May 05, 2003
Mogilny May Stand Up Lady Byng
If you've ever had the misfortune of watching the NHL post season awards show, you know how the league seems to give away awards for just about any and all reasons. In a way, the program most closely resembles the award give-away at the end of Summer Camp, where most kids get honored, and everyone's feelings are spared. It's a shame, really, especially since hockey in Canada has a rich and deep history as significant as Major League Baseball here in the U.S.
Not that anyone inside hockey ever says this out loud. Well, until now anyway:
Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Alexander Mogilny, who was nominated for the Lady Byng Trophy last month following a stellar NHL season, says he is not interested in the sportsmanship award.
"Lady Byng is more of a consolation prize. I don't need it," the outspoken Russian was quoted as saying in Monday's edition of Sport-Express newspaper.
Mogilny's agent went on to say that even if Mogilny knew he was going to win the award, he probably wouldn't show up in Toronto to get it anyway.
The Lady Byng is the sort of trophy that is unique to ice hockey in that it is awarded to "the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." The league began awarding it in 1925, and it's named after Lady Evelyn Byng, wife of a former Governor General* of Canada. For those of you who have never played hockey, the idea of bestowing an award on a hockey player in part for "sportsmanship and gentlemanly play," may seem a little ironic.
That is, until you've actually played the game. It's then that you realize what sort of player earns the Lady Byng -- one with such natural ability and skill, that they don't need to resort to the nasty and underhanded stuff the rest of us mere mortals rely on just to stay on the ice. Sure, there will always be an honored place in hockey history for guys like Terry O'Reilly, Dale Hunter and Ken Linseman. But the Lady Byng goes to greats like Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Paul Kariya -- the sort of player who has the rare talent and skill you always wish was in greater supply.
The original Lady Byng trophy was given, to Frank Boucher after the Rangers center had won the honor seven times over an eight year period. As you can see, there's plenty of history tied up in the Lady Byng, and it's only more recently that the award has unfairly earned the "consolation prize" tag that Mogilny associates with it. Here's hoping the voters take Mogilny's comments into account, and relieve him of the potential burden of being a Lady Byng winner.
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* For folks who live South of the border, the Governor General is the representative of the Sovereign of Great Britain (currently Queen Elizabeth II) in Canada. As a parliamentary democracy, Canada still recognizes the Queen as Canada's head of state. The Stanley Cup got its name from Lord Stanley of Preston, another former Governor General.
POSTSCRIPT: Don't forget -- Ottawa, Anaheim and Vancouver can all clinch their playoff series tonight with wins. I only expect Vancouver to do so.
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