{"id":1311610,"date":"2019-06-19T22:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/tampa-bays-nikita-kucherov-wins-hart-lindsay-at-nhl-awards\/"},"modified":"2019-06-19T22:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T04:36:00","slug":"tampa-bays-nikita-kucherov-wins-hart-lindsay-at-nhl-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tampa-bays-nikita-kucherov-wins-hart-lindsay-at-nhl-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay\u2019s Nikita Kucherov wins Hart, Lindsay at NHL Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov poses on the red carpet before the NHL Awards, Wednesday, June 19, 2019, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/John Locher)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Nikita Kucherov gratefully accepted the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award on Wednesday night in recognition of his spectacular 128-point regular season in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

He might even be able to enjoy the trophies someday, whenever the sting of the Lightning\u2019s first-round postseason loss has faded.<\/p>\n

Kucherov won the NHL\u2019s highest honors Wednesday night, receiving the Hart as the league MVP and the Lindsay Award as the best player according to a vote of his fellow pros.<\/p>\n

The Russian right wing also formally picked up the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top scorer at the hockey world\u2019s annual Vegas ceremony at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge night for me and my family,\u201d said Kucherov, who turned 26 on Monday. \u201cBut the main thing is Stanley Cup. We want to make sure we work harder than we thought we did (last season). All these individual (awards), it\u2019s obviously nice, but the main thing is Stanley Cup for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrei Vasilevskiy, Kucherov\u2019s Russian teammate, won his first Vezina Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top goalie in another bittersweet recognition for the Lightning, who won 62 regular-season games before getting swept by Columbus in the opening round.<\/p>\n

Kucherov received 164 of 171 first-place votes in a runaway Hart victory over two-time MVP Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh, who finished second, and 2017 Hart winner Connor McDavid of Edmonton. The voting was no surprise after Kucherov posted the NHL\u2019s highest-scoring individual season since 1996.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the team plays good, the numbers will obviously be good,\u201d Kucherov said. \u201cYou just try not to think too much about it. If you think too much, your game can just go away, and bad things can happen. All my thoughts were about winning games for my team, and help the team get more points.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year after scoring 100 points, Kucherov emerged as perhaps the most impressive scorer in hockey, putting up a career-best 41 goals and 87 assists. Kucherov tied Jaromir Jagr\u2019s NHL record for assists by a wing, and he surpassed Alexander Mogilny\u2019s single-season record for points by a Russian-born player.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay also posted 128 standings points, the most by any team since 1996 \u2014 but Kucherov regrets that he had little impact during the Lightning\u2019s stunning sweep by the Blue Jackets. Kucherov served a one-game suspension for a dangerous hit during the series, and he scored his only two playoff points in the Game 4 defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came (to the U.S.), the main thing was just try and make the team,\u201d Kucherov said. \u201cNow all my thoughts are just to win the Cup, and bring the Cup back to Tampa, because people deserve that. We\u2019ve been playing good hockey, and I\u2019m sure if we keep the team (together), we can bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s Mark Giordano won the Norris Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top defenseman, earning the award for the first time at 35 years old. Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson won the Calder Trophy given to the league\u2019s top rookie, and Ryan O\u2019Reilly added his first Selke Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top defensive forward to the Blues\u2019 Stanley Cup victory.<\/p>\n

Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders won his second Jack Adams Award as the best coach, while Boston\u2019s Don Sweeney was named the league\u2019s top general manager.<\/p>\n

But Kucherov was the headliner on a night of several first-time winners at the NHL Awards ceremony, hosted by \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d veteran Kenan Thompson. The Hart was presented by \u201cJeopardy\u201d host Alex Trebek, who received a standing ovation in one of his first public appearances since announcing his battle with pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

Vasilevskiy beat out Dallas\u2019 Ben Bishop and the Islanders\u2019 Robin Lehner for the Vezina. The Russian is the first Tampa Bay goalie to win the award, leading the NHL with 39 victories while posting a 2.40 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Trotz beat out Tampa Bay\u2019s Jon Cooper and St. Louis\u2019 Craig Berube for the top coaching honor. He also won the award with Washington three years ago.<\/p>\n

After winning the Stanley Cup and subsequently leaving the Capitals last summer, Trotz engineered an impressive 23-point improvement by the Isles for their best single-season record since 1983-84, even after losing John Tavares to Toronto.<\/p>\n

Trotz took a moment after accepting the award to honor his goalie.<\/p>\n

Lehner won the Masterton Trophy as the player exemplifying the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Lehner became a Vezina finalist after revealing during training camp that he has struggled with addiction and bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not ashamed to say I\u2019m mentally ill, but that doesn\u2019t mean mentally weak,\u201d Lehner said after accepting his award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had such an incredible outpouring of support,\u201d he added later. \u201cThere\u2019s so many people that have contacted me that I still haven\u2019t been able to get to yet, that are just scared to take that first step, scared of doing the things that are necessary to turn their lives around. That\u2019s incredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

After joining several Blues teammates in carrying the Stanley Cup down the Vegas red carpet, O\u2019Reilly won the Selke over Boston\u2019s Patrice Bergeron, a four-time Selke winner and a finalist for the eighth consecutive year, and Vegas\u2019 Mark Stone.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly was the Blues\u2019 top scorer with 77 points, including 28 goals in his first season in St. Louis. He also compiled a plus-22 rating and finished fourth in the NHL with 94 takeaways.<\/p>\n

Giordano was rewarded for his remarkable performance 13 years into an NHL career spent entirely with the Flames. He is the fourth defenseman to win the Norris at 35 or older, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, Doug Harvey and Al MacInnis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take a lot of pride in working out off the ice and keeping myself in good shape,\u201d Giordano said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to play late into your 30s. I think we\u2019re all aware of that as players, but (we) try to last as long as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Calgary captain led the NHL with a plus-39 rating and scored a career-best 74 points while regularly playing against opponents\u2019 best lines. Giordano beat out the last two winners of the Norris: San Jose\u2019s Brent Burns and Tampa Bay\u2019s Victor Hedman.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Pettersson joins Pavel Bure (1992) as the only Calder winners in Canucks history. Pettersson provided an offensive jolt to the Canucks, scoring a goal on his first NHL shot and finishing with a rookie-best 28 goals and 38 assists.<\/p>\n

Wild forward Jason Zucker won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership and humanitarian contributions to hockey. Florida center Aleksander Barkov won his first Lady Byng Trophy as the player best combining sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and ability, while Philadelphia\u2019s Wayne Simmonds won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov poses on the red carpet before the NHL Awards, Wednesday, June 19, 2019, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/John Locher)AP | AP LAS VEGAS \u2014 Nikita Kucherov gratefully accepted the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award on Wednesday night in recognition of his spectacular 128-point regular season in Tampa Bay. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 09:50:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}