NHL MVP 

by J. Mesa

Our unanimous choice for the 2007-08 NHL season is Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin.

The 6-3 lefty was the second overall pick by the Pens in 2004 and has been on a steady climb to the top of the NHL’s elite and has reached the pinnacle in his fourth season. This season Malkin ranked No. 2 in the league in points with 106, No. 4 in goals (47) and finished the season ranked No. 6 in assists with 59. In the tradition of Penguins’ teams that have included Jagr and Lemieux it’s now Malkin’s turn to cement his legacy in Pittsburgh.

Malkin has been phenomenal in cementing a team that also boasts the likes of Sidney Crosby and a brick wall of a goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury to help the Penguins to their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 26 years.

This trip to the finals is more of comeback story for the Penguins than a meteoric rise. The Penguins sported a league-low 58 points in the ’03-’04 season, missed the playoffs after the lockout and were then threatened with relocation in ’05 before finally securing financing for some new digs.

The Penguins have scratched and clawed their way back to the top with the same tenacity as their defense – a defense that is oft overshadowed by their goal-scoring theatrics. Pittsburgh also helped their own cause via the front office by signing Crosby to a long-term deal while saving enough salary-cap room to keep Malkin and third-line center Jordan Staal. With their young core intact, the Penguins are one series victory away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s cup.

Standing in the way is hockey town’s own Detroit Redwings and the Lindstrom-led old men of the league. For all the youth on the Penguins side, the Redwings are every bit as old.

This current Redwing’s lineup has 23 Stanley Cup’s between them and Detroit stalwart Chris Chelios won his first cup a whole year before Sid “The Kid,” Crosby was even born. Detroit also has the league’s best goalie in Chris Osgood who sports a 2.09 GAA and has singlehandedly won and lost NHL picks for the betting world. This Detroit squad has all the history as one of the original six NHL hockey franchises and is also penning a comeback story of their own after having been eliminated last year in the Western Conference Finals by Anaheim.

So we begin the final chapter of this year’s NHL season with our Malkin as our MVP. The betting lines and story lines are in for the opening stanza and one of these two teams will complete their comeback. Will there be a changing of the guard or will the old guard stand firm and take one more cup off into the sunset of their careers?