Smolar: McDavid deserved Conn Smythe Trophy

If you’ve been paying any attention to the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, you’re well aware that this series was historic for a lot of reasons. Before the series even began you had Canada looking to bring the Stanley Cup back home for the first time in 31 years while the Panthers had yet to hoist a Stanley Cup in its history.

The actual series itself might have been the best Stanley Cup Final we’ve seen in a long time. The Panthers seemed to have complete control over the first three games. They outscored Edmonton 11-4 on their way to a commanding 3-0 series lead and held their two biggest stars, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, largely in check.

Then the series completely flipped. McDavid responded with back-to-back four-point games and the Oilers outscored Florida 18-5 through Games 4-6 to force a Game 7, something that seemed nearly impossible just twelve days ago. While Edmonton fell just short of a historic comeback, the fact that there was a Game 7 at all after what we saw through the first three games speaks to the resilience of McDavid and the Oilers.

Edmonton nearly became the second team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup Final after losing the first three games. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs remain the only team to have accomplished the feat. The Oilers did manage to become the first team since the 1945 Red Wings to force a Game 7 in the championship round after trailing 3-0.

We also had a player from the losing team in the Stanley Cup Final take home the Conn Smythe Trophy for just the sixth time in league history and for the first time since 2003. Connor McDavid became the second non-goaltender to ever win the award in a losing effort on Monday night.

While many fans and Panthers players were not happy that McDavid won the award with a loss, I am fully in agreement with the decision. He earned it throughout Edmonton’s entire playoff run.

He led all postseason scorers with 42 points in 25 games, just five short of the all-time record of 47 set by Wayne Gretzky in 1985. Despite not recording a point in Games 6 or 7, he was a major reason this series even got to a Game 7 thanks to recording eight points over Games 4 and 5. Nobody in NHL history had ever recorded consecutive four-point games in the Final before McDavid, not even Gretzky. He’s been considered the best hockey player in the world for quite some time now and you’ve seen why over the past two months.

When you look at who else should have been considered, it makes it all the more obvious why McDavid was the right choice. Nobody else on the Oilers should be in the discussion while the only real contenders for Florida were Aleksander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky. Barkov rightly won the Selke Trophy and put up some great numbers during their playoff run but nobody could legitimately argue he was more dominant than McDavid during the playoffs. Bobrovsky certainly did his job on Monday night but also really struggled during Games 4-6 and wasn’t anything Conn Smythe worthy during the postseason.

Those against the decision will point to McDavid going scoreless in the last two games of the Final and simply say that he lost. While that may be true, this award is given to the MVP of the entire playoffs, not to the MVP of one or two games. Without McDavid the Oilers wouldn’t have been anywhere close to lifting the Stanley Cup.

McDavid of course isn’t celebrating winning the Conn Smythe Trophy because his team fell short of their ultimate goal. That being said, McDavid can take some pride in knowing he earned the award by putting the Oilers on his back and nearly pulling off something historic.