Moments after the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 in Game 6 to clinch their fifth Stanley Cup, Patrick Kane was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for the playoff MVP. Despite a solid postseason, Kane admitted that he felt that some other players had been snubbed from earning the MVP honors. He was absolutely right.
"I think there were a lot of guys that deserved it," Kane said during an interview with NBC. "I think [Corey Crawford] might have gotten snubbed, to be honest with you. It's a hell of an achievement. I think it speaks more for my team than for myself, personally, playing with great players."
Kane finished the postseason with 19 points, including nine goals and 10 assists. He led the Blackhawks in points and scored two crucial goals in Game 5 to help his team take control of the series. However, Kane was not the best player of the postseason.
Back in 2010, Kane scored the Cup-clinching goal in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers; the goal was his 28th point of the playoffs. Despite putting up more impressive numbers and scoring the biggest goal of his life, Kane was not honored as the top player of the postseason. More importantly, Kane registered the 28 points in one less game played; this year he contested 23 postseason matches but only played in 22 back in 2010.
Obviously, different years yield different individual results and Kane's honor should not be judged on a better postseason performance in 2010. The problem with this year's MVP honors was that Kane was inconsistent throughout the 22 postseason games he played. He scored five points in the first round against Minnesota but failed to score a single goal. He finally found the back of the net against Detroit in Game 1 but only scored four points in the entire series. The Los Angeles Kings limited him to just two points in the first four games before he scored a hat-trick in the decisive Game 5; his final goal was the overtime winner that sealed the Kings' fate. In the first three games against Boston, Kane was limited to one assist before he scored two points in his team's 6-5 victory in Game 4. He then scored the two goals in Game 5, the two tallies that seemingly clinched his MVP candidacy. Overall, Kane never recorded more than five points in a single series and struggled when separated from center Jonathan Toews.
In order to make an argument against one player's candidacy, there must be better options available. Many could argue that a few Boston stars had the right to be considered, but Chicago had one player that should have easily taken the spotlight away from Kane; a player that Kane himself recognized.
That person is none other than netminder Corey Crawford. A year after putting up subpar numbers, Crawford established himself as Chicago's top netminder. He put up 16 wins along with a 1.48 goals against average and .932 save percentage in the postseason. To put his performance in perspective, Jonathan Quick won the Conn Smythe a year ago with a 1.41 GAA and a .948 save percentage. The year before that Tim Thomas allowed 1.98 GAA but stopped .940 of the shots he faced. Thomas faced an astounding 849 shots during the postseason while Quick only dealt with 538. Crawford had to make 628 saves to win the Stanley Cup, an impressive figure when one considers that his squad was a highly offensive one. Crawford did not put up as many shutouts as Quick or Thomas in his run and that may have been the difference; Crawford had one shutout in the Cup run while his predecessors combined for seven. In the final 15 games of the postseason, Crawford only allowed three or more goals on four occassions; his save percentage was below 92 percent in only three of those games and below 90 percent in one game. In the entire postseason, his save percentage dipped below 92 percent in only six instances; Crawford started and finished all 23 games for Chicago in the playoffs.
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