Conn Smythe Tournament (1977-00) Round 1: 1998 Yzerman vs 1979 Gainey

[blundluntman]

MATCHUP #3 (Round 1): Steve Yzerman (1998) vs Bob Gainey (1979)

Steve Yzerman (1997-98):
23 GP 6 G 18 A 24 Points

Bob Gainey (1978-79):
16 GP 6 G 10 A 16 Points

Round 1 Matchups:
Stevens 00 vs Leetch 94 Thread
Nieuwendyk 99 vs Roy 86 Thread
Yzerman 98 vs Gainey 79
Vernon 97 vs Gretzky 88
Sakic 96 vs Bossy 82
C Lemeiux 95 vs Lemieux 92
Roy 93 vs Smith 83
Lemieux 91 vs Goring 81
Ranford 90 vs Hextall 87
MacInnis 89 vs Robinson 78
Gretzky 85 vs Messier 84
Trottier 80 vs Lafleur 77

Click to read more...

 

[tabness]

 

[Felidae]

Both Smythe wins you could argue there was someone more deserving.


With Gainey, there was Lafleur with 23 points in 16 games. Lemaire with the same total (and he was pretty solid defensively too). Robinson with nearly the same statline as Gainey being a defenseman..

As for Yzerman. One could argue for Fedorov or Lidstrom that year. Both close to his production while being even more solid defensively.


That said, I'll take the two way center that was above a PPG in 22 games during the DPE over the two way center that was a PPG in 16 games during the 70s.

 

[tabness]

Both Smythe wins you could argue there was someone more deserving.


With Gainey, there was Lafleur with 23 points in 16 games. Lemaire with the same total (and he was pretty solid defensively too). Robinson with nearly the same statline as Gainey being a defenseman..

As for Yzerman. One could argue for Fedorov or Lidstrom that year. Both close to his production while being even more solid defensively.


That said, I'll take the two way center that was above a PPG in 22 games during the DPE over the two way center that was a PPG in 16 games during the 70s.

Eh, 1998 was the most slam dunk of all the three Wings runs. Hard to say Fedorov was more solid defensively than Yzerman given how both were utilized by Bowman, and even if Lidstrom had similar production to Yzerman and Fedorov, he obviously wasn't as involved in creating the offense that he shared points on as Yzerman and Fedorov were.

For the votes themselves, Yzerman won it unanimously in 1998 whereas the 1997 and especially 2002 votes were split over multiple Wings.

 

[bobholly39]

Voted Yzerman but I'm not very familiar with Gainey's run, and it's harder to evaluate defense by stat watching vs actually seeing the games play out.

For what it's worth - I don't think Yzerman's run is that strong. In fact - I don't think there's a single Detroit "smythe worthy run" in the past 40 years that stands out as super strong. Tons of solid ones, but that's about all you can say about them. Which is strange when you consider all the cups/finals they have

 

[tabness]

Voted Yzerman but I'm not very familiar with Gainey's run, and it's harder to evaluate defense by stat watching vs actually seeing the games play out.

For what it's worth - I don't think Yzerman's run is that strong. In fact - I don't think there's a single Detroit "smythe worthy run" in the past 40 years that stands out as super strong. Tons of solid ones, but that's about all you can say about them. Which is strange when you consider all the cups/finals they have

yeah they don't got the points right? strange that they won all the cups then and were the team of the nineties and 2000s

must have been that Ref Wings stuff

 

[JackSlater]

Yzerman, though I respect Gainey becoming a two way player for those playoffs.

 

[Johnny Tomala]

Yzerman