We are witnessing the final games of the 2021 NHL Awards season. As usual, they're a time for both popular reinforcement of foregone conclusions and last-minute attempts at seeding doubt about assumed favorites.
An example of the former: Connor McDavid is going to win the Hart Trophy in a landslide. We'll discuss the other finalists in a moment, but there's no getting around the fact that the Edmonton Oilers wunderkind will win his second MVP Award by chasm so enormously wide that Nik Wallenda is scheduled to walk across it on a tightrope.
An example of the latter: The "koronation" of the Minnesota Wild's Kirill Kaprizov has been challenged by the growing support -- and growing point total -- for Dallas Stars rookie forward Jason Robertson, which has willed a horse race for the Calder Trophy into existence.