Coach Al Sims and captain Colin Chaulk retired, and now so has the goaltender who backstopped them to four championships between 2008 and 2012.OK, I turned in my second of two awards ballots to the IHL today.
For MVP, I picked Robin Bouchard of Muskegon. He has 58 goals in 65 games. It's tough to argue with that.
Rookie of the Year, I went with Mikael Bedard of Port Huron, who impressed me not just with his 34 goals, but also with his plus-29 rating. (I gave consideration to Flint goaltender Rob Nolan, too. It was a tough call.)
Very tough call at Goaltender of the Year, where I picked Tim Haun of Fort Wayne. I'm not entirely comfortable with it, just because I happen to think he's not the most talented goalie on his own team, but this is an award that I really believe in statistics and Haun leads in victories (25), goals-against average (2.16) and the most important one, save percentage (.922), while playing in a hefty 40 games.
For my first-team all-stars, I picked: Haun at goalie, defensemen Matt Krug of Muskegon and Daniel Tetrault of Port Huron, plus forwards Bouchard, Colin Chaulk of Fort Wayne and Jon Booras of Bloomington. (I know, I left leading scorer Todd Robinson off, but that's because I wanted to give some weight to the two-way players Chaulk and Booras. Tough call there.)
For my all-rookie team: Nolan at goalie, defensemen Krug and Frankie DeAngelis of Fort Wayne, plus forwards Bedard, John Mori of Flint and Sean O'Connor of Fort Wayne.
- Don't forget, the inaugural "We've got Game" internet radio show, with Justin Cohn and Ben Smith, will be Tuesday at 6 p.m. If you miss it, you can replay it whenever is convenient. Check back here for details on Tuesday, or just go to this page and click on this radio button to the right at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Among the guests will be the Komets' Mitch Woods, and we plan to ask him some entertaining questions.
