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Originally Posted by FRED HALE SR.
I was stunned the way it ended but I figured the B-hawks were the better team throughout. Keith was certainly very good, but Kane brought that consistent scoring throughout that wins the Smythe usually. Not too many D-men are gonna raise the Smythe without a Niedermayer on their back. Good series all things considered, getting amped up for the draft already.
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Speaking of Niedermayer, I thought that was the worst Conn Smythe winner in recent memory. He did not deserve that one at all.
I dunno about Kane. He's not a bad Conn Smythe winner, but he didn't bring consistent scoring at all. He was huge to close out the Kings and was great in games 4 and 5 against Boston, but what else did he really do? He racked up a good deal of assists when Chicago was firing on all cylinders against Minnesota and got a couple goals in the first few games against the Wings. There were a few times in these playoffs where people were really getting on him for not producing (which, let's face it, is his whole game as he's not exactly a complete player), and it's tough to give a playoff MVP to someone like that. I thought Keith was a very consistent factor throughout the whole playoffs.
And yeah, the draft should be great. I can't get too excited right now because of the way the Bruins went out and because they lost their first rounder for Jaromir ****ing Jagr, but objectively, it'll be a hell of a draft. There's some great top-end talent and it looks really deep. It's a nice change-up for what was probably a bit of a down-year last year. Plus, with all these compliance buyouts happening over the coming days and with teams having to shed salary in other ways, I'm wondering if there will be more trades.