King of the league (Photo credit: Jamie Squire)

It’s official: Alex Ovechkin has won the 2013 Rocket Richard Trophy. Back in February, Ovechkin was getting trashed as struggled through his third consecutive subpar year. Now he’s the NHL’s scoring leader for the third time in his eight year career.

After the remarkable spring, the Great Eight finished with 32 goals in 48 games in the lockout shortened season — the same number of tallies he registered two years ago despite playing 32 more games and only six less that last year’s total over 78 games. For the honors this season, he beat out Steven Stamkos by three goals.

“It’s big after a couple of years of not getting any indivual awards,” Ovechkin told CSN’s Al Koken after Washington’s final game of the season. “It’s huge.”

Let’s hope Ovi gets some more trophies this season — particularly ones you can drink out of.