Crosby wins Hart Trophy as NHL’s MVP
Fellow Cole Harbour native MacKinnon youngest Calder winner
Seven years after Sidney Crosby won his first Hart Trophy, the Pittsburgh captain has been recognized as the NHL’s best once again.
Crosby won the NHL’s most valuable player award for the second time Tuesday night at the league’s post-season awards ceremony in Las Vegas.
After his first full season without major injuries since 2010, the Penguins’ 26-year-old centre cleaned up at the NHL’s awards show to cap a fruitful year that included a second gold medal as Canada’s captain at the Sochi Olympics. Crosby, from Cole Harbour, N.S., also collected the Art Ross Trophy as the league scoring champion and the Ted Lindsay Award as the players’ choice for the NHL’s most outstanding player.
In a modest acceptance speech, Crosby thanked his teammates and family. “I appreciate all the sacrifices you’ve made to allow me to play the game I love every day,” he said.
Crosby won his second NHL scoring title with 104 points, including 68 assists in his fifth career 100-point season. He scored in 60 of his 80 games, never going more than two games without a point for the Metropolitan Division champion Penguins.
He hadn’t won the Hart Trophy since 2007, when he led the NHL in scoring as a 19-year-old prodigy. This time around, Sid the Kid handily beat out Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf and Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux, receiving 128 of the 137 first-place votes from a panel of hockey writers. Getzlaf finished second.
“You play for the big one that the Kings have here tonight, but this is definitely nice,” Crosby told the NHL Network, referring to the Los Angeles Kings’ Stanley Cup title.
Crosby was particularly honoured by his second straight Ted Lindsay Award. He received the Lindsay from his fellow players last season, but was beaten out by Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the Hart.
“Those are the guys that you compete against every night,” Crosby said. “Knowing that and being selected, it’s an honour and a compliment, so I definitely appreciate it.”
Boston goalie Tuukka Rask won the Vézina Trophy, and Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron won his second Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward. Chicago’s Duncan Keith won his second Norris Trophy as the top defenceman.
Colorado coach Patrick Roy won the Adams Award, while Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon, who, like Crosby, is from Cole Harbour, became the youngest player to win the Calder Trophy as the top rookie.
The winners of the league’s statistical awards also were recognized at the ceremony in the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.
Ovechkin accepted his fourth Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goalscorer, while Jonathan Quick and the Kings won their first Jennings Trophy for the NHL’s fewest goals allowed.
Dominic Moore of the New York Rangers won the Masterton Trophy, an award for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Colorado’s Ryan O’Reilly won the Lady Byng Trophy for his sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct after scoring a career-best 64 points while committing just one minor penalty all year.
Anaheim general manager Bob Murray was voted the NHL’s general manager of the year after building the Ducks into the two-time Pacific Division champions and the Western Conference’s top regularseason team.
Roy was chosen the NHL’s top coach in his first season behind the Colorado bench. The Hall of Fame goalie who played for the Montreal Canadiens led the Avalanche from 29th place in the overall league standings to third this season, going 52-22-8 and winning the Central Division.
“When I retired, I never thought I’d be in that position to win this award as a coach,” Roy said while thanking his players. “They’ve been very special to me, and they’ve been working so hard for us. They’ve bought into what we’re trying to do as a team.”
Washington’s Bruce Boudreau, now with Anaheim, was the last rookie head coach to win the Adams, in 2008.
Bergeron beat out Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar and Chicago captain Jonathan Toews for the Selke, which he also won in 2012. The smooth two-way forward, who also won the NHL Foundation Player Award for his charitable work, won a league-high 1,015 faceoffs while finishing second in the NHL with a career-best plus-38 rating.
Rask went 36-15-6 and finished in the top five in every major statistical category — including a league-best seven shutouts — to win his first Vézina for Boston, which claimed the Presidents’ Trophy with the NHL’s best regular-season record. The NHL’s general managers chose Rask in a narrow vote over Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov, who finished fourth in the Hart Trophy balloting.
Keith comfortably beat out Boston captain Zdeno Chara and Nashville’s Shea Weber for the Norris, which he also won in 2010. Keith, who led all defencemen with 55 assists while leading the Blackhawks in ice time for the ninth straight season, is the only active NHL defenceman with multiple Norris wins.
MacKinnon was a runaway winner of the Calder, receiving 130 of the 137 first-place votes. The No. 1 overall pick doesn’t turn 19 until Sept. 1, beating Carolina’s Jeff Skinner in 2011 as the youngest player to claim the trophy.
Edmonton’s Andrew Ference won the King Clancy Award for humanitarian contributions to hockey, while Kings captain Dustin Brown won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award for his charitable work.