Each season, the Lady Byng Trophy is awarded to the player who best exemplifies "sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct" with a "high standard of playing ability."
That's almost the definition of the Wild's Pierre-Marc Bouchard.
The mild-mannered and immensely talented Bouchard is third on the Wild with 56 points in 78 games. No NHL player with that many points had as few as Bouchard's 12 penalty minutes.
Sometimes there's a negative connotation surrounding the Lady Byng Trophy because the stereotype is the hardware goes to a player who lacks, well, grit.
Bouchard, a viable contender for the award, doesn't have that feeling.
"I think it's pretty cool that people are talking about me and the Lady Byng," Bouchard, 22, said. "Hey, it's a trophy, and any trophy would be fun to win."
Despite being listed at 5-10, Bouchard is constantly coming away with pucks by picking pockets and stealing errant passes. He says he gets by with "smarts" (i.e. being well-positioned) because he's not going to win a puck by being physical.
And he refuses to hook and hold.
"You just need to remember that referees are going to call anything," Bouchard said. "If you just touch their glove, they're going to call you. So I go for the puck all the time. I'm not going to get any PIM's for hitting too much. I'm not going to get called for elbowing or charging or hitting from behind.
"I just try to think. Jacques [Lemaire] is always telling me, 'You've got to win your battles,' because I'm a guy that has to play with the puck. So I try to get it without putting my stick on the [opponent]. Plus, I don't want to get in the box. I want to be on the ice and not take useless penalties.
"I play a fair game."
The past two Lady Byng winners were Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Tampa Bay's Brad Richards. The Wild's Pavol Demitra won it in 2000 with St. Louis.
A top-line affair
Lemaire was content to go top line (Demitra-Wes Walz-Marian Gaborik) vs. Flames top line (Alex Tanguay-Craig Conroy-Jarome Iginla) during the two-game series with Calgary that ended with a 4-2 Wild loss Thursday.
At Thursday's morning skate, Flames coach Jim Playfair met with his top line. The result was an Iginla hat trick to snap out of a six-game drought.
"Jimmy said, 'Are they the top line or are you the top line?' " Conroy said. "Jarome loves to be challenged like that and right before the game he said, 'Enough's enough, let's go. Let's get this thing going. Let's be the top line.'
"That's all he said and then he was unbelievable."
Etc.
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