TSN.ca Best Of: The Leafs' big catch

The annual TSN.ca 'Best Of'' takes to the ice with the top stories of 2015, including the Toronto Maple Leafs landing a prize free agent, Jamie Benn's surge to the scoring title, Andrew Hammond's amazing run and, of course, Carey Price's dominance.
 

The Leafs land their big free agent By: Mike Hetherington

He was far from your usual prize free agent.

Mike Babcock had never scored 30 goals, or even played in an NHL game. Yet, the coach who had  never missed the playoffs with the Detroit Red Wings was the top name on the market this spring.

The city of Toronto was abuzz as rumours swirled in May that the team was pursuing Babcock – the team’s seemingly best hope of turning around a team that had made the playoffs once in the last 10 years.

As a reminder of Maple Leafs history of futility, president Brendan Shanahan had fired general manager Dave Nonis and interim head coach Peter Horachek just one month earlier after the team’s worst season since the late 90’s.

As time ticked down toward Babcock’s self-imposed deadline to pick a team, the Buffalo Sabres and Red Wings emerged as frontrunners for the prized coach. But it was the Maple Leafs - and their offer of $50 million over eight years – who lured bench boss.

The social media world exploded with the news, while TSN’s Jonas Siegel declared Babcock the biggest free agent catch in franchise history and, perhaps, the history of the city.

Yes, in 2015 the city of Toronto experienced the thrill of chasing a superstar free agent, a feeling not likely to be experienced again… until, perhaps, next year. 
 

2015 ends early for McDavid By: Paul Hoogkamp

He came into the league as a generational player; the next Sidney Crosby, Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky, depending on who you talked to.

When the Edmonton Oilers won the NHL Draft Lottery, their rebuilding plan was greatly accelerated while GM Tim Murray of the last-place Buffalo Sabres was sour for missing out.

The Calder Trophy seemed to be McDavid's to lose. After all, he had scored 120 points in just 47 games last season with the OHL's Erie Otters. He was ready to dominate at the next level.

The season started off slowly for the league's newest phenom. After four games, McDavid had just one goal; not bad for an 18-year-old but he was supposed to be different.

What followed was a seven-game point streak, including four goals and seven assists, that gave him 12 points in 11 games and NHL rookie of the month honours. So maybe he is the real deal.

But then came the injury.

On November 3, McDavid was killing a penalty against the Philadelphia Flyers when his pounced on a turnover and headed up ice. Speeding down the left wing, he went wide on defenceman Brandon Manning, a move that all NHL blueliners will see for years to come.

After shooting on net, he lost his balance and went crashing into the end boards, followed by Manning and Michael Del Zotto landing in a heap. It didn't look good, especially when he got up holding his left shoulder.

The following day, Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli had the misfortune of announcing that McDavid was out for months with a broken collarbone.

And with that, what promised to be a memorable 2015 for McDavid, and all hockey fans for that matter, came to a disappointing end.

Benn surges to the scoring title By: Jamie Mountain

The NHL scoring race was something to behold in 2014-15.

Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and John Tavares of the New York Islanders were in a three-way race for the Art Ross Trophy, which is handed out annually to the player who leads the league in points.

Heading into the final game of the season, Benn trailed Crosby and Tavares by a point, having 83 to their 84.

It was the closest scoring race since Jaromir Jagr, then with the Penguins, and Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers each had 70 points in the shortened 1994-95 season which Jagr won because he had more goals.

Crosby was held off the scoresheet in Pittsburgh’s 2-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres and finished with 84 points. Tavares picked up pair in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, raising his total to 86.

Although the odds were clearly stacked against him, needing three points to tie and four to win the title, it still wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for Benn. He had three or more points in four of his last five heading into Stars’ final game against the Nashville Predators.

Benn continued that hot streak, scoring his third goal of the contest into an empty net with 2:05 remaining, tying Tavares with 86 points. Had the two remained tied, Tavares would have won the title because he had more goals (38 to 35).

But with less than 10 seconds left, Benn assisted on defenceman Trevor Daley's goal to cap off the Stars’ 4-1 win. The assist pushed Benn’s point total to 87, one ahead of Tavares to secure his first career Art Ross Trophy.

That game capped off a career year for Benn, as his previous high for points was 79 in the 2013-14 season.
 

Hamburglar Steals the Show By: Ryan Horne

Andrew Hammond will likely never come close to winning the Vezina Trophy in his career.

But for two months to end the 2014-15 regular season, the goaltender they call “The Hamburglar” because of the McDonald’s character painted on his mask, took the league by storm and led the Ottawa Senators to an improbable run into the playoffs.

With injuries to Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner, the Sens had no choice but to call up the 27-year-old from the American Hockey League. Hammond got his first career start on Feb. 18 and beat the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 4-2.

It only got better from there.

Three nights later, Hammond and the Sens edged the Florida Panthers and then shut out the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings on consecutive nights on the road. The Senators, with Hammond between the pipes, would win again a few nights later against the San Jose Sharks before finally falling to the Minnesota Wild to end the streak.

A 5-0 record with a pair of shutouts thrown in the mix to begin your career. Not too shabby at all.

Hammond’s popularity continued to grow at a rapid rate while Ottawa inched closer and closer to a playoff spot. After the Wild loss, the 27-year-old became the No.1 goalie in the nation’s capital and won his next nine starts in net.

A new tradition was born in the process as fans at the Canadian Tire Centre would throw McDonald’s hamburgers on the ice after wins.

One moment that will stick out for many Sens fans came on March 19th after a home win against the Boston Bruins.  The crowd tossed their burgers onto this rink, but instead of the ice crew picking them up, rookie forward Curtis Lazar decided to grab one for a little post-game snack.

The Senators were rolling. And they would continue to roll right into the playoffs.

The Surry, BC native went 20-1-2 with a 1.79 GAA and a 0.941 save percentage with three shutouts to cap the season. A truly remarkable run to begin a NHL career.

Hammond wasn’t the same goalie in the playoffs and the Senators weren’t the same team. The Hamburglar lost the first two games of their opening round series against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. Anderson took over for the rest of the series and Montreal would eventually win in six games.

Despite the early exit and an injury riddled start to this season, fans will never forget the excitement and pleasure The Hamburglar gave them for that two month magical ride.

In 2015, Price was always right By: Mitch Sanderson

In 2015, Carey Price was the man.

In his eighth NHL season with the Montreal Canadiens, Price played 66 games finishing with a  record of 44-16-6 (an NHL-best in wins). He also posted nine shutouts, league-bests in goals against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933).

The bleu, blanc, et rouge finished second in the league with 110 points and won the Atlantic division despite being the lowest scoring team to qualify for the playoffs thanks to Price.

The Canadiens couldn’t ride their uneven formula for regular season success all the way to the cup, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round, but they didn’t exit the NHL season without any hardware.

Just over six weeks after the Habs dropped game six in Tampa Bay, Price went to the 2015 NHL Awards in Las Vegas and made history becoming the first player to ever sweep the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and William Jennings Award.

Number 31 ran away with the voting as he earned 1,498 Hart voting points from the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association (Alex Ovechkin - 888 points; John Tavares - 739 points) and 27 of 30 first-place votes for the Vezina from NHL general managers.

Price became the first goaltender since fellow-Canadien Jose Theodore in 2002 to earn the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player and only the seventh in the league history.

True to his form and his upbringing, Price took the opportunity in his Vezina Trophy acceptance speech to acknowledge and encourage his roots as a descent of the Ulkatcho First Nation.

“A lot of people would say it’s very improbable that I would make it to this point in my life and I made it here because I wasn’t discouraged,” said an emotional Price. “I worked hard to get here, took advantage of every opportunity that I had.

“I would really like to encourage First Nations youth to be leaders in their communities, be proud of your heritage and don’t be discouraged from the improbable. Sunachailya”

“Sunachailya” means "thank you" in the Dakelh language, spoken by the Ulkatcho people, who are part of the Carrier First Nation.

But the 28-year-old puck-stopper didn’t end his award train in June. After becoming the first goaltender to sweep the NHL Awards, Price became the first goalie to win the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete in 2015.

Price will finish off the 2015 calendar year on the Canadiens’ injury list as he deals with a nagging lower-body injury, but that’s a small price to pay for one of the best years a hockey player could ask for.