Conn Smythe Talks

who's got it?

Bob McKenzie, a TSN hockey analyst, was talking to his friends and colleagues in a bar. He asked them if the Canucks were to, theoretically speaking, win game 6 and win the cup tomorrow night, who would win the Conn Smythe Trophy given yearly as playoff MVP. 1 of them said Kesler, 1 said Luongo, 2 said Bieksa, and, get this, 5 said Tim Thomas. That's right. A player from the opposing team would win. It's not far-fetched though. It's happened 5 times in NHL history that a player from the losing team won the trophy. 4 of those times they were goalies (in 2003 it wasn't deserved but I'll touch upon that topic another time.)

And look at Thomas' numbers, not only in this series alone but in the entire playoff run (which is what this award is based off of). Thomas started every game so far this postseason for the Bruins, something that can't be said for Luongo. He had a 2.07 GAA and a fantastic .937 SV%. In other words he's been lights out for most of the playoffs. This series he has only given up 6 goals in 5 games.
So it seems Thomas is the perfect candidate for the Conn Smythe right? He essentially carried a somewhat-weak offensive team all the way to the finals. But here's the argument against Tim. It may seem unfair but so far this series, all 3 game winning goals by the Canucks would have probably been stopped by a fundamentally sound goaltender. Just to refresh your memory, here was game 1's goal with 18 seconds left in regulation by Raffi Torres"

notice how Thomas had to slide so far to the side in order to make an attempt at stopping Torres' shot. He was too aggressive at taking the shot and that was the reason he gave up the goal. Now I'm not saying this was a bad goal but it was certainly preventable.

In game 2 everyone's seen this and critiqued it their own way. But in case you missed it:

self explanatory on this one. The aggressive style drove him completely away from the net and this may have been Burrows' easiest goal in his career.

Game 5 was also pretty much an obvious problem.

Kevin Bieksa (more on him later), recognizing Thomas' tendencies, shot the puck wide on purpose and it caromed right to Maxim Lapierre who had no trouble putting the puck in the net. And Thomas, again, was out challenging the initial shot.

I've said it already on this blog. Thomas plays his way like it or not. I wrote here about the benefits and here you can see the down sides of his style of play. I think his style his fantastic. It's exciting and fun to watch but at the same time it's risky.
So to sum it all up, Thomas DOES have a good shot at winning the Conn Smythe. He was lights out in the middle of the series and if it weren't for him, the Bruins wouldn't be here. But another reason he'd win it:

Who the hell else will?

Luongo was terrible this series, giving up 12 goals in 2 games, and was solid the rest of the time besides for his 1st series meltdown. So Luongo doesn't get it for his inconsistency.

Both Sedins won't get it, well, because they've disappeared all together this series.

If Kesler does well in game 6, he technically does have a chance for his play in the series against Nashville was fantastic. But not enough so far this round.

Burrows can even wind up with it but he was also inconsistent at times.

And that leaves me to my choice. Kevin Bieksa. A player, who at the beginning of the season didn't know if he were to end up in Vancouver again, has played fantastic defense this postseason. He has undoubtedly been Vancouver's most consistent player in the playoffs. He had the big goal in that series against San Jose' and has  totaled 10 points so far in the playoffs, and has the most goals among defensemen with 5. So I think Bieksa, at this point, is in great position to win the Conn Smythe.

What's even more: a great video on youtube of a compilation of nice hits by Bieksa played to an interesting soundtrack: