Jean-Sebastien Giguere

#35 / Goalie / Colorado Avalanche

Height: 6-1

Weight: 202

Born: May 16, 1977

2011 Cap Hit: $1,250,000

2012 Status: 1 more year left on the contract

One of the things I love most about the Avalanche is the organization's willingness to take risks on players other teams overlook. Such is the case with Jean-Sebastien Giguere. He came into Colorado tagged as over-the-hill, injury-prone, and much too far past his prime to be at all effective. However, what the Avalanche got was as far from that reputation as one can get. They also got the perfect compliment to young goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

Giguere started the season as Colorado's back up goaltender. The Avs told him from the start what they wanted: someone to hold down the fort while their starter rested and a mentor to the young franchise netminder. He knew his place. Varlamov knew it too. Not a lot of people out there could have predicted that Giguere would end up being the rock that helped anchor an inconsistent team for nearly half the season both on the ice and off of it.

Giguere's stats speak for themselves, so there's little more I can say on that other than the man is a competitor. Despite recognizing the role the Avalanche wanted him to play, he never stopped pushing himself—and in turn, Varlamov—to be better. But more than that is what you don't see in those numbers: the impact he clearly had on Varly. In practices, the two goalies would spend a great deal of time working together. Often, Giguere would pull Varly aside to talk about whatever drill they happened to be doing. By the end of the season, you could see some of Giguere in the way Varlamov played. The young Russian was more calm in the net, and his positioning was stronger. The tandem of these two goaltenders was hailed by some as the best in the league. That might be a stretch when it comes to wins and losses, but the effect the two had on each other certainly made it the best possible scenario the Avs could have hoped for.

2012 Outlook: In 2012, Giguere will continue to provide a wealth of benefits to the team and, in particular, Varlamov, and at just over a million bucks, that's quite the bargain. Unless something bizarro happens, expect to see Jiggy in an Avs sweater at least until the season is done.

Who did the SBN writers' decide should win the Norris?

The James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the best all-around defenseman in the NHL. Here at SB Nation, bloggers from our 33 hockey blogs have cast their own ballots for the award.

Ballots featured three fill-in-the-blank spaces for the Norris Trophy, and voters were asked to select a third-place finisher, a second-place finisher and a winner for the award. Players receiving third-place votes were awarded one point, second-place votes were awarded two points and first-place votes were awarded three points. 39 ballots were submitted in total.

And the winner is ....

Shea Weber

Check out Down Goes Brown (this one via the National Post) comparing Brodeur and Lundqvist.

Brodeur Turns away NHL shooters by employing a hybrid style that combines aspects of the butterfly technique with a more traditional stand-up approach.
Lundqvist Turns away NHL shooters by lifting his mask and gently saying "Look at this face, would you really want to be responsible for making it frown?"

The Memorial Cup tournament is on.

The Saint John Sea Dogs have served notice they are still the team to beat at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

Zach Phillips scored twice and the defending champion Sea Dogs used greater effort and more of their considerable skill to defeat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-2 on Monday night and create a four-way tie for the tournament lead.

#8 Los Angeles Kings at #3 Phoenix Coyotes, Game 5, 9:00 ET, NBC and CBC. Kings lead series 3-1.

Take 2. The Kings look to close the series out one more time as they take on the Coyotes on Arizona ice. I'm not sure if the LA boys thought it would be easy or if they just had an off game—much like game 4 against the Vancouver Canucks—but the Phoenix boys certainly took it to 'em on Sunday. Mind you, it's on the road where the Kings have really shined as they are yet undefeated away from the not-as-busy-now Staples Center (Clippers, wtf happened?). It will certainly be interesting to see how Jonathan Quick responds to letting in so many pucks. He tends to tighten up his game after this kind of thing. The best thing the Kings can do for themselves, though, is start scoring on the power play. Since game 2, they have amassed only 3 (THREE) PP goals in 58 (FIFTY-EIGHT) attempts, good for an incredibly dismal 8.6% success rate over the playoffs. That is bad, my friends.

The Yotes just need to do what they did in Game 4: hot goaltending, hot Shane Doan.

	STATS
13	GP	15
11	W	9
2	L	6
0	OT	2
0	P	0
0.846	P%	0.600
2.85	G/G	2.27
1.46	GA/G	2.07
8.6	PP%	13.6
92.2	PK%	90.2
31.5	S/G	25.7
28.1	SA/G	36.8
48.0	FO%	51.4

Ask anyone in the hockey world about the Western Conference finals, and unless that person is a fan of the Phoenix Coyotes, he/she will tell you the Kings are taking the series within the next two games. Those East Coast teams are making a game of it, though, with the teams trading off strong performances—and douchebag moves. The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are sitting at two games apiece, and no clear winner can be determined right now. So it's up to the MHH faithful to do some predicting. Which Eastern Conference team is going to pull this one out?

Dan Winnik

#34 / Winger / San Jose

Height: 6-2

Weight: 210

Born: Mar 06, 1985

2012 Cap Hit: $950,000

2012 Status: UFA

Daniel Winnik made a big splash as soon as he joined the Avalanche, getting in a tussle with Kyle Quincey within days of joining the team on the ice for the first time. Surprisingly the biggest knock against the 6'2, 210 pound forward is his unwillingness to use his body this way during games. Winnik dressed for 63 games in the Burgundy and Blue this season and amassed 42 penalty minutes in that time. He managed to get 18 points, this includes time spent on the line with Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O`Reilly. Winnik averaged a high number of minutes each game - usually getting some of the most of any forwards. Not bad for a guy drafted in the ninth round (265^th overall). His ice time drew the ire of a number of fans that were frustrated that a player with not much offensive output monopolized so much ice time.

Winnik's strength came on penalty kills. He could effectively, single-handedly- kill off thirty seconds while a man down. Once he got the puck, because of his size, it was near impossible to knock him off of it. While Quincey effectively burned bridges - if not with Avalanche management, certainly with their faithful fans - upon his trade, Winnik was graceful to both the fans and management for their support during his time in Avs' gear.

Sandie's Take: I'm not going to lie I miss seeing him dress for the Avalanche. I dislike that he is a Shark. When Dan was traded, the Avalanche loss a great penalty killer - especially since he wasn't frequently the one taking the trip to the Sin Bin. One thing I noticed is that the guy never stopped talking. He communicated with the refs, teammates and opposition throughout the game. He never stopped jawing, and although Steve Downie glares the opposition down, I haven't seen him step into the role of keeping a line of communication with the referees. I expect good things from Daniel. He'll never be on the high-scoring list, but what he brings to a team is a constant, defensively sound, game that allows the rest of his line to move freely, without worrying about their own zone.

DDC's Take: I'll miss Winnik as well, and not just because we share the same birthday, college and rugged good looks. But I would move his defense for McGinn's offensive potential 16,000 times in a row. Sorry Sandie.

Adrian Dater believes that both Adam Deadmarsh and Sylvain Lefebvre will be back behind the bench next year. Of course, we're talking about the PR inept Avalanche here, so this information had to be obtained by extrapolation from non-comments. Fucking ridiculous.

There were rumors that Lefebvre might leave to coach the new Sherbrooke team in the QMJHL this coming season, but when I asked if there were any changes to the Avs’ assistant coaching spots – Lefebvre’s in particular – I was met with silence. Which means, from what I gather from that, he’s coming back.

TSN's Scott Cullen has his annual offseason game plan up for the Avalanche. These are usually pretty well done, especially with regards to the Avs' needs. He also has some potential additions (Mikael Samuellson, Matt Carle and George Parros). Definitely worth the read, at least I can get off my ass and do one of my own.

That kind of financial flexibility could open up opportunities for the Avalanche to get active in the trade of free agent markets this summer. Ideally, a move to add a high-calibre defenceman would likely have the most immediate impact, but any additions of proven NHL talent can't be dismissed for a team with a core that is relatively unproven.

Since we all know the NHL awards are rigged, Travis Hughes put together an SB Nation Blogger awards, with voting by - you guessed it - SBN bloggers. Sandie and AJ were among the 15,000 bloggers to vote (it might have been closer to 40). Yesterday, the SBN Vezina was awarded to Jonathan Quick.

Be sure to check in with your favorite SB Nation hockey blogs to see how writers covering each team cast their ballots. Check back on Tuesday as we announce our winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL's top defenseman.

#1 New York Rangers at #6 New Jersey Devils, Game 4, 8:00 Eastern, NBC Sports and CBC. Rangers lead series 2-1

If you watched Game 1 of this series you watched Game 3, down to the goal scorers (empty net not included). New York played a very Coyotean, you can have all the shot attempts you want but our goalie will make save after save, counterpunch when you finally make a mistake, game. Then in the third Dan Girardi and Chris Kreider put a pair of pucks past Pudgy Marty (who, in his defense, was probably bored) and that was that. The Devils will be inserting Jacob Josefson for Petr Sykora, and the Rangers will have "no update" for their lineups. Dubinsky is still out. Somehow I missed his injury, but NHL.com says it's lower body.

Also worthy of note, Brandon Prust will be out with a Shanaban injury he suffered when elbowing the back of Volchenkov's head.

	STATS
17	GP	15
10	W	9
7	L	6
2	OT	1
0	P	0
0.588	P%	0.600
2.18	G/G	2.60
1.71	GA/G	2.40
19.4	PP%	18.2
84.5	PK%	71.4
29.1	S/G	31.5
28.3	SA/G	26.9
48.0	FO%	47.1

Joakim Lindstrom

#28 / Center / Colorado Avalanche

Height: 6-0

Weight: 187

Born: Dec 05, 1983

2011 Cap Hit: $600,000

2012 Outlook: Lindström has already shipped back to Skellefteå AIK and its doubtful he will play in the NHL again next year.

Once again the Avs tried to fill a gap in their top six talent with a top scoring Swede. Unfortunately, it’s a trick that has had very little success since a certain Mr. Forsberg hung up his Avs jersey for good. Joakim Lindström joins a long line of questionable European imports with Per Ledin, Jonas Holos, and Jaroslav Hlinka. We can call them Per Hølinkaström.

Drafted 41^st overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2002, Lindstrom has played 97 games in the NHL collecting 15 goals and 33 points. Lindstrom has some very nice hands, which allowed him to win the SEL’s scoring title in 2011 with Skellefteå AIK but he’s been unable to transition to NHL style play. Lindstrom looked decent in training camp, but struggled when he had to play full contact NHL hockey. He had only 5 points in 16 games as an Av and scored his only 2 goals in the 7-1 rout against the Ottawa Senators. So lets remember the good times as we say so long to another Swede.

Cole's Take: Its too bad, if he could just learn to play with his body a little better I think he could stick in the NHL. He has nice hands, especially on the pass and really great on ice vision, but physically, he's just not cut out for the NHL. Good luck in Sweden Joakim, your one timer goal in Ottawa will always be one of the filthiest of the season.

Cheryl's Take: Imaginary awesomeness notwithstanding, it really is too bad it didn't work out with Lindstrom. He seemed to have the skill set the Avs needed in the top six. I liked what I saw in training camp when he first got to Denver, but he never really panned out consistently in the regular season. He showed flashes of what he could be, but in the end, NHL ice just wasn't a good fit for him. I still think he's a talented hockey player, though. For reals.