from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Way too much noise made about the fact Connor McDavid won the Ted Lindsay Award for best NHL player, as voted by the players, and Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy, for most valuable player, as voted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Truth is, it’s the fifth time in the past 13 years that the Hart and Lindsay winners have been different players.

- The 2018 class of the Hockey Hall of Fame will be announced on Tuesday. It will include Martin Brodeur and we don’t know who else. Maybe Daniel Alfredsson. Maybe Martin St. Louis. Brodeur is the only sure thing. I’ve long been a Doug Wilson guy – and not for acquiring and trading Mike Hoffman away within hours – but to date the Hall has not agreed.

- There is an obsession in hockey these days with right shooting defencemen and the scarcity of them. The best defensive pair I ever saw had Larry Robinson playing with Serge Savard. Both shot left. Mark Howe and Brad McCrimmon were pretty great together in Philadelphia. Both shot left. Bobby Orr and Dallas Smith in Boston, both shot left. If you can play, you can play. The rest will take care of itself.

a few more hockey notes...