Why The NHL Shouldn't Have Given McDavid The Conn Smythe
The 2023-24 NHL season has come to it's conclusion, with the Florida Panthers being the sole team left at the top of the Stanley Cup mountain. They hoisted their first Stanley Cup victory in their 30-year history, against an incredibly strong Edmonton Oilers squad.
Before that happened, however, some controversy ensued with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announcing the Stanley Cup Playoff's Conn Smythe trophy winner. Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, who undoubtedly deserved to win, won the Most Valuable Player award despite his team losing in the year's final series. This enticed boos and ridicule from those standing inside of Amerant Arena, and the millions of Hockey fans around the world.
McDavid broke long-standing records and found himself in a place among the "Great One" Wayne Gretzky, but he shouldn't have won MVP. And here is why.
Winners Win, Losers Lose
Simply put, Edmonton didn't close out the series with a victory. They lost, and in turn, McDavid should have also lost the Conn Smythe. The award should have gone to the runner-up, Alexandar Barkov, who garnered a slew of second-place votes.
If I were to give an opinion on the matter, my first-place vote would have gone to the player who had to stand on his head for most of this series, Florida Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Additionally, he bounced back from getting destroyed in games 4-6 of the Stanley Cup final.
At the end of it all, the decision was made nearly unanimously. And those saying that McDavid should have gone over to hoist the Conn Smythe, clearly don't understand the true beauty of Hockey. He is the Captain of a locker room full of players who just played the last month and change with various injuries and ailments that will forever alter their lives. They didn't win it all, so they all should have lost together.
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