Cal Clutterbuck is a name if you heard, you'd likely remember. But since ESPN covers hockey for about 9 nanoseconds a night, you have likely not heard of Cal Clutterbuck.
The Minnesota Wild (quick name five Wild players: Owen Nolan, Mikko Koivu, Nik Backstrom, Brent Burns and Kurtis Foster) rookie forward has only 11 points this season yet there's a movement to name him the Calder trophy winner, given to the best rookie in the NHL.
From Puck Daddy:
Star Tribune writer Michael Russo has been mentioning Cal Clutterbuck of the Minnesota Wild as a Calder Trophy candidate, which is technically correct since he's a rookie. That chatter has now taken a life of its own as Wild bloggers have mobilized to support the candidacy of a winger with 11 points in 48 games.
If I had a vote for the Calder Trophy, it would go to Clutterbuck. There's a silly reason for the vote, Collegian Web editor Ian Brown and his fiancee Genna, former Collegian Web chief Erin Prah, Collegian whipping boy Kevin Zitzman and myself all went up to Niagara Falls, Ontario, to watch Penn State lose to Iowa at Boston Pizza. After we downed our sorrows at the casino bar while Zitzman was gambling with Armenians, we went back to our hotel , built a fort, ordered Rickard's Red and turned on the late game of Hockey Night in Canada. There we saw a Cal Clutterbuck and thought, "damn, this is the coolest name ever." So on our whole six-hour drive from Ontario (after we got lost in Cuba -- Cuba, N.Y.) the five of us tried to make Cal Clutterbuck a word. We did.
^The greatest beer ever.
--Shorts
