Sidney Crosby nominated for Hart Trophy

Not a surprise and not a big story for the business at hand right now, but it's offical: Sidney Crosby is one of three finalists for the Hart Trophy. From the team:

Crosby, 25, will be attempting to earn the second Hart Trophy of his career. He won his first in 2006-07 when he scored a career-best 120 points.

Should Crosby win the Hart Trophy it would make back-to-back years that a Penguins player won the award, as Evgeni Malkin captured it last season. It would also be the first time that two different teammates won the Hart in back-to-back years since Boston’s Bobby Orr (1970) and Phil Esposito (1969).

Crosby is looking to join Mario Lemieux (3 times) as the only Penguins to win the Hart Trophy multiple times. As a franchise, the Penguins have won a total of six Hart Trophies (Lemieux, 3; Crosby, 1; Malkin, 1; Jaromir Jagr, 1).

Crosby is joined by Alex Ovechkin of the Caps and playoff opponent John Tavares of the Islanders as finalists for the award. Surprisingly no Blackhawks made it, which makes you think that Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews might have split the vote there. This award is voted on by the hockey writers association.

Yesterday, Crosby was named a finalist, along with Ovechkin and season scoring leader Martin St. Louis for the Ted Lindsay trophy, voted on by the players.

Reasonably, Sid has a pretty good shot at both. Despite missing the last quarter of the season, he still put together a body of work in the first 3/4 of the season that has showed that beyond a doubt he is the best/most valuable player in hockey, and the second guy isn't really close.

And, no matter how the voting went, Crosby and Penguins fans don't need awards to know it.