Wrong Award/All Star choices

[ShelbyZ]

But I'll pick the 1996 Vezina vote, and GMs deciding that Jim Carey (.906) and Chris Osgood (.911) were the best goalies in the league with Dominik Hašek (.920) finishing solid 8th.

‘96 Vezina is definitely one of the strangest. Maybe a combination of Hasek fatigue and infatuation with an unheralded newcomer.

IIRC, for a long time, missing the playoffs was seen as a huge turn off for Vezina votes. That year, Hasek was easily the best goalie, but the Sabres missed the playoffs. Brodeur was also out as the Devils missed too. If I recall, Roy was also out of the running because of all the trade stuff.

IMO, the real winner should've been Daren Puppa. He was 2nd to Hasek in most fancy goalie metrics and pretty much broke his back carrying that early Lightning team to it's first playoff appearance and the only one they'd see in their first 10 seasons.

They went with Jim Carey probably because of his age and his eye-popping 9 shutouts, which IIRC were the most in a single season since Ken Dryden had 10 maybe 20 or so years earlier. His numbers were otherwise rather mediocre and he played behind a defensive Caps team that allowed the 2nd least shots on goal behind only the Red Wings that season. And while his team made the playoffs, he got absolutely destroyed by the Penguins for the 2nd year in a row.

To be fair, Puppa didn't have a solid showing in the playoffs either, but I think his back injury flared up right before the end of the regular season.