Chaka Khan? Really? Chaka Khan is the star the NHL picks to "headline" their 2009 awards show? The same Chaka Khan whose biggest hit - "Tell Me Something Good" - came in 1974, the year Denis Potvin won the Calder? Robin Thicke?
Why didn't the NHL put in a call to Mike Fisher and Mike Comrie. The two Mikes are dating legit A-list stars Carrie Underwood and Hillary Duff. Surely Carrie and Hillary could have been persuaded to sing or even lip-sync a couple of tunes in Vegas and add some recognizable glitz to an otherwise star-unstudded (except for the players themselves) night.
Whose idea was it to give Jeremy Roenick a leading role in the awards show? JRo was a great player and he gives a pretty snappy interview but he is unable to read a teleprompter. Scotiabank must be ecstatic that he's renamed the Fan Fav Award the "Fab Five" or the "Fun Four" award or something. Kirk Muller suffers from the same affliction. Presumably the NHL decided that CBC announcer Ron McLean, the host of last year's awards, is a nobody in the US. Bring Ron back. Did anybody else think it was weird and kinda awkward to have Mark Messier present the Mark Messier award?
On a more positive note, the awards went to all the right people. Jean Beliveau was classy and gracious, as was Datsyuk. Tim Thomas was funny and genuinely emotional about winning the Vezina. Ovechkin was himself - always entertaining. Zdeno Chara appears to have taken public speaking lessons from Ken Dryden. Pat Burns looked great in presenting the Jack Adams to Claude Julien.
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