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Henrik Sedin takes down Crosby and Ovechkin to win Hart Trophy

Image (1) henriksedin4-thumb-250x183-14432.jpg for post 2217

The biggest award of the night, the Hart Trophy, was perhaps the most hotly debated of them all. And why not, it goes to the league’s most valuable player and all three nominees had exemplary seasons. The question remaining tonight would be who out of Alexander Ovechkin, Henrik Sedin and Sidney Crosby would be the one to take home the hardware. All three players have stronger than strong cases to win the award, but it would be Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin that came away with the Hart Trophy and the voters indicated that it was really a two-horse race.

Pts. (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
1. Henrik Sedin, VAN 894 (46-34-27-19-4)
2. Alex Ovechkin, WSH 834 (40-35-22-22-13)
3. Sidney Crosby, PIT 729 (20-35-38-29-7)
4. Ryan Miller, BUF 505 (13-22-24-27-20)
5. Ilya Bryzgalov, PHX 354 (13-6-17-22-31)
6. Steven Stamkos, T.B. 28 (0-0-2-3-9)
7. Patrick Kane, CHI 17 (0-1-0-2-4)
8. Martin Brodeur, N.J. 16 (0-0-2-0-6)
9. Craig Anderson, COL 10 (1-0-0-0-0)
10. Patrick Marleau, S.J. 10 (0-0-0-3-1)
11. Nicklas Backstrom, WSH 10 (0-0-0-2-4)
12. Joe Thornton, S.J. 9 (0-0-0-1-6)
13. Zach Parise, N.J. 7 (0-0-1-0-2)
14. Mike Green, WSH 5 (0-0-0-1-2)
15. Zdeno Chara, BOS 3 (0-0-0-1-0)
16. Duncan Keith, CHI 3 (0-0-0-0-3)
17. Drew Doughty, L.A. 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
Marian Gaborik, NYR 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
Anze Kopitar, L.A. 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
Nicklas Lidstrom, DET 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
Tuukka Rask, BOS 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
Martin St. Louis, T.B. 2 (0-0-0-0-2)
23. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Evgeni Nabokov, S.J. 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Chris Pronger, PHI 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Paul Stastny, COL 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Tomas Vokoun, FLA 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Shea Weber, NSH 1 (0-0-0-0-1)
Henrik Zetterberg, DET 1 (0-0-0-0-1)

It would be Ovechkin who posed the strongest challenge to Sedin for the award and Sedin had just six more first place votes than Ovechkin. While the first place votes were split amongst the top five finishers for the award, the other two being Ryan Miller and Ilya Bryzgalov it was Colorado’s Craig Anderson who managed to get a single vote in the top spot to make for a curious outlier.

As for the real race, the six vote difference between Sedin and Ovechkin was indeed the reason for the 60 point separation between the two as first place votes count for ten points. There’s no denying how great a season Sedin had being the Art Ross Trophy winner for being the league’s leading scorer and in leading the Canucks to a Northwest Division title. You could basically toss a three-sided die and make out all right with having any of the finalists as the MVP but after all the attention both Crosby and Ovechkin earn, it’s Sedin that walks away with the big prize. So much for that whole “east coast bias” thing.

(photo credit to Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)