GOALIES AND DEFENCEMEN GET THE CONN SMYTHE LOVE
FORWARDS GET THE GLORY ALL SEASON LONG, BUT THE GAME CHANGES IN THE POST-SEASON
Defencemen and goalies get lots of love in the playoffs when it’s time to vote for the Conn Smythe Trophy as post-season MVP, but it’s usually crickets for the Hart Trophy in the regular season.
We bring this up because dallas goalie Anton Khudobin has been the Stars’ MVP, posting an excellent .923 save percentage in 20 games. And he was never supposed to be the storyline.
On the other side, Tampa bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman has been their playoff MVP because he plays against the other team’s big guns (and he’s plus-17, leading all players), kills penalties and works the power play. With apologies to forwards brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, he’s more valuable.
We know the regular-season rationale that there are awards for the top defenceman (Norris) and best goalie (Vezina). They get their own kudos.
So you might as well change the criteria for the Hart to read most valuable forward.
Since 1965, when they started handing out the Conn Smythe to the playoff MVP, 26 goalies or defencemen have won it: Patrick roy three times, bernie Parent twice in net and bobby Orr two times from the back end.
eleven different goalies, 10 different blue-liners.
In Hart voting since 1965, only Orr three times, goalie dominik Hasek twice, defenceman Chris Pronger and netminder Jose Theodore have broken the forward stranglehold. Theodore was the last one to win the Hart, in 2002 with montreal.
So why the difference in regular season and playoff love?
“Goalies have an impact on the game because they play every single minute and defencemen who play the 200-foot game and get points … usually goals are at a premium, they aren’t really high scoring in the playoffs, so if they get any (goals) it adds to their lustre,” said Tampa coach Jon Cooper. “And defencemen play monster minutes on the special teams. They stick out a bit more.”
“you look at what Heddy’s done with his nine goals in however many playoff games. He’s on an unreal run here, but in the regular season, he’s probably not getting nine goals every 20 games. Points become a big factor in these (regular-season) games. Over 82 games, it’s hard for a defenceman to sustain that.”
the Defensive D-men
While miro Heiskanen and John Klingberg in dallas, Cale makar in Colorado and Quinn Hughes in Vancouver have been getting lots of hype for their offensive fireworks in the playoffs, teams that reach the cup final almost always have one shutdown defenceman who plays his 22 minutes and finds the scoresheet occasionally. Like glue guy Niklas Hjalmarsson on Chicago’s three Cup winners, like the hugely effective esa Lindell on the back end for dallas, like workhorse ryan mcdonagh on the Tampa blueline.
“you look at the Oilers in their (great) days, they had Kevin Lowe. He was the best defensive player (defenceman) in the league for a long time. They had Paul Coffey going all the time and Kevin was just as important to all their championship teams,” said dallas coach rick bowness.
“There are a lot of tight, low-scoring games in the playoffs and you have to shut it down. usually those guys (Lindell and mcdonagh) are key guys on your penalty kill when that’s more magnified. you need guys who can play 22, 23 minutes against the top-end players.”
bowness loves HIS Hard-working Finns
When bowness was on the ice celebrating the Stars’ Western Conference win over Vegas, he was yelling: “The Finns, the Finns, the Finns.” dallas has four —
Heiskanen, Lindell, roope Hintz and Joel Kiviranta — and loves ’em all.
“They’re good people and good teammates and fun to be around,” said bowness.
“you look at (Kiviranta), even going back to the 11 regular-season games for us, we realized this guy’s going to be a star for us. I mean a dallas Star. We thought it would be next year until these injuries hit and he’s running with it.
“you see how good roope is on the rush and he’s getting better defensively. When he blocked that shot in Game 1, our whole bench erupted. It hurts like heck, no question. you don’t want to see your players having to eat pucks, you hope they go wide (shots). but when he blocked the shot, our whole bench was thrilled for him. And you see the huge minutes esa and miro play against the opposition’s best players. The Finns? All hard-working.”
this ’n’ that
The NHL’S best zebra, Wes mccauley, is working his eighth Stanley Cup final (every one since 2013), and fellow ref Kelly Sutherland his seventh. dan O’rourke (fifth), Steve Kozari (third) and Francis Charron (first) are the others in edmonton. Sutherland, O’rourke and Kozari were in the edmonton bubble from the start ... dallas centre Joe Pavelski said during a Zoom call on monday that Patrick maroon hit Kiviranta when he flipped the puck into the dallas bench in Game 1. “Wasn’t anything major, the refs handled it,” said Pavelski ... Hintz has a well-earned, high pain threshold. He played Game 7 against the St. Louis blues last season with a broken foot. He missed the last five minutes of Game 1 after blocking a mikhail Sergachev shot. In Game 2 against Vegas, he took a Shea Theodore shot off his arm, but still played on.