Before the finals my vote would've been between Barkov and McDavid, depending on which team wins. How it all went down, McDavid is the rightful winner, though a lot his points in the finals seem empty calories but no one will remember or care. Bob would've had a case without games 4-6 due to his play in games 1-3, but also goes to show it's a team game - Panthers were really struggling with their details and structure for the 3 games they lost, got back to their game for game 7 and Bob suddenly looks great again. That's not to take anything away from Bob and it was a huge comeback for him with some big games, but didn't feel like he had to stand on his head for that win.
Before the finals the Panthers never really needed anything amazing from Bob, he was good enough and made some big saves for them, but hard to argue he was the best goalie on ice for the Boston or NYR series, so would've needed an all around amazing performance in the finals to have a shot at Smythe.
Barkov didn't shut down McDavid to the degree he did for practically every other teams best players, and taking into account how much points McDavid had in the series you might think he didn't shut him down at all, but it's noteworthy McDavid had one assist 5v5 against Barky, his only point and on-ice goals were 1-1. McDavid generated quite a bit though, especially in game 1 I think it was where it was mostly thanks to Bob that stat stayed that way.
Before the finals the Panthers never really needed anything amazing from Bob, he was good enough and made some big saves for them, but hard to argue he was the best goalie on ice for the Boston or NYR series, so would've needed an all around amazing performance in the finals to have a shot at Smythe.
Barkov didn't shut down McDavid to the degree he did for practically every other teams best players, and taking into account how much points McDavid had in the series you might think he didn't shut him down at all, but it's noteworthy McDavid had one assist 5v5 against Barky, his only point and on-ice goals were 1-1. McDavid generated quite a bit though, especially in game 1 I think it was where it was mostly thanks to Bob that stat stayed that way.
