No, the three stars of this series will not be awarded to the three forwards on the "second" line, but they could be. That line accounted for 22 points, nine of the team's 19 goals, three of the four game-winners, and averaged better than a plus-five.
But this series was far too close for any one line to get all three stars. In examining the three stars of an entire series, they almost cannot be on the same line: Each of those players fed off another, and the star needs to go to the driving force.
And there certainly was no shortage of great players deserving of recognition. On the Sharks alone, one could have found five legitimate stars—for more on the team's candidates, check out my grades for the defence on Shark-Infested Blogger, and look for the follow-up piece there grading Sharks forwards.
Honourable mention
Evgeni Nabokov had an outstanding series outside of the second period of Game Two (.945 save percentage, 1.35 goals against average), in which he gave up three goals on four shots. Overall, he still had a .926 save pct. and 1.76 GAA, despite three of his 11 goals being of the flukish variety.
Also, as ment ...
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Article written by MJ Kasprzak
Sharks-Avs Wrap-Up: Series Three Stars
April 27th, 2010 by MJ Kasprzak Leave a reply »
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