With a mish-mash of newsworthy items to report, I thought I’d post a quicky This ‘n’ ‘at.
For the fifth season in a row, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was voted the league’s most complete player by his peers. Sid received nearly 40 percent of the votes, well ahead of Panthers runner-up Aleksander Barkov.
In my mind, it opens up the age-old can of worms regarding the Hart Trophy, the NHL’s MVP award. It’s intended to be given “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”
If that were truly the case, I think Sid would have five or six of ‘em stashed in his personal trophy case instead of two. For the record, he’s been the Hart runner-up on four separate occasions, the last time in 2019.
At age 36, he’s playing some of the best hockey of his career, as his 40 goals will attest. He’s literally dragged the Pens into the playoff chase, at times almost single-handed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player, especially at his age, play with such intensity, detail and consistency game in and game out.
