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TORONTO — Sidney Crosby may be in the crawling stage of his young National Hockey League career, but the teenager from Cole Harbour, N.S., took his first steps toward chasing his idol Wayne Gretzky in the hardware department last night.
Gretzky completed his career with nine Hart Trophies, five Lester B. Pearson Awards and 10 Art Ross Trophies. In only his second year in the NHL, Crosby became the first teenager to win the Hart as the league's most valuable player, the Pearson as the best player as determined by his peers, and the Art Ross Trophy as the scoring champion at the annual ceremony last night.
Crosby received 91 first-place Hart votes from the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, while Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo was next with 25, four more than third-place finisher, New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur.
"I'm not going to say the writers' opinion doesn't matter, but to be recognized by the guys you play against every night is an honour," said Crosby, the recently appointed Pittsburgh Penguins captain.
Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins poses with the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lester B. Pearson Award and the Art Ross Trophy during the NHL awards show in Toronto on Thursday night. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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- Rod Brind'Amour
- Martin Brodeur
- Sidney Crosby
- Pavel Datsyuk
- Phil Kessel
- Vincent Lecavalier
- Nicklas Lidstrom
- Evgeni Malkin
Prime Minister Stephen Harper presented Crosby with his Pearson Award, while the legendary Gordie Howe, a six-time Hart Trophy winner, handed the MVP trophy to Crosby.
This year's awards ceremony was a red-carpet affair held at the venerable Elgin Theatre in downtown Toronto. Yonge Street outside the theatre was shut down for the arrival of the guests.
Broadcast on CBC, host Ron MacLean brought the house down when he quipped, "This just in, the Elgin Theatre was bought by Jim Balsillie, and he is moving the last half of the show to Kitchener-Waterloo."
Sitting in the front row, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was not amused because of his battle with Balsillie, who has signed a letter of intent to buy the Nashville Predators and wants to move the franchise to Southern Ontario.
Crosby, who will turn 20 on Aug. 7, was nominated for the player-voted Pearson Award along with Luongo and Vincent Lecavalier, the Tampa Bay Lightning forward who led the league with 52 goals to win the Rocket Richard Trophy.
Luongo, who enjoyed a brilliant first season with the Canucks, also lost out in the Vézina Trophy voting to Brodeur, who got 16 first-place votes to Luongo's 14 to win his third honour as the league's top goaltender.
The Canucks weren't shut out, however. Coach Alain Vigneault was chosen the Jack Adams Trophy winner as bench boss of the year. He credited the play of Luongo and his team's second-half offence for the Canucks' turnaround.
"It's not easy to get here, it's not easy to stay here and it's not easy to get back," said Vigneault, who was nominated in 2000 as coach of the Montreal Canadiens. "I've been able to do all three. This is really the work of an entire group, my players and my staff."
Crosby, with his two trophies announced last night, Brodeur and Vigneault were among five Canadian winners of the eight major awards. The other Canadian winner was Carolina Hurricanes veteran Rod Brind'Amour, who won his second consecutive Frank J. Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward. Sami Pahlsson of the Anaheim Ducks had more first-place votes (24 to 16), but Brind'Amour wound up with more first-, second- and third-place votes combined.
The James Norris Trophy as the league's top blueliner went to Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings for the fifth time in the past six seasons. Scott Niedermayer was the only one to break that streak when he won the Norris in 2004. Niedermayer finished second in the voting ahead of his Ducks teammate Chris Pronger.
Crosby's teammate, Evgeni Malkin, was chosen the Calder Memorial Trophy winner as rookie of the year, but was not at the event. Neither was Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk, who with only 20 penalty minutes in 79 games won the Lady Byng Trophy as the most gentlemanly player.
Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu won the King Clancy Trophy for his leadership qualities and off-ice endeavours, while Boston Bruins rookie Phil Kessel, who battled testicular cancer this season, was chosen recipient of the Bill Masterson Trophy as the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
