Kucherov’s Narrow Hart Win Joins All-Time Nail-Biter List

Nikita Kucherov’s Hart Trophy victory did not come with much breathing room, and that is exactly why it is getting this kind of postmortem. The race with Connor McDavid was tight enough to send people digging through the history books, which is usually where you find the real drama behind an MVP vote. These kinds of margins say as much about the competition as they do about the winner. When the gap is that thin, every ballot starts feeling like a full-length conversation.