Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby Wins Art Ross Trophy For Second Time
By Matt Shetler
When the NHL regular season ends, Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby usually has to clear space on his mantle for some additional hardware after collecting league honors.
Apr 12, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) skates on the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
This season will be no exception for Crosby as he already has one award coming his way- another Art Ross Trophy.
As the regular season came to a close Sunday night, Crosby captured the second Art Ross Trophy in his career as the NHL’s leading scorer.
Crosby finished with 36 goals, an NHL-leading 68 assists and 104 points as he easily topped Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf (31-56—87) and Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux (28-58—86).
It was first time that Crosby has captured the honor since the 2006-07 campaign, when he led the league with 120 points (36 goals, 84 assists).
Now in his ninth NHL season, many may have expected more than a pair of Art Ross trophies from Crosby by this point in his career, but injuries have played a major role. But he appeared in 80 games this season, marking only the third time in his career he has eclipsed the 80-game plateau and the first time since the 2o09-10 season.
It also marked the fifth time in his career that Crosby eclipsed the 100-point plateau in a season.
Crosby registered a point in 60 of the 80 games he played this season, including 30 multi-point performances.
He became the fourth player in Penguins history to earn multiple Art Ross trophies, following Mario Lemieux (6), Jaromir Jagr (5) and Evgeni Malkin (2).
His 17-point gap over Getzlaf marks the biggest differential for a scoring champion since 1998-99, when Jagr beat out Teemu Selanne by 20 points.