There will be no Hart Trophy for Nathan MacKinnon this year.

The NHL announced the three finalists for the Hart Trophy on Thursday morning and MacKinnon was (surprisingly) not one of them. The 29-year-old led the NHL in points for the majority of the season before Nikita Kucherov took over the lead in the final weeks of the season.

Kucherov, Connor Hellebuyck, and Leon Draisaitl are the three players up for the award this year. It’s given annually to the player voted most valuable to his team by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Given the Avalanche went through 49 players during the regular season and MacKinnon (along with Cale Makar) helped keep them afloat, the Halifax native is more than deserving of being a nominee for the award again. Kucherov’s late push is likely what knocked him out of the running. But it’s worth noting that Tampa Bay did not have to deal with very many injuries this season.

It’s likely not something that concerns MacKinnon at the end of the day. When asked about being nominated for the Ted Lindsay Award prior to Game 6, he didn’t have much to say.

Other than this.

“Hopefully (Makar wins it).”

No Buium, no win

The Minnesota Wild decided to bench Zeev Buium and put him in the press box the final two games of their series against the Vegas Golden Knights, with the series all tied up at two.

They went on to lose two straight and are headed home for the summer. Buium made mistakes, but you don’t put a talent like that in the press box in favor of a journeyman defenseman.

Toronto sneaks by

It wasn’t easy, but the Maple Leafs are moving on to the second round after taking down Ottawa in six games. It was a pretty close series but for once, Toronto’s stars got the job done in Game 6.

Their reward is the defending champion Florida Panthers, who handled the Tampa Lightning with ease.