After our usual Tuesday night skate, my teammates and I repaired to the Grill where the TV had highlights of all the NHL action. I noticed the Canadiens had won 3-1 in Atlanta and Carey Price had made 40 saves. Maybe it was the unusually large amount of lime that Eddie O. the bartender put in my club soda, but it crossed my mind that Carey Price certainly could be a legitimate candidate for the Hart Trophy. And then I started to think about who else might be considered. Compared to some of them, Price — who has almost single-handedly saved Montreal from a disastrous season — might be a longshot.

With the regular season entering its final stages — no team has more than 20 games left, the trade deadline has passed and playoff-race ferocity saturates the competition — the time is right to examine the NHLers who have been so crucial that the their teams might well have been a level or two below, if not complete train wrecks, without them.

http://nhl-red-light.si.com/2011/03/...edium=referral