Ovechkin wins 9th ‘Rocket’ Trophy
Captain to share award with Pastrnak as top goal scorers
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goal scorer, for the ninth time. He tied with Boston’s David Pastrnak for the league lead at 48 goals apiece.
With NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announcing Tuesday that the 2019-20 regular season is considered complete while detailing the league’s return-to-play plan with a 24-team playoff, Ovechkin has now officially led the league in goals — or shared the lead — in seven of the past eight seasons.
Bettman made it clear that for the purposes of “record keeping and NHL awards, the 2019-20 regular season has been deemed to be completed.” However, NHL Players Association Executive Director
Donald Fehr told ESPN that there has been no collectively bargained decision on where statistics from the new “qualification round” of the playoffs are going to be counted.
Assuming the NHL does not change its plans, this is the first time the award has been shared since the 2009-10 season, when Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos split the honor. Pastrnak, the first Bruins player to win the award since it was introduced in 1999, scored his 48 goals in 70 games; Ovechkin got his in 68. Ovechkin is the only player to win the award more than twice.
The 34-year-old had four hat tricks this season, including his first natural hat trick Feb. 4 in a 4-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Kings. On Feb. 22, the Russian became the eighth NHL player to score 700 career goals, and he did it in the secondfewest games (1,144). Ovechkin has 706 career goals to rank eighth all time; Wayne Gretzky’s record looms at 894.
With the regular season complete, the Capitals finished atop the Metropolitan Division with 90 points, one clear of the Philadelphia Flyers. This is the first time in franchise history that the Capitals have won five straight division titles.
Also, the Capitals’ John Carlson finished with the most points (75) among NHL defensemen. Carlson’s total is a career high, but he fell six points shy of Larry Murphy’s franchise record of 81 set in 1986-87.