Best playoff performance individually since 2000?

[Balance]

Listed some options, excluded a bunch of years and the basis was mostly on players with much higher point totals, goal scoring totals, and better defensive play than their competition. Then the others that were included were exceptional goaltending performances that stood out in the past 2 decades.

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[BigBadBruins7708]

Timmy or Giguere for me, edge to Timmy for winning the Cup

 

[Midnight Judges]

Thomas had a great defense in front of him.

Apples and oranges but I'd go with Malkin. No forward has equaled his 2009 performance for four rounds (although Ovechkin very likely would have).

 

[Pominville Knows]

Thomas had a great defense in front of him.

Apples and oranges but I'd go with Malkin. No forward has equaled his 2009 performance for four rounds (although Ovechkin very likely would have).

But as it stands Malkin was better.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Tossup between Malkin and Keith's Smythes.

 

[VanIslander]

Zetterberg 2008 was the most dominant two-way postseason performance this century. Simply the best.

 

[tony d]

Thomas in 2011.

 

[JackSlater]

I can't see any argument for Lidstrom, Ward, or Ovechkin even being listed as possibilities. It's between Malkin and Gigeure for me, but I think that while Gigeure didn't exactly cheat, there is a cheap aspect to his performance given his padding. I like Malkin here.

 

[sr edler]

Zetterberg

Ovi in 2018 being an option over Z (or even 2006 Pronger) when he didn't even out-perform his own C is a bit of an eye-roll.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Lol at Ovechkin. This is malkin easily.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

I'll take 2018 Ovechkin over half the performances listed here.

That said, it's clearly not on the level of Zetterberg (thanks VI), Keith, or Malkin's best.

 

[solidmotion]

as long as players who didn't even win the smythe are options (couture??) s/o to pronger in 2010.

...but yeah i think malkin and keith are the strongest recent smythes. giguere obviously big too and zetterberg.

 

[Ghetty Green]

Quick in 2012

 

[67 others]

As I recall the Wings put all their eggs into the shut down Crosby Basket and Malkin profited on his own line. But he's still the answer here.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

2003 giguere, followed by the threesome of

Tossup between Malkin and Keith's Smythes.

+ 2006 pronger

 

[MadLuke]

Those .940% run of Rask, Giguere, Thomas, Quick are quite something.

Keith, Lidstrom, Pronger, Doughty over 700 minute of ice time playoff run are also quite something

Kane, Toews, Couture, Briere, Crosby, Kuznetsov, Malkin 30 ish and more points run as well, Zetterberg, Sakic 2001

I guess it would be between Malkin-Zetterberg, Pronger, Giguere-Quick and how you value what was brought.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Off the top of my head...

1. Jean-Sebastien Giguere, 2003
2. Peter Forsberg, 2002
3. Sidney Crosby, 2018
4. Patrick Roy, 2001
5. Evgeni Malkin, 2009
6. Jonathan Quick, 2012
7. Chris Pronger, 2006
8. Tuukka Rask, 2013
9. Duncan Keith, 2015
10. Tim Thomas, 2011

...oh. Erik Karlsson, 2017 like somewhere near the top.

 

[quoipourquoi]

This might be one of the rare occasions when people are sleeping on a Patrick Roy playoff run.

Top Round 2-4 Performances, 1980-2017
Error Rate vs. Expectation
1. John Vanbiesbrouck, 1996 (52.1% on 558 shots)
2. Patrick Roy, 2001 (55.7% on 534 shots)
3. Tuukka Rask, 2013 (56.0% on 527 shots)
4. Patrick Roy, 1996 (57.2% on 493 shots)
5. Tim Thomas, 2011 (57.6% on 620 shots)
6. Arturs Irbe, 2002 (57.9% on 394 shots)
7. Pelle Lindbergh, 1985 (58.2% on 385 shots)
8. Patrick Roy, 1993 (60.1% on 444 shots)
9. Patrick Roy, 1986 (61.3% on 426 shots)
10. Kirk McLean, 1994 (62.1% on 598 shots)

Obviously the 88 shots (just 14% of his playoff total) across Colorado’s 4-game sweep over Vancouver were nothing special (19/23, 18/19, 20/23, 22/23), but his final three rounds might have been statistically the 2nd most impressive of the four-round era.

Holding Vancouver too much against the run is a bit like finding fault in Wayne Gretzky’s 40-point playoffs in 1993 because of a start of just three assists and a minus-4 in his first 4 games.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Keith, Quick, Malkin, Zetterberg, Giguere, Forsberg, Roy, Karlsson and Pronger are the great playoff performances since 2000.

Kane has been great also. Too much rubbish annoying you with Thomas run. Doughty was very, very good as well. Kopitar and Toews were very consistent for atleast two of their runs and did very well but wasn't outright dominating like others before or after.

 

[Big Phil]

Had to go with Malkin here. To this day only Gretzky, Lemieux and Coffey have had more points than him in a single postseason. That's raw numbers we are talking about too. Not bad. I am guessing we are just going by the options on the poll otherwise I just might pick Keith as the best we've seen in 20 years. Thomas and Giguere both are decent options but have a bit of holes in them. Giguere lost in the Cup final and while he played okay vs. New Jersey it was still just okay. Thomas definitely stood on his head and even though he had the odd bad game I watched that entire postseason and he was clearly Boston's MVP.

I don't mind Ovechkin on this list to be honest. Nothing against Kuznetsov's year but I honestly felt Ovechkin scored some bigger and more critical goals that spring and he threw his body around a ton as well.

Not sure if Couture wins the Smythe even if the Sharks win either. Burns or especially Martin Jones likely are in the running too because if the Pens were to be beaten Jones would have had to stand on his head.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Keith was special because Chicago's blueline was so crippled and vulnerable. He ate a lot of TOI and stepped up monstruously. It wasn't a matter of excelling in the key moments or a collection of big plays (like most Smythes) but of pure functionality; without him that team was collapsing like a house of card.

 

[alko]

Off the top of my head...

You have a very good memory...

 

[The Panther]

I'm thinkin' Giggy or Malkin.

(Brad Richards was surprisingly great, though.)

 

[GuineaPig]

I'm consistently surprised by how much praise Malkin gets for 2009. To me he wasn't even the best Penguin that year, let alone the best in the 21st century

Crosby scored 5 fewer points, yes, but also faced tougher matchups, played better defence, and wasn't massively undisciplined (Malkin had 51 PIM, include 18 minor penalties)

 

[The Panther]

I'm consistently surprised by how much praise Malkin gets for 2009. To me he wasn't even the best Penguin that year...

Well, that's why you're surprised. Most people who watched the playoffs that year thought Malkin was somewhat better than Crosby. For a player to be better than Crosby, and to score the highest point total in 25 years or whatever, is pretty stupendous. Cros was better than Gino against Washington, which was obviously huge. But then he was quite nullified in the Finals, whereas Gino went gangbusters in both the third and fourth rounds.