Your unpopular playoff retrospective opinion

[Windy River]

Looking at past years playoffs, what opinions do you hold that don’t seem to have a ton of support?

I’ll go first of course

Dustin Brown was the true MVP of LA’s 2012 cup run and should have taken the Smythe. Quick was amazing, Kopitar spectacular, but throughout those playoffs Dustin demonstrated to the rest of the team that it was theirs to win. I pretty much expected it.. but still felt a bit jaded on his behalf when they handed it to Quick.

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[Avs2022]

The Avs should have gone 16-3 during their cup run. Not 16-4. They gave away that game against the Blues when Mackinnon got a hatrick. Totally ruined the cup championship and during the Stanley Cup parade, I kept thinking what a letdown and disappointment the 2022 season was.

Then I cried. A little.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Anze Kopitar deserved it more than either of them IMO.

Goaltending is a distant third in playoff importance. You just need a guy to get hot, not an all world beater.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

A lot of playoffs is just timing, bounces, and luck.

 

[HighNote]

In the 2019 Western conference final, the St. Louis Blues deliberately made principle point of contact to the back of San Jose's net with the puck 10 times in games 5 and 6.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

The Toronto Maple Leafs have underperformed these last 8 years or so

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Phil Kessel should’ve won the Smythe in 2016 and probably would’ve if Crosby already had one.

Kessel may not be the most popular guy and he looks pudgy but he deserved it that year. Crosby was also great of course and I think voters wanted to give it to him - which is understandable. But I think if they had known he was going to win it again the following year, they’d have been more likely to vote for Kessel. They wanted Sid to win it and I think everyone gets it. He was great and it was HIS team. Not a terrible vote but I think Kessel probably deserved it a little more.

 

[JFedol]

The Toronto Maple Leafs have underperformed these last 8 years or so

Definitely have IMO but on another thought

I Always felt like if Toronto played in the west like in the 90s, they'd already have a cup by now lol

 

[Oak]

Looking at past years playoffs, what opinions do you hold that don’t seem to have a ton of support?

I’ll go first of course

Dustin Brown was the true MVP of LA’s 2012 cup run and should have taken the Smythe. Quick was amazing, Kopitar spectacular, but throughout those playoffs Dustin demonstrated to the rest of the team that it was theirs to win. I pretty much expected it.. but still felt a bit jaded on his behalf when they handed it to Quick.

Dwight King the goalie whisperer

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Always felt like if Toronto played in the west like in the 90s, they'd already have a cup by now lol

Colorado and Detroit were out there back then.

 

[JFedol]

Colorado and Detroit were out there back then.

Nah I meant now. If Toronto was a western team going against the likes of Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, Edmonton, Anaheim, San Jose. I feel they'd match up with all of them perfectly and most likely could have lots of conference finals to SCF experience on them by now. Who knows about Matthews and Marner and their ability to perform against those teams, but this whole era/narrative of choking probably may have been wiped away or would've been non-existant earlier against those early western matchups.

Doesn't matter cuz the Leafs got to beat the best to be the best either way.

 

[Shareefruck]

A general one that I tend to be alone on an island about:

The fanatical tribalism of hockey/sports in general is by far the worst and most insufferable thing about following the game (which itself is a blast), and people who take this stuff seriously enough to be as emotionally affected by it as they often are (or worse yet, act like they're owed/entitled to something from the organizations due to their years of investment, or characterize fans of other teams as just about anything dismissive) are silly and ridiculous people.

I get that to some degree, that's intended to be the whole point of all this, and it's clearly encouraged and marketed that way by the organizations, but it's one of the things about it that I find stupid and merely tolerate rather than embrace or enjoy in any way.

That's not exclusive to playoffs, but playoffs sure do bring out the worst of it.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Refs should switch their call patterns. Game 1-4 are powerplay fiestas and game 7 anything goes. Let them beat the shit out of each other game 1-4 and then call it by the book for whoever’s still standing when it matters.

 

[BB79]

These playoffs have been edge of your seat, extraordinarily exciting

Ok I lied, even I don't believe that.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

Canucks beat the Kings in 2012 if they don't trade Cody Hodgson.

Every game in that series was winnable. They had no competent replacement for Danny on the PP, and just threw a bunch of muffins at Quick. Coho would have been the difference maker as he was all season. Didn't need a world beater, just someone who wouldn't cough up short handed chances, and could provide 1-2 goals in those first 5 games to take the series to 7.

Eerily similar to the Kuzmenko trade. Didn't cost them in the 1st round this time, but damn it was close.

Gillis couldn't handle the criticism after, and blamed the kids dad. Arrogant prick.

 

[Shareefruck]

Canucks beat the Kings in 2012 if they don't trade Cody Hodgson.

Every game in that series was winnable. They had no competent replacement for Danny on the PP, and just threw a bunch of muffins at Quick. Coho would have been the difference maker as he was all season. Didn't need a world beater, just someone who wouldn't cough up short handed chances, and could provide 1-2 goals in those first 5 games to take the series to 7.

Eerily similar to the Kuzmenko trade. Didn't cost them in the 1st round this time, but damn it was close.

Gillis couldn't handle the criticism after, and blamed the kids dad. Arrogant prick.

The challenge of "wouldn't cough up short handed chances" seems like it's being taken for granted, for both Hodgson and Kuzmenko, IMO.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

The challenge of "wouldn't cough up short handed chances" seems like it's being taken for granted, for both Hodgson and Kuzmenko, IMO.

Both great puck handlers, on teams that fumble at the blueline a lot.

 

[Ignatius]

Phil Kessel should’ve won the Smythe in 2016 and probably would’ve if Crosby already had one.

Kessel may not be the most popular guy and he looks pudgy but he deserved it that year. Crosby was also great of course and I think voters wanted to give it to him - which is understandable. But I think if they had known he was going to win it again the following year, they’d have been more likely to vote for Kessel. They wanted Sid to win it and I think everyone gets it. He was great and it was HIS team. Not a terrible vote but I think Kessel probably deserved it a little more.

I would argue for Letang getting the Smythe in 2016 but that is really based on the fact that both were more deserving than Crosby that year. I have the same opinion about Kuznetsov in 2018, both Crosby in 2016 and Ovechkin in 2018 were given the Conn Smythe as a legacy award I daresay because, in the minds of some, there might not ever be a chance to give it to them again.

Sid and Ovi were both deserving but it is very clear, in my opinion, that they were not the most deserving players on their respective teams in each of those playoffs.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Nah I meant now. If Toronto was a western team going against the likes of Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, Edmonton, Anaheim, San Jose. I feel they'd match up with all of them perfectly and most likely could have lots of conference finals to SCF experience on them by now. Who knows about Matthews and Marner and their ability to perform against those teams, but this whole era/narrative of choking probably may have been wiped away or would've been non-existant earlier against those early western matchups.

Doesn't matter cuz the Leafs got to beat the best to be the best either way.

They should move the Leafs to the Korean Hockey League. Then they’d dominate. The west? Not so much.

 

[Chet Manley]

Intangibles are a real thing and factor into playoff success.

 

[NyQuil]

I don’t know if this is controversial or not, but when people talk about a player’s statistical peak, I don’t necessarily think it correlates to their playoff peak.

I think veterans, after a few years, pace themselves in the regular season to some extent to have something left for the post-season.

Rookies and young players have to show up just to stay in the lineup so they don’t have that kind of luxury.

A team full of veteran stars who are statistically weaker would succeed against a a team chock full of stars in their “statistical peak” more often than not IMO.

 

[centipede2233]

That Ed belfour was as good a playoff goalie as Patrick Roy. I was the biggest Roy fan growing up and you can’t argue the accomplishments, but Belfour not only beat out Roy 2 vezinas to 0 while both were in the league, but belfour beat Roy in the western conference finals twice back to back years. Belfour career playoff save % - .912 Roy - .913

 

[DitchMarner]

A lot of playoffs is just timing, bounces, and luck.

Can't you say that about life in general?

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Can't you say that about life in general?

Life is that x100, I question the relevance of free will in light of the sheer weight of random variance. But most games/sports kinda give a framework where the best team should win. Injuries, goalies, and the lower scoring in hockey combine to make it a bit more random than the NBA playoffs usually are, for instance.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

"Playoff players" is a vastly overrated concept. Once you have a good playoff run, you can kind of coast on it for a while and in the opposite way, you're a "playoff choker" until you're not and you just play good all of a sudden. There's some extreme cases, but for most players it varies year by year depending who they match up with, their linemates, injuries, etc etc.