Boston Bruins

Solid NHL Awards Finishes For Boston Bruins Marchand, McAvoy

Published

3 years ago

June 29, 2021

While the Boston Bruins didn’t live up to their hopes and aspirations while bowing out in the second round of the playoffs, they did end up having some pretty good showings for the NHL Awards. Brad Marchand finished a career-best fifth in the Hart Trophy voting for the NHL’s MVP Award and also finished as a First Team All-Star at left wing based on the voting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

It was the second First Team NHL All-Star nod for Marchand, who was joined by Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Adam Fox, Cale Makar and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy also finished a career-best fifth in the Norris Trophy voting behind a pair of other young D-men in Adam Fox and Cale Makar that finished first and second respectively in the voting. McAvoy finished with a pair of first place votes for the Norris and should become a serious contender for the award over the next few seasons as he enters the prime of his NHL career.

Here’s the voting breakdown for the Norris:

Charlie McAvoy finished in fifth place in the Norris Trophy voting.

Methinks he’s going to be a little bit higher next season. pic.twitter.com/WIrpZvYK0x

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) June 29, 2021

The 33-year-old Marchand had 29 goals and 69 points along with a plus-26 in 53 games during the regular season and was Boston’s biggest impact player in a solid playoff season in the East Division. Marchand then went on to post eight goals and 12 points in 11 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs during consistently excellent and dominant performances for the Black and Gold.

The 23-year-old McAvoy had a breakthrough season with the Black and Gold as their No. 1 defenseman after the free agent exit of Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug prior to this year. Then McAvoy was the glue holding Boston’s back end together in the playoffs with 12 points in 11 games along with a plus-2 rating in 26:39 of ice time per game during the postseason. If the Bruins could have pushed deeper into the playoffs then McAvoy might have even been a Conn Smythe candidate given the way he was playing.

David Pastrnak received one fifth place vote for the Hart Trophy as well for the Black and Gold, so here’s the breakdown for the Hart Trophy voting: