Consolation prize: Oilers’ McDavid wins Conn Smythe Trophy

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While the Stanley Cup is hockey’s Porsche, the Conn Smythe Trophy is a Toyota Corolla if you’re on the losing team in the final, so when the game’s biggest wheel accepted the playoff MVP after Game 7, there was more frown than smile.

This was like May of 1987 when Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers got the Cup in Game 7 and Philadelphia Flyers’ goalie Ron Hextall tried but failed to put on a happy face with the Conn Smythe in front of him at the podium post-game.

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Hextall, who was fantastic in Games 6 and 7, was equal parts grumpy and despairing as he answered questions at Northlands Coliseum after making 40 saves in a 3-1 (empty-net) loss by the Flyers. He didn’t want to be there.

“It was such a fog. Honestly it meant nothing at the time getting an individual award,” said Hextall in conversation with The Athletic’s Mike Russo.

It was the same story for McDavid after the 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. The trophy was on the ice as the Panthers celebrated but he never came out after the final buzzer to look at it, never mind touch it.

The Conn Smythe is a consolation prize when you lose.

“It’s an honour with the names on that trophy, but yeah…”

The words trailed off, the hurt showing in his voice.

There’s been worse scenarios giving out the Conn Smythe to a player on the losing team. Back in 2003, Jean-Sébastien Giguère was out-of-this-world for Anaheim to drag them to the final against New Jersey, but while the Devils players were dancing and hugging, he was standing by himself, not sure what to do. When the PA announcer said he had won, the Devils’ fans booed because it wasn’t their guy.

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At least McDavid didn’t have to sit at a podium to talk about winning another individual trophy to go with his three Harts and the scoring titles as Hextall did outside the raucous Oilers dressing room.

McDavid talked in a scrum, outside the Oilers room at Amerant Bank Arena, but while it’s nice to see he’s on the same trophy as Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic and Bryan Trottier, it matters little.

“He’s the greatest player who ever played in my book,” said Oiler teammate Leon Draisaitl, when asked about the pain of not winning the Stanley Cup and getting the Conn Smythe, putting the team on his back, certainly in the playoffs.

“He single-handedly turned this franchise around,” said Draisaitl.

Again, the Conn Smythe is no stocking stuffer, being the best player at the best time in the playoffs, but it’s not the shiny present 97 wanted, or anybody.

McDavid became the second forward to get the MVP on a team that failed to get to carry the Stanley Cup. Reggie Leach, who had 19 goals in 1976 for the Flyers, was the first forward to do so with the Conn Smythe first awarded in 1965.

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The others were goalies: Giguere, Hextall, Glenn Hall, Mr. Goalie (St. Louis in 1968 and Roger Crozier (Detroit in 1966).

McDavid the fifth Oiler to win Conn Smythe

McDavid had 42 points, most in the playoffs, twice as many as anybody else in the post-season and was an easy Conn Smythe vote. He became the fifth Oiler to win it, but first with a sad face. Mark Messier won the first in 1984 in the Oilers first Cup win, then in ’85, Gretzky again in ’88 before he was sold to Los Angeles, and Bill Ranford in 1990.

McDavid had eight points in Games 4 and 5 but he couldn’t get break free in the final. He skated his usual miles, playing nine minutes in the third period and 25 ½ in all,. He came an inch or two from tying it in the dying minutes with a tip of an Evan Bouchard pass, the puck sailing over the bar.

It almost looked a set play from Bouchard, who played almost 28 minutes and led the Oilers with five shots.

“I don’t know about that, you don’t get many of those 30 seconds into a shift,” said McDavid. “But there was an opening and Bouch saw me coming from the corner. He made a good play, I got my stick on it and hoped for the best.”

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