[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by getbak

Nashville is in the Central Time Zone, and they still play in the Western Conference, so a good number of their games are also in the Mountain and Pacific time zones...not as many as the Flames, but more than the Eastern teams.

If Forsberg were playing on a higher-profile Eastern team, the eastern bias would be a concern, but as it stands, Nashville is a small-market team that gets as little general coverage as the Flames do. If anything, I'd bet the eastern bias will work in Johnny's favour.

He's a known commodity in the Philadelphia and Boston areas, plus anywhere the NCAA has a strong following (Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts), so the writers in those locations are likely to have Johnny on their radar more than Forsberg. Canadian writers will also pay more attention to the Flames than the Preds.

The writers who aren't watching Flames games also aren't watching Predators games, so most of the voting is influenced by looking at the stat lines and remembering the highlight-reel plays anyway.

The last NCAA player to win the Calder was Dany Heatley, and the last American was Patrick Kane, so that also might influence some of the votes in the States, if writers want to see one of their own players win it.


If it's a close vote, I'd bet that most of the biases will work in Johnny's favour, not against him.

I hope you are right and I am wrong.