TORONTO, On - As the clock struck 7:00 PM, the lights went out in the
Air Canada Center, the stage which was built was covered with scantly
clad, beatiful women and soon, Lou Bega came out singing his hit,
Mambo #5! That last a couple minutes... and then as Lou got near the
end of his song... across the loud speakers rang... PIMPIN AIN'T EASY!
And then the lights lit up two aisle as Ice T and the Godfather began
to make their way down to the ring, followed of course by them HOOOO'S!
After those two finished off their version of 'Pimpin Ain't Easy', they
cleared the stage and made way for the MC for the night, non other then
Chris Jericho!
'WELCOME TOOOOOO.... WLUHL IS JERICHO!!!!' young Jericho screamed into
the mic as the fans in Toronto got to their feet cheering and screaming!
Jericho want on for a while, taking his usual shots at some people...
nobody that hasn't been made fun of yet this year. Then, Jericho called
out league President Don Cherry to hand out the first award of the night,
the WLUHL Cup!
WLUHL CUP:
==========
Cherry made his way to the mic, made a few speaches and then he handed
the award over to the CHICAGO WINTER HAWKS GM and Head Coach, Ted Wollnik.
Mr. Wollnik gracefully accepted the WLUHL Cup once again as the fans, players
and fellow GM's rose to their feet to give Ted and his Hawks a standing ovation.
PRIME MINISTERS CUP:
====================
As Mr. Wollnik left the stage, the league President stayed put, and then
the Prime Ministers Cup was brought out to be given to the top team during
the regular season. Once again Cherry had a few words to say, and then he
called up the DIXIE BLACKENED VOODOO GM and Head Coach Hans Meyer. With a
record of 50-18-6, the Voodoo where easily the most dominating team throughout
the entire season, and thus, this 2nd year team earned their first Prime Minsters
Trophy.
HART TROPHY:
============
As Mr. Cherry and Mr. Meyer made their way off the stage, Mr. Jericho called
out non other then Austin Powers himself, Mike Meyers (who is also a huge hockey
fan) and singer and actor Jennifer Lopez, who at Commissioner Stumpf's request,
wore that sexy green outfit again!
The two presenters named off each of the 5 nominees for the award. In the
past 5 years, there has been 5 different winners, and this year it would be
#6 as all five of these men have never won this award before. Previously,
Mark Messier, Vincent Damphousse, John LeClair, Paul Kariya and Joe Nieuwendyke
have all had their names engraved on the cup. Now, you can add the name of
Bure to that trophy. With 8 first place votes, and 4 second
place votes, and with 65 goals in 64 games, from the WATERLOO HITMEN, the
Russian Rocket, PAVEL BURE.
NORRIS TROPHY:
==============
Bure, after a very emotional speach left the stage with his award and with
Lopez and Meyers, making sure not to touch Lopez for fear of having Puffy coming
looking for him! As they disappeared, teen pop sensation Britney Spears, and
'The Gladiator' Russell Crowe made their way out to present the Norris Trophy to
the league's top defencemen.
Again, the two presenters went through each of the 5 men nominated. This award
was said to be one of the tightest races there was with Svehla, MacInnis and Aucoin
all in the running for the award. However, only one man could win, and Spears, wearing
that red leather outfit of hers, with a nice little smile and her nice little breasts,
(which are all natural... they just happened to double in size over night) called out
the winner. With 9 first place votes, and 5 second place votes, and with 14 goals and
42 assists, and a plus 25, from the HALIFAX FORCE... ROBERT SVEHLA.
VEZINA TROPHY:
==============
As Svehla finished accepting his award, he left the stage with Spears and Crowe,
to give way to two people who have made a living out of stopping things... maybe not
pucks, they have made a habit of stopping other things! From the blockbuster hit
Mission Impossible 2, the man who will try to stop evil and save the world, Tom Cruise,
AND someone who makes many guys hearts stop, Cindy Crawford.
Crawford obviously got the bigger ovation of the two presenters... which is the
way it should be! After exchanging a number of jokes, the two called out all three
of the nominees for the award for the top Goalie this year. Over the past 5 seasons,
the award has only been won by 2 people. Patrick Roy has won the award 4 times, and
last season, Domonik Hasek won the award with the St. George Dragons. We all wondered
who would win it this year? Hasek was nominated again, but so where a couple other
guys who had some great seasons.
Everyone waited in anticipation, and then, Tom Cruise opened up the envelop and
called out the winner. With 13 first place votes, and 4 second place votes, from the
Dixie Blackened Voodoo, with a 1.92 GOA, .926 Save Percentage and 7 shut outs,
this years Vezina Winner, Byron Dafoe.
LADY BING:
==========
Sir Byron kept his speach short and to the point. Which meant that our next
two presenters, both of who know how to be very lady like :) made their way
out. Singer sensation Jessica Simpson, with her stunning looks made her way out
first. Joining her was the star of Happy Gilmour and The Waterboy, Adam Sandler,
someone who knows what he likes in a lady!
After taking a few cracks at Simpson and her little splitting her pants
situation during one concert (which I would have loved to see!), Sandler and
Simpson announced who the five nominees where for this trophy. In the past,
Joe Sakic, Peter Bondra and Wayne Gretzky have won this award. Non of those
three where nominated this year, but this years crop was and is, just as good
as those three men.
When it was all said and done, PETR SYKORA from the CHICAGO WINTER HAWKS
nudge out Brett Hull of the Kitchener Terriers by 1 point. With 7 first place
votes and 6 second place votes, and with 30 goals, 47 assists and only 26
PIM, Sykora was a fine choice for both the league, and for the Cup Winning
Hawks.
SELKE TROPHY:
=============
The name of this award is Defensive, and the two people who came out to
hand this award know a lot about that! The man who was the heart and soul of
Buffalo Bills during their 4 trips to the Super Bowl, and the heart and soul of
the team until his release this past off season, defensive tackle Bruce Smith.
Joining Smith on stage was movie super star Jackie Chan!
The two men talked about some of the players nominated this year, and
then they showed a few clips of a couple guys who, well, let's just say don't
make it back past the blue line too often! As they did that, we all wondered
who would win the Selke Trophy... but in all honestly, it wasn't really a
contest at all.
Once the clips where done, Smith opened up the evelope, and with an
over helming vote of confidence, JERE LEHTINEN from the CHICAGO WINTER HAWKS
won with 16 first place votes, 13 more votes then his next competitor. For
Lehtinen, this was his first Selke Trophy, and no doubt there will be more to
come for this excellent two way player.
*** Intermission ***
With that award, there was a brief intermission... then, after about a 5
minute break, the Blood Hound Gang came out on stage, and pounded out there
latest hit, 'Bad Touch'. The fans where up on there feet as the Blood Hound
Gang pounded this out... and as they finished, everyone in the building was
set for the next award!
*** End of Intermission ***
As the Blood Hound Gang left the stage, Chris Jericho once again made his
way back out, taking a few more shots at some of the presenters and of course,
at a couple of the celebreties in attendance tonight. However, he didn't take
any shots when he announced the next two presenters.
GOLDEN GLOVES:
==============
As the Golden Gloves where rolled out from the back, just like all the rest
of the trophies, Chris Jericho called out the next two announcers. First, walked
out, non other then "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. As Austin made it to the mic, he
gave out a big 'HELL YEAH' and the fans errupted. Then, also in rehab, but making
time to come to the awards was non other then Bill Goldberg! With that, we began
to hear the fans chanting "Austin...Austin..." and then "Gooooldberg....Goooldberg"
It took a few minutes to quiet these guys down, but when they did, the two
men up on stage called out the names of the 5 nominees. Really, this wasn't really
a challenge. Everyone knew from the moment the ballot was handed out who was going
to win and they sure where not disappointed!
With a total of 21 out of a possible 22 votes (Yeah, 23 GM's voted, but one GM
forgot to vote for this category), and with 459 PIM in 73 games, a fight total of
22-3-10, PAUL LAUS from the TOLEDO FREEZE scored a KNOCKOUT in the first round of
this voting! Laus, quickly made his way up to the stage accepting his first Golden
Gloves award in a very, well, let's just say, interesting acceptance speach!
SCOTTY BOWMAN AWARD:
===================
When we think of this award and the name given to it, we think of excellence,
pride, and winning. With that being said, the two presenters who where called out
know all about that! "Iron" Mike Keenan came walking out from the back, with non
other then Hall of Famer, Mario Lemieux!
Three of the past 4 winners have all won the WLUHL CUP. Two of the past 4
winners have won the Prime Ministers Trophy. All 4 of the past winners have
had tremendous seasons and with that being said, we looked to this years nominess
to see who would be the man to walk away with it all. We had the Prime Minister
Trophy winner, we had a couple teams with a great records the past two years and
we had one team that made a big turn around.
When the all the ballots where counted, this winner had a total of 9 first
place first, and 9 second place votes, a total of 6 points better then the 2nd
place finisher. This GM tripled his wins from the previous year, winning 35 games
this year, 24 games more then he did last year. He almost tripled the number of
points he has this year, and he brought a franchise which was well over $10 million
dollars in debt back into the black. The winner of the Scott Bowman Coach/GM of the
year, from the HALIFAX HACKSAWS, GM ROB FERRIS!
DON CHERRY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
===============================
As Mr. Ferris eventually ended his long winded and very touching acceptance
speak, we got ready for the last award of the night. To give out the Don Cherry
Award of Excellence, which is presented to the GM who the league feels best
displayed what the league is all about, taking part in trades, league discussions,
league voting and press releases throughout the year. To hand this award out, we
called upon someone who has displayed excellence throughout his career. Non other
then NASCAR legend, "THE KING" Richard Petty!
Petty came out and talked for a bit, explaining a bit about this GM. About
how his style may not be what everyone wants, but that is what makes him so special,
he does not care about being proper... he cares only about being himself! He
talked about how this GM gives it all each and every game, is always on top of
everything that is going on... and hell, he is always will to drop the gloves and
duke it out until the wee hours!
With that, Petty opened up the envelop, and called up, from the TOLEDO FREEZE,
this years Don Cherry's Award of Excellence, JACK JORDAN!
Mr. Jordan quickly made his way to the stage and accepted the award from the
Legend himself, and then made a very long and sentimental speach, that moved the
crowd, and surprised us all.
As Mr. Jordan finished up, the stage was cleared and Aqua made their way out,
pounding out one of their latest releases, 'Around the World'. As they did that,
the league had a little video and showed soming some of the highlights from this
past season... the good, the bad and the ugly!
With that, the WLUHL #9 Awards banquet came to close and the fans and the players
all began to make their way home for a very short break before the next season get's
underway!
From Toronto, Ontario, Chris Jericho signing off saying so long AND GOOD NIGHT!
THIS PAGE WAS CREATED BY Craig and JaSoN Stumpf