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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Moulson a Byng Finalist -- again.

Matt Moulson has been named a finalist for the Lady Byng Award for the second straight season.  The other finalists are Tampa's Martin St. Louis and Chicago's Patrick Kane.

Moulson recorded only two minor penalties all season; the last came February 7th at MSG.  Ironically he received a misconduct penalty at the end of Game 1 of the playoffs. Kane had four minor penalties, while St. Louis, who is looking to become the first player since Wayne Gretzky (1994) to win the Art Ross and Lady Byng Trophy in the same season, finished with 14 penalty minutes.

There were only three winners of the award in the seven years between the lockouts: Brian Campbell won the award last season; Marty St. Louis won in 2010-11 and 2009-2010, after Pavel Datsyuk had won it in all four years since the lockout.The Islanders have had two players win the award:  Mike Bossy won it three times (82-83, 83-84 and 85-86); Pierre Turgeon won it in 1992-93.  Two other players with Islander ties have also won the award: Phil Goyette, who later served as the Islanders' first coach, won it in 1969-70 with St. Louis while Butch Goring won it for Los Angeles in 1977-78 before winning four Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe Trophy with the Islanders.

Moulson was actually named on the most ballots in last year's voting (98 of 147, to Jordan Eberle's 91 and Campbell's 89) but finished third in the voting by points.

The award is one of the NHL's oldest, having been presented continuous since 1924-25.  Frank Boucher won it 7x in the 20s and 30s.  Since then only Datysuk (4x), Kelly (4x) and Wayne Gretzky (5x) have won it more often than Bossy.

More from NHL.com here http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=670853
 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

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