Pittsburgh Penguins: The Conn Smythe Question

There’s a good chance the Pittsburgh Penguins could lift the Stanley Cup tonight. If they do win the Cup, there are several options of who the Conn Smythe should go to.

We might be getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but it’s so hard not to imagine that the Pittsburgh Penguins could be lifting the Stanley Cup in mere hours! This is such an important time of year that we’re allowed a little speculation, I think, and certainly a lot of excitement.

If (and when, hopefully!) the Penguins do win the Cup, one of the players wearing black and gold will be awarded the Conn Smythe trophy for most valuable player during the postseason. The entire lineup has contributed – which is one of the reasons that this team is so hard to beat – so there is no shortage of candidates. However, it already seems to be narrowed down to two: Phil Kessel and Matt Murray.

Both players are more than deserving, and whoever’s court you’re in is probably just based on whichever aspect of the game you believe is most important. There’s really no wrong answer here.

Because Kessel is a forward and Murray is a goaltender, there’s not a clear standard of comparison we can look at to determine a winner. Each one has been outstanding in their area of expertise, bringing different things to the team. Analytics aren’t going to help us with much here… but basic stats are still useful in evaluating performance.

Kessel has scored ten goals over the course of this postseason and has put up eleven more assists. That’s good for fourth overall in points (and third-most in goals!). He’s also first in the postseason standings in shots on goal, with 91, and first in powerplay goals scored, with 5.

That’s invaluable for this team, who consistently outshoot their opponent by large margins. Any goal for the Penguins is a good goal, but many of Kessel’s have come at important times to change the tide of the game. For a player who was so scorned in Toronto and even early on in his time in Pittsburgh for “not producing” at the level he should be, he sure is now.

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Kessel is also a part of that famous “HBK Line” that stunned the league over the past few months. He’s incredibly fast, and arguably his acquisition in the offseason was the turning point for the identity and gameplay of this Pittsburgh team. Not that that would factor into awarding the Conn Smythe, but as far as long-term effects on this team it can’t be ignored.

So, clearly, there’s a pretty good case in favor of “The Phil.”

Meanwhile, we’ve got Matt Murray. Frankly, I’m more on this side of the divide and have been advocating for him to win the Conn Smythe the entire postseason. Even if he hadn’t been this good, and we got Marc-Andre Fleury back to actually play rather than benchwarm, it’s questionable if we would have made it out of even the first round.

That isn’t to say Jeff Zatkoff didn’t do a solid job keeping things under control during the first couple of games – he certainly did, and his team just did not help him out at all in game two against the New York Rangers. However, we did see what would happen if the players all had off nights and their goalie couldn’t bail them out time and time again in that game.

Switching goalies can provide an important boost to the team, a little kick in the rear saying “get it together and stop leaving this guy out to dry.” We saw that when Fleury went in for the last twenty minutes of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. But there’s no need for that kind of shot in the arm anymore.

The Penguins rally on their own around Murray, and the way they talk about him shows why he’s really been so good since his first call to action. He’s first in the postseason for wins, naturally, and has a .925 save percentage. For a young guy to carry the team for so long and at such a critical point in their season is nothing short of amazing.

For that alone, he should not only get the Conn Smythe but never have to buy a drink in Pittsburgh again.

True, he’s had games where he’s been a little shaky, and teams have learned where his weak spot is and they often exploit it. But let’s remember that he’s just turned 22 and was literally thrust into the spotlight during a major playoff push. His skill and composure were huge in getting the Penguins to where they are now, even if that doesn’t show up on any stat sheet.

The argument is mainly down to these two players, and as I said, both are viable options. We asked you guys, the fans, to weigh in, and the consensus was similar:

About 2/3 of you were in favor of Kessel while the majority of those remaining chose Murray. Only a few voters threw their lot in with someone other than those two players, like Sidney Crosby. That’s totally understandable, because it is Sid and he’s been great as usual, but I’m sure even he would say that one of his teammates is more deserving.

Of course, we won’t know until tonight at the absolute earliest who wins, and if the San Jose Sharks can rally it might take even longer than that. Regardless of who will be awarded the Conn Smythe, one thing’s for sure: there is no shortage of deserving Pittsburgh players.