Rivals now tied at 48 as they fight for MVP
The crowd at Mellon Arena started the chant early in the third period Tuesday night. Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, in the midst of a wonderful game against the Capitals, had just slid a picture-perfect pass to teammate Jordan Leopold for an important goal.
That score brought Pittsburgh to within 4-3, and Crosby had recorded a goal and two assists for his team. “M-V-P, M-V-P” the fans shouted during a stoppage in play. The message wasn’t lost on Alex Ovechkin. The Caps star forward has heard the same cheers from his own fans at Verizon Center. And he has skated away from the past two NHL seasons with the Hart Trophy, awarded to the league’s MVP by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
After hearing that chant from the Pittsburgh fans, it took just 1:48 for Ovechkin to score a power-play goal off a faceoff win by teammate Nicklas Backstrom. With the game in hand in the final seconds, Ovechkin fought hard for a loose puck and eventually whipped a Backstrom pass into an empty net with 0.2 seconds to go to seal the 6-3 victory. Just like that he had tied Crosby for the NHL goal-scoring lead.
Each player now has 48 goals — a significant accomplishment in the race for this year’s Hart Trophy. And for the NHL’s two biggest stars to be battling each other for the goals title even before the real competition — the Stanley Cup playoffs — gets under way next week is only good business for the league.
“I’d love to score every game. I’d love to get two every game,” Crosby told reporters in Pittsburgh before Tuesday’s game. “But that’s why it’s tough to score in this league. It’s something that you’ve got to work through. You’re not going to get a perfect goal every game or every two games. When it’s tough like this you have to find a way.”
Neither Pittsburgh nor Washington played Wednesday. Both players are just one goal ahead of Tampa Bay’s sensational second-year pro Steven Stamkos in the race for the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. But Ovechkin also has appeared in eight fewer games than Crosby thanks to injuries and suspensions. Whether PHWA voters hold that against him remains to be seen.
Ovechkin has 106 points and trails Vancouver center Henrik Sedin by one in that category — and in the chase for the Art Ross Trophy. Sedin, whose team also was idle Wednesday, has 29 goals and a league-best 78 assists. Crosby has 100 points. Ovechkin leads both of them by a wide margin, however, in plus-minus rating. He ranks second in the NHL at plus-43. Sedin is a plus-34, while Crosby is a plus-11.
“Everybody wants to get the most goals in one year,” Ovechkin admitted to reporters before Tuesday’s game. “But right now it’s pretty hard to get one or two goals in a game. You just have to use your chances and that’s it.”
