Tim Thomas, Corey Perry Lead NHL Awards Winners

The 2011 NHL Awards were held exactly a week after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. As such, more commendations were expected to go to the Bruins' stars, and they did not disappoint. In particular, Tim Thomas didn't disappoint, as he predictably steamrolled to the Vezina Trophy just as he steamrolled through the Canucks. But the Bruins weren't the only NHL club to have winners in this show.

While Thomas took his second Vezina in three years -- although this one came just after taking the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe -- a few Canucks got honored this time around as well. Daniel Sedin won the NHL Players Association's MVP while Ryan Kesler took the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward.

However, these victories won't entirely make up for how Sedin, Kesler, and the other Canucks fell apart in the finals. In addition, Sedin suffered another surprise loss during the awards show, losing the Hart Trophy for MVP to Anaheim's Corey Perry.

Although Sedin had the most points of the season, Perry had the most goals, and needed most of them to get the Ducks into the playoffs. Anaheim fell in the first round to Nashville, but the playoffs don't influence these selections, which was good news for Perry and Sedin.

While these players are new honorees, some winners were a bit more commonplace. Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom won his seventh Norris Trophy for best defenseman, albeit by only five points over Nashville's Shea Weber. Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis won his second straight Lady Bing Trophy for sportsmanship, although he lost the MVP race to Perry.

With these final trophies handed out and the Stanley Cup back in Boston, the NHL season is now officially closed. In both the playoffs and Wednesday's awards, the big story will wind up being Thomas, who seemed far away from being at these heights at this time last year. For that matter, so did the Bruins after their infamous 3-0 playoff collapse to the Flyers.

But right now all kinds of hardware is residing in Boston right now, with a lot of it going to Thomas. However, the Veniza Trophy was given out for his regular season performances, although his work in the playoffs will live on even further through the annals of hockey history. Yet his big regular season proved that he could bounce back from his injury-riddled 2009-10 season and lay the groundwork for the postseason heroics to come.

Thomas, Perry, Sedin and all of the year's major winners set a high bar this past season. But most of them know that the NHL's biggest awards are given out at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Therefore, they would likely trade their wins Wednesday for the ones that Thomas and the Bruins secured last week.

Sources

Fox News- "Perry, Thomas lead honorees at NHL Awards"

Boston Globe- "Tim Thomas Wins Vezina Trophy as NHL's best goaltender"