Retro Sim Hockey League

Final
MIN	6
CHI	4

Final
DET	5
MTL	3

Final
MIA	3
NYB	4

Final
LAA	3
DEN	5

Final
WPG	3
BOS	4

Final
NYB	2
PHI	3

Final(OT)
MTL	2
SEA	2

Final
MIA	1
VAN	3

Final
CHI	2
WPG	4

Final
MIN	5
EDM	3

Final(OT)
BUF	6
DET	6

Final
DEN	2
LAA	4

Game 628
SEA
MIN

Game 629
EDM
CHI

Game 630
VAN
MIA

Game 631
DET
MTL

Game 632
BUF
NYB

Game 633
BOS
TOR

Game 634
LAA
DEN

Game 635
NYB
PHI

Game 636
MTL
SEA

Game 637
MIA
VAN

Game 638
TOR
WPG

Overall Standings

TEAM	GP	W	L	T	PTS	L10
Toronto	78	46	20	12	104	8-2-0
Minnesota	78	47	28	3	97	8-2-0
Montreal	78	41	30	7	89	4-4-2
LosAngeles	78	40	31	8	88	6-4-0
Vancouver	78	42	35	1	85	7-3-0
Philly	79	38	33	7	83	4-6-0
NewYork	78	39	35	4	82	6-4-0
Buffalo	78	36	32	10	82	4-5-1
Denver	79	36	33	10	82	5-5-0
Miami	78	30	38	10	70	3-6-1
Boston	79	31	41	7	69	4-6-0
Chicago	79	30	41	8	68	3-5-2
Winnipeg	79	31	43	5	67	1-8-1
Edmonton	79	30	44	5	65	2-8-0
Detroit	79	30	44	5	65	7-1-2
Seattle	77	26	45	6	58	4-5-1

News

Gretzky, Ozolinsh headline RSHA Award Winners

For the second time in his career, Wayne Gretzky has been named the Hart Trophy winner as RSHA's Most Valuable Player.

Gretzky led the league with 52 goals, and finished fourth overall in the scoring race with 97 points. His second career Rocket Richard worthy campaign helped lead the Toronto Jazz to the league's best overall record. Gretzky paired his outstanding offensive season with a +30 rating and only 16 penalty minutes taken, an overall dominant season for the Great One. Gretzky also captured the Hart Trophy during the 1998/99 season, when he won his only career Art Ross Trophy and led the Stanley Cup Finals.

Coming in second place in voting was Buffalo's Joe Nieuwendyk. Nieuwendyk led the league with an impossible 81 games played after a trade deadline move from Montreal, and notched 40 goals and 102 points to help Buffalo land the league's second best record.

Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh was third in Hart Trophy voting, but first in Norris Trophy voting to earn his first career nod as RSHA's Most Outstanding Defenseman. Ozolinsh scored a single season record 24 goals from the blueline, eclipsing the old record of 23 by the legendary Bobby Orr, and also put up a +34 rating - seemingly solving the defensive issues that have dogged his career. The Buffalo star earned 15 first place votes, making it nearly unanimous.

Chicago's Brian Leetch earned the other first place vote for the Norris Trophy, after leading all defensemen with 71 points. It was a breakthrough year for the former Saints captain, as his previous career high for points was 53. The Los Angeles Archers top defensman pairing of Adam Foote and Bryan McCabe finished 3rd and 4th in the voting, with Denver's Zdeno Chara rounding out the top five.

The closest vote this year was for the Vezina Trophy as RSHA's Top Goaltender. With some top candidates inelgible due to not playing enough games, it was a wide open field.

Martin Brodeur of the Toronto Jazz ended up edging out Philadelphia's Curtis Joseph for the award, in a result that mimic'd the Eastern Conference Finals. Both goaltenders earned 7 first place votes, but Brodeur had more second place votes to earn his first career Vezina Trophy. Minnesota's Miikka Kiprusoff was third with 2 first place votes, while Denver's Sean Burke was fourth and Los Angeles' Felix Potvin came in fifth.

The last award that was voted on was the Calder Trophy for RSHA's Rookie of the Year.

Winnipeg's Sergei Samsonov earned the award after leading rookies in all offensive categories. One of the few brightspots for the Wanderers this year, Samsonov had 32 goals and 40 assists for 72 points - which was enough to earn 11 first place votes.

A pair of defenseman earned two first place votes each en route to finishing second and third in the balloting, as Edmonton's Andrei Markov and Miami's Brian Campbell had similarily productive seasons for their squads.

Montreal's Niklas Backstrom earned the other first place vote to finish fourth, and Minnesota's Marco Sturm was fifth place in voting.

2000/01 RSHA All-Stars

The votes have been counted, and today the RSHA Head Office released the list of all-stars for the 2000/01 regular season.

Center - Radek Bonk (CHI)*, Wayne Gretzky (TOR), Joe Nieuwendyk (BUF), Pierre Turgeon (VAN)

Left Wing - Sergei Berezin (MIN), Chris Drury (BUF), Patrick Elias (VAN), Stephane Matteau (LAA)

Right Wing - Pavel Bure (PHI), Brett Hull (MIN), Cam Neely (BOS), Mike Sillinger (TOR)

Defensemen - Zdeno Chara (DEN), Adam Foote (LAA), Brian Leetch (CHI)*, Bryan McCabe (LAA), Sandis Ozolinsh (BUF)*, Scott Niedermayer (PHI)

Goalie - Martin Brodeur (TOR), Curtis Joseph (PHI)

* - unanimous pick

Jazz Claim 2000/01 Stanley Cup

The Toronto Jazz returned to the top of the RSHA mountain after several near misses in recent history, as they knocked off the Edmonton Hunters in six games to earn the 2001 Stanley Cup title. The Jazz, winners of the 1993 Stanley Cup, were more known for their playoff heartbreaks than for playoff heroics. Following their title in ‘93, the Jazz went on to lose three championship series’, all in Game 7. The losses to Vancouver (x2) and Los Angeles saw Toronto unable to close out series leads all three times, including a catastrophic collapse from a 3-0 series lead over the Millionaires in 1996.

The Jazz entered their series with Edmonton on a second half tear of epic proportions as they went 21-3-3 down the stretch to earn the President’s Trophy, and were 8-3 in the playoffs after sweeping Boston and then coming from behind to knock off Philly in seven games. With that said, the Jazz also had the demons of Stanley Cups past in their mind as the team had gone winless in their past eight consecutive potential Cup clinching games.

After the teams split the opening two games in Toronto, the Jazz took a comfortable series lead with 5-3 and 3-2 victories on Edmonton ice. Once again, the Jazz were in the driver’s seat as they returned to Toronto with a chance to lift the cup. Jazz fans, trying their damnedest not to panic, were very much panicking after the Hunters took Game 5 by a 3-1 score to extend the series, and extend Toronto’s futility with the cup on the line. Finally, in Game 6 though, Toronto got the job done. With the franchise’s best ever player and long-time captain Wayne Gretzky suffering a first period injury, Joe Sakic and Alex Mogilny stepped up with two goals and an assist each and Martin Brodeur capped off his impressive postseason performance with 24 saves as the Jazz skated to a 6-3 victory and a 4-2 series win.

Gretzky, limping considerably following his first period injury, returned to the ice in his Jazz jersey and accepted the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Aaron Grandguillot. After his trip around the ice, he handed Lord Stanley’s mug to defenseman Doug Bodger, who was one of just a few players still with the Jazz from their 1993 title. Bodger passed it to Rob Zamuner, who also remains from the ’93 squad.

Brodeur, who sported a 12-5 record in the playoffs with a .911 save percentage and 2.32 goals against average was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as Playoffs MVP just hours after the league announced him as the Vezina Trophy winner as the league’s top goalie in the regular season.

The win was also the final RSHA game for veteran defensemen Eric Weinrich and Chris Chelios. For Weinrich, he skates off after earning his fifth career Cup title (two with Toronto), while Chelios waited over 1500 career games (regular season and playoffs) to finally win his first.

With the victory, the Jazz became the first team in league history to win the single season trifecta, which includes an In-Season Tourney title, President’s Trophy and Stanley Cup championship. The title also gives GM Rich Brown a second Stanley Cup ring, which means every GM in the RSHA is either a multi-time cup winner, or a zero-cup winner. None of the GM’s have won just a single title.

With another thrilling RSHA season in the books, the league now turns the page and begins looking forward to the 2001-02 season, with free agency likely just 24-48 hours away from opening.