- The NHL decided to move on to the playoffs directly after the epidemic and awarded regular season trophies yesterday.
- Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl won the Art Ross Trophy, his first-ever.
- Alex Ovechkin and David Pastrnak shared Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy.
Draisaitls’ First Big Award
The 24-year old German, whose been arguably the best player of the entire NHL so far, won Art Ross Trophy. He would post 110 points in 71 matches, thus securing the first position in this category when COVID-19 interrupted the competition.
Draisaitl was far ahead of his teammate Connor McDavid who had 97 points, and the Bruins’ David Pastrnak with 95.
He became the ninth European to win this award, and his Oilers are the first team ever to have three scoring winners over the span of four years. McDavid won the same honor in 2017 and 2018. He’s also the first German to win this award.
“He’s the player that has the most points in the league and he’s a 24-year-old player. He continues to take steps forward in his career. A tremendous accomplishment,” Oilers’ GM Ken Holland said about his star.
The franchise from Edmonton was heavily criticized back in 2017 for handing Draisaitl an eight-year $68 million contract. The public was after the management at the time, but it seems now, that all those Oilers’ fans would gladly accept the mistake.
This news received enormous attention in Germany, where all the media reported about it. It seems that this country gets a new superstar, only in a different sport than usual.
Ovechkin and Pastrnak Share Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy
Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin and Boston Bruins’ David Pastrnak both shared the trophy for the top goalscorer of the league. This was the ninth straight goalscoring title for the legendary Russian, who was two goals away from his ninth 50+goal season.
On the other side, Pastrnak and his Bruins were snapped while leading the Eastern Conference and the entire league. The last year’s Stanley Cup finalists were far ahead of all the other rivals, and they won the Presidents’ Trophy. After 70 matches played, Boston had 100 points, (44-14-12), and was nine points clear of the first rival in the East, Tampa Bay Lightning. After them, were the Capitals with 90 points, and the Flyers with 89.
Even though the Bruins had that big of an advantage and were looking pretty confident and convincing, they could end up losing the No.1 position before the playoffs. The top four teams in each conference will have to play a three-game round-robin tournament. It practically means that the Bruins need to face all the above-mentioned teams who were behind them in East.
“To kind of have three games dictate where we fall in the conference standings is a little disappointing,” commented Cam Neely, Boston’s team president, on the
League’s decision regarding the seeding tournament.
When speaking about Bruins, it needs to add that their goaltenders, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak, won the William M. Jennings Trophy as the duo that allowed the fewest number of goals in the league.
