To no one's surprise, the Ottawa Senators got very little prestige at the NHL Awards Show last night. It was an off-year, to say the least, and that was reflected in the voting for the major awards and accolades presented in Las Vegas. Some might think that Zdeno Chara, winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman, might be the closest the Senators came to an award on the night, but you might be surprised--a few Senators players did get some votes. Okay, I lied--only Daniel Alfredsson got any love, and he's about the only Senator who deserved any votes (except maybe Jesse Winchester, but he'd be a little ways down any Calder Trophy voting list).

According to Jimmy Mirtle at From The Rink, Alfredsson got two votes and six vote-points for the Frank J. Selke Trophy for defensive forward to finish 38th overall (respectable), a well-earned accolade that I gave to Alfredsson in the Senators-only awards. And he was also the only Senator to get any All-Star love, with six votes and six vote-points to finish ninth in voting for right-wingers. EDIT: Oh yeah, and according to Puck Daddy, Alfie finished sixth in Lady Byng Trophy voting, too.

To be honest, I'm glad the Senators had nothing to do with that awards show. Why do we have to try and make it a show, and not simply a celebration of hockey? I didn't even watch the whole thing, but they should have done two things: Had Tim Thomas or Jean Béliveau (I'm sad I didn't get to watch that guy play hockey) emcee the thing, and cut Gary Bettman off so that Alex Ovechkin could have had more than 30 seconds for his Hart Trophy speech.