Timmy, what I find interesting about the standings you posted yesterday after every NHL team had passed the three-quarter point of the season is how the MVP race has shifted in such a short period of time. At mid-season, most of the discussion revolved around the Flames’ Jarome Iginla, the Canucks’ Roberto Luongo and the Lightning’s Vincent Lecavalier. After a slow start, Luongo was on fire at the halfway mark; Iginla was challenging for the points and goals lead; and Lecavalier was considered by some as the best all-around player.
There was also some support for the Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg and the Senators’ Daniel Alfredsson because Detroit and Ottawa were the clear-cut leaders in their respective conferences on teams that were getting balanced scoring from their top players; and naturally, no one was prepared to overlook Sidney Crosby as well.
Now? If the vote were taken tomorrow, the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin might get some consideration and the favorite, assuming he gets his team into the playoffs, might be the Washington Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin. The two – players chosen with back-to-back picks in the 2004 entry draft – are clearly the most dynamic position players in the league at the moment.
Ovechkin’s candidacy will be hampered if the Capitals cannot run down the Carolina Hurricanes for top spot in the Southeast before now and the end of the season, in the same way that Iginla was denied the 2002 Hart trophy in a year when he was clearly the best player, but his team missed out on the playoffs. If that happens, then Malkin could be in the driver’s seat, given how he’s surged in the scoring race and kept the Penguins in playoff contention despite Crosby’s lengthy absence because of a high ankle sprain.
Malkin’s main challenger could be the Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom though, mostly because of how Detroit has faltered in recent weeks with Lidstrom out of the line-up. If the Red Wings do finish as the best team in the NHL and they right the ship when Lidstrom finally returns, voters will be hard-pressed to ignore his contributions – and the vast difference between Detroit’s record with and without him in the line-up.
