Colorado Avalanche: Drama and Controversy in Social Awards Fan Vote

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov had a few things to say about his exclusion from one of the fan vote categories. We take a look at the awards so far.

The offseason can be a difficult time for Colorado Avalanche fans. Once free agency has settled down, and the big trades are done, there’s little to do except wait for training camp to begin in September.

Luckily for us the Avalanche’s social media team has come up with a fun way for us to pass the time.

The first category was Photo of the Year, and while there have been some fantastic moments throughout the season this celebration by Erik Johnson was the clear winner with 46% of the total votes.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to an Avs game on the radio I highly recommend it. Conor McGahey is so much fun and really puts his personality into his calls. This overtime goal by Gabriel Landeskog is just a sample, and was voted the favorite in the poll.

It’s always fun watching your team score goals, and it’s even more fun when the players celebrate their goals in an interesting way. It’s no surprise that Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen re-enacting Titanic won the fan vote for Best Goal Celly.

To really get the fans engaged one of the votes was for Best Game Sign. Fans get so creative with their signs throughout the season and it was hard narrowing it down to just one, but we have our winner.

With an overwhelming 67% of the votes Gabriel Landeskog was voted Best With Kids, and it’s easy to see why.

The Avalanche players enjoy posting on Instagram more than any of the other social media platform, and they have come out with some gems during the last season. The most popular was Nikita Zadorov‘s ‘Are You Not Entertained’ pose.

This would not be the last we heard of Zadorov during the awards.

The Avalanche always have fun with their video features, and nothing displayed that more than the parody campaign video to get Gabriel Landeskog added to this year’s All Star roster. The video won in a landslide with 58% of the total votes.

Nikita Zadorov was back, winning Best GIF award for this attack on his captain during an interview.

With two awards under his belt the Avalanche media team jokingly said they were going to ban him from being eligible for any future awards. Except it wasn’t a joke…

Zadorov’s mistake was probably issuing this challenge.

Every player has their own pre-game routine. Former Columbus Blue Jackets’ teammates Ian Cole and Matt Calvert have one that they do together.

Even when Matt Calvert was out with an injury Ian Cole still carried on the routine.

https://twitter.com/lalagal1991/status/1153697291837923328

It’s not surprising that with this dedication they won the Best Pregame Routine.

Another award for the captain who won Best Interview.

After his now famous Guts All Over The Place call Marc Moser has moved from radio to TV but still makes fantastic goal calls. This overtime winner by Mikko Rantanen was named the best one.

The award for Best Dressed turned out to be a controversial one. Nikita Zadorov is often hailed as one of the best dressed members of the team but, true to their word, the media team excluded him from the shortlist.

Needless to say Zadorov had a few comments to make about his exclusion.

So, while Nathan Mackinnon was technically the winner I think most of us can agree that the ‘feud’ between Zadorov and the media team is the true winner.

The mouthgard challenge was so popular during the 2017-18 season that it was brought back this season. While all the players participated there can be only one champion and with an overwhelming majority of 71% the winners were Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Jost.

Having now won several fan awards will Gabriel Landeskog be the next to be excluded from the fan vote? Or is this the perk of being the captain. Only time will tell.