At the NHL Awards show in Vegas last night, the media went outside the box to anoint Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin their MVP, giving him the coveted Hart Trophy.  But Alexander Ovechkin was chosen the MVP by the players themselves, so Ovie got to take home the more meaningful Lester B. Pearson Award for the third straight year.  Ovechkin joins Wayne Greatzky and Guy Lafleur as the only players to win the players MVP in three straight seasons.  The pre-awards MVP favorite, Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby had to settle for a made-up award, the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award (leadership?! he lost to the Canadiens!), and sharing with Tampa Bay’s Steven Stakmos the Maurice “Rocket’ Richard Trophy for the NHL’s top goal scorer.

Vegas got the goalie, coach and defensive forwards awards right, as Buffalo’s Ryan Miller won the Vezina Trophy with 23 out of 30 first-place votes and Phoenix’s Dave Tippett got 57 of 59 first-place votes for the Jack Adams award, and Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit won an extremely tight race for the Frank Selke Trophy.  In a mild surprise Tippett’s goalie Ilya Bryzgalove overtook New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur for second place in the Vezina voting.

Drew Doughty of the Kings was the handicappers’ favorite for the Norris Trophy (Best Defenseman), but finished third behind winner and Stanley Cup champion Duncan Keith.  Ovechkin teammate Mike Green finished second.