Saturday against the New Jersey Devils, Alex Ovechkin scored twice, ending the season with 49 goals. Ovechkin (32 years, 203 days) became the oldest player to win the NHL’s goalscoring title since Phil Esposito in 1974-75 (33 years, 45 days w/ BOS).
Even more impressive is how many times Ovechkin has won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goalscorer.
Congratulations to Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin on winning his 7th Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy! #ALLCAPS
No one else has more than two since the award was introduced in 1999.
Ovechkin – 7
Sidney Crosby – 2
Jarome Iginla – 2
Pavel Bure – 2 pic.twitter.com/IMpftQ1rKB— Complete Hockey News (@CompleteHkyNews) April 9, 2018
Ovechkin has led the league in goals 54 percent of the time since the trophy first began being awarded – a staggering seven out of a possible 13 attempts.
This got the TSN graphic department thinking: What would the Rocket Richard Trophy look like if it was renamed after Alex Ovechkin?
They published their photoshop on Instagram and it is tremendous.
I even gave it a whirl.
This is a very good look.
Maurice Richard scored 544 career goals. He was the first player to score 50 in a season and 500 in a career. The French icon won eight Stanley Cups during his 18 seasons in the NHL.
But if Ovechkin overtakes Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s greatest goalscorer, the Rocket Richard Trophy should definitely be renamed….
To the Russian Machine Trophy.
Headline photo: @tsn_official
