I think there's a lot of ways to look at this.
I'd say our #1 for these playoffs has to be Hank. He's come up big when it counted.
For the regular season, I have to hand it to McD. His defense was stellar (as usual) and his offense was a nice surprise. The first round and a half was a bit rough for him.
Zuccarello, for his scoring and play-making acumen, giving us offense on a pretty consistent basis.
MSL - For stepping up in a big way these playoffs. I know this sounds awful, but his mother passing brought this group together, and without that coming together and fighting for one another, I think we'd be golfing now.
Girardi and Staal are two guys that, for me, are a bit of a tie. In fact, I cold easily drop Stralman in here, too. Our Top 4 have been (by and large) solid, and have played well. Even John Moore and Klein have been looking better in these playoffs.
Carcillo, Moore, and Boyle have all picked things up in the playoffs and made us a much more competitive team.
Richards, despite what you may say, is our point leader and has come up big.
Talbot, for starting strong and getting us wins when we needed them. Solid backup. One of the few guys who could be in the net as a backup and still have me feel confident about our chances.
Truthfully, I think you could argue for most of the guys on this team. the Pou - Brass- Zuccs line has been tremendous for us. MSL has been in the mix. Hags has been in on the forecheck. Kreider's return injected a much-needed boost in physicality.
We just really need to keep doing what we're doing and have other guys (Nash, etc.) step up.