Sidney Crosby, Hart Trophy Favorite

Thanks to an errant shot by defenseman Brooks Orpik, Sidney Crosby will miss a large chunk of the regular season for the third consecutive year and fourth time in his career. It’s expected he will miss the remainder of the regular season after sustaining a fractured jaw on March 30 and while there are only 12 games remaining, that represents a quarter of the 48-game format being used this year.

This shouldn’t have a significant negative impact on the Penguins. Crosby may be the best player in the game, but they still have last year’s MVP Evgeni Malkin, top defenseman Kris Letang and a host of other star players including newly acquired future Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla. The Penguins will be fine, the only thing that may have been lost would be the second Art Ross Trophy of Crosby’s career as Steven Stamkos will surely get the 10 points needed to catch up with The Kid in his remaining 14 games. But could he still capture the Hart Trophy as league MVP despite missing significant time? It’s hard to argue no.

The Hockey News’ Ken Campbell believes it’s a certainty Crosby will take MVP honors as his season has been so dominant and there hasn’t been another player consistently matching his pace throughout the year. From Campbell:

But the question now is, has Crosby done enough to this point to be the league’s MVP if he misses a quarter of his team’s games? Barring a furious late season charge by another prominent player, absolutely. So far, Crosby has been both the league’s best player and the most valuable to his team by a significant margin.

Thanks to Crosby, the Penguins have racked up more points than any other team in the NHL thanks to their current 15-game winning streak in which Crosby has recorded six goals and 25 points. They have even overtaken the Chicago Blackhawks who recorded at least one point in each of their first 24 games to start the season, although Chicago is only one point behind with two games in hand for the Presidents’ Trophy.

The fewest games played for a Hart Trophy winner in a season with 80 or more games on the schedule was Mario Lemieux who played only 60 of 84 games in the 1992-93 season and still took home the scoring title with an amazing 160 points after taking two months off the battle cancer. That’s 71% of his team’s games; if Crosby doesn’t play again until the playoffs he’ll have played 75% so any arguments he won’t have enough games under his belt this year can be immediately thrown out the window. He has been everything on a stacked Pittsburgh club and it’s hard to find a player with his impact this year.

Stamkos is once again in the running, but for the second consecutive season he is on a non-playoff team which will turn many voters off even if he leads the NHL in goals and points. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky may garner some recognition, especially if he can carry the Columbus Blue Jackets into the playoff for just the second time in their history despite having the second worst offense, averaging just 2.31 goals per game. Only Craig Anderson has a better save percentage among goalies with at least 10 games played than Bobrovsky’s .927 and his 2.13 goals-against average ranks eighth. He is having a very similar year to Steve Mason in 2008-09 when he carried the Jackets on his back and received serious Hart consideration. Chicago’s Patrick Kane, the Islanders’ John Tavares and Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf have also been having terrific seasons, but nobody really compares to Crosby.

Crosby’s 1.56 points per game has only been bested three times since 1999-2000, by himself the past two seasons and by Mario Lemieux in 2000-01. He only has 15 goals, but Crosby manages to score them at the most important times. On March 24 he recorded the tying goal with 6:14 remaining in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers and two nights later recorded the only goal of the game against Montreal. He has come through at bigger times more than any other player this year, so it’s hard not to call him to most valuable even if he misses time.

The only thing that could possibly hurt him is if the Penguins keep rolling along, but they are going to have to rely on everyone pitching in for the final quarter of the season as few have ever played with Crosby’s level of explosiveness and consistency. As coach Dan Bylsma explains to Gary Lawless of The Winnipeg Free Press, he truly is one of a kind. From Lawless:

“Two years ago, during the first 40 games of 2010, Sidney was on a high pace and we were having success and winning. The level of consistency in his game was the unique thing about his game,” explained Penguins coach Dan Bylsma.

…

“The consistency of which he plays at that level and doing those things night in and night out was the great thing in 2010 and you’re now seeing that again.”

We were in the middle of witnessing a season hockey fans haven’t seen in a long time, one where a player could absolutely be expected to dominate every game he plays. There have been some very impressive performances by superstar players, but none have matched Crosby who has brought the Penguins success despite being without Malkin or Letang for large parts of the season, and inconsistent goaltending. He’s also turned Chris Kuntiz and Pascal Dupuis, two solid but unspectacular players, into some of the most dangers scorers in the NHL. If that isn’t the most valuable effort in the league, it’s hard to say what is.

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