season MVP. With the current state of flimsy that hockey sticks are in, Zaripov's immediately snapped in half as soon as he grabbed it to hold above his head. The presenter was given two minutes for slashing.
Finally, if there's one thing award shows need more of it's the chicks, man, as Lokomotiv's Georgi Gelashvili found out.
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We here at Puck Daddy love the Russians, but were stumped after thinking of "best secondary assist" and "best line change" when coming up with awards for the KHL to hand out next year.
If you have any suggestions for future KHL awards, please do let us know in the comments.
