I think it's fair to say that unless Brad Marchand scores 25 points tonight, the Art Ross trophy race has been decided. We had many votes in the poll for who you thought would win the scoring title, let's take a look at how the race actually finished.
1. Martin St.Louis (Tampa Bay Lighting) - 60 points (17 goals, 43 assists)
I wrote a fair bit about St. Louis earlier in the week, and there's no denying the man deserves to win his second career Art Ross trophy. He scored 8 points in the final three games of the season to move past the injured Sidney Crosby, and stay ahead of the surging Alex Ovechkin. He was incredibly consistent all year, only going two consecutive games without a point once. At age 37, St. Louis becomes the oldest player to win the Art Ross.
2. Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay Lighting) - 57 points (29 goals, 28 assists)
It's easy to wonder if Stamkos benefited from playing on a line with St. Louis, or if it was the other way around. Since breaking into the NHL, Stamkos has been a goal scoring machine, netting 208 goals in 373 games and winning two Rocket Richard trophies. It's possible that he may not have reached such lofty heights so soon in his career had St. Louis not been feeding him such sublime passes. Stamkos had hoped to add an Art Ross to his collection, but couldn't catch his play-making partner in Tampa.
3. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) - 56 points (15 goals, 41 assists)
It's been a rough few years for Crosby, but he was having a glorious comeback season this year until it was cut short by a slapshot to the mouth. Up to that point, he had been averaging 1.56 points per game, which would have equaled 75 points had he not missed 25% of the season. Crosby was so far ahead in the scoring race before he missed the final 12 games that he remained in first place for nearly a month until St. Louis and Stamkos finally overtook him.
4. Alex Ovechkin (Washington Captials) - 56 points (32 goals, 24 assists)
The start of the year was unkind to Ovechkin, as he picked up only 5 goals and 10 points in his first 16 games(0.62 ppg) . Many thought the statistical regression seen in his game the last few seasons might become the new standard for a player once the most electrifying in the league. But after a hattrick against New Jersey in his 17th game, the Ovechkin of old returned, and over the remaining 32 games he netted 46 points (1.43 ppg). At that pace he would have almost certainly finished atop the league in total points had the season been a few weeks longer. His 32 goals was 1st in the NHL and he won his 3rd career Rocket Richard trophy.
Runners Up: Patrick Kane (55pts), Eric Staal (53pts), Chris Kunitz (52pts), Phil Kessel (52pts)
That's all for tonight folk, please comment and share if you like the content here at WAAP. I'll be back tomorrow with another huge playoff preview of the Eastern Conference first round matchups. No gif tonight, but instead I offer this incredible picture of St. Louis as a reminder of how much he's had to overcome to become a future Hall of Famer:
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