The NHL stands still during the three-day holiday break, a chance to take a snapshot of what’s transpired almost halfway through the season. Like, are the Tampa Bay Lightning ever going to lose? Imagine being the Toronto Maple Leafs en route to a remarkable season and you keep looking up at a Bolts team that’s on pace for 128 points, which would be tops in the salary cap era.



But this piece is about individual awards, my picks for some selected hardware with teams having played about 35-38 games.



There’s still time, of course, for much of this to change before the end of the season and it most often does, but here’s how I see it so far:



Norris Trophy



The candidates: Kris Letang, Pittsburgh; Morgan Rielly, Toronto; Mark Giordano, Calgary; Ryan McDonagh, Tampa Bay; Seth Jones, Columbus; Roman Josi, Nashville; John Carlson, Washington.



My take: McDonagh is having a monster season for the league-leading Lightning and...