Pick your poison.
The Blue Jackets may or may not have been trying to avoid the Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by resting their stars against Nashville Saturday night.
Instead, they'll get the Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
With two goals in the Caps' 5-3 win over New Jersey Saturday night, Ovechkin finished with 49 lamp-lighters on the year, good enough for tops in the league (Winnipeg's Patrik Laine will finish second with 44 goals).
"It's pretty special," Ovechkin said. "Thanks to my teammates, obviously without them nothing can happen. I'm pretty sure right now our goal [is] not about the personal stats. Of course it's nice. Of course the end of the season you pay attention to that. Of course you don't want to lose it because you have a pretty good chance."
This will be an obscene seventh Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy for Ovechkin. No other player in league history has won the trophy more than two times. At 32, Ovi also becomes the oldest player to have won the trophy since since Phil Esposito did so at 33 with 61 goals for the Boston Bruins in 1975.
Ovechkin has now led the NHL in goals in 2007-08 (65), 2008-09 (56), 2012-13 (32), 2013-14 (51), 2014-15 (53), 2015-16 (50) and 2017-18 (49).
