Only 1 NHL award for Penguins

Crosby wins ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy, but Hart goes to Edmonton’s McDavid

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

LAS VEGAS — Hopefully winning back-to-back Stanley Cups will suffice for the Penguins because they didn’t fair particularly well at the NHL Awards Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena.

Sidney Crosby was up for a pair of awards — the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award — and won neither. Crosby did take home the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for his league-high 44 goals.

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid was the big winner.

“He had an unbelievable year,” Crosby said of McDavid. “He’s come here a few times and left without them. It’s an honor to be in that group and in the mix for winning. When you’re nominated with guys, someone like Connor has done what he’s done and had the year he had, you tip your cap and you get ready for the next year.”

Crosby not winning was one thing. McDavid is an incredible player. The most confounding part of the evening was coach Mike Sullivan finishing eighth in the Jack Adams Award voting by league broadcasters.

Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella won it for a second time.

The only other Penguin to come close to winning anything was goaltender Matt Murray, who finished fourth in a runaway vote for the Calder Trophy (top rookie) that ultimately went to Toronto’s Auston Matthews.

Interspersed with the NHL Awards was the Vegas Golden Knights’ drafting of an expansion team, and it turned out to be much more Penguins-centric than just Marc-Andre Fleury, whom the Golden Knights selected. Former Penguins James Neal (Nashville), Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg), Deryk Engelland (Calgary), and David Perron (St. Louis) will join Fleury in the desert.

Matthews was a runaway winner of the Calder, obtaining 164 of 167 first-place votes, and he was a frequent target of jokes by host Joe Manganiello, a Mt. Lebanon native.

“Auston Matthews in the house,” Manganiello said in his opening monologue. “But only because this is the one place in Vegas that wouldn’t card him.”

The Selke Trophy — best defensive forward — went to its expected recipient, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron,