News

The National Hockey League hands out only one post-season bauble beyond the Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' MVP (won by Carolina Hurricanes' goaltender Cam Ward), but in the aftermath of a wonderfully entertaining playoff year, more than just the one individual deserves credit for keeping us glued to our sofas for the past two months. So without further adieu, the envelopes please:

Unsung hero (Carolina division): Mike Commodore. The only player on the Hurricanes that made it to the 2004 Stanley Cup final and lost, Commodore played on a no-name, mostly invisible defence corps that found a way of getting the job done. A telling moment from Monday's seventh game: When the Oilers received a two-man advantage for 116 seconds, it was Rod Brind'Amour, Glen Wesley and Commodore that coach Peter Laviolette put out to kill the penalty. Not bad for the third-round draft choice that Carolina gave up to acquire his rights.

Unsung hero (Edmonton division): Ethan Moreau. Nominally a fourth liner who got most of his minutes killing penalties, Moreau's contributions mostly defined the Oilers' style. He made hits, he blocked shots and when they needed a big play — Game 5, in overtime, when he forced the turnover that led to Fernando Pisani's shorthanded game-winner — he delivered them, more so than some of the bigger names.

Whatever happened to?: Sergei Samsonov. Acquired from Boston at the trading deadline to bolster the attack, Samsonov finished the playoffs with just four goals in 23 games. He made a couple of important plays in the opening series against Detroit, but against the more physical teams, he was largely a non-factor. In fact, Samsonov and Radek Dvorak — two thirds of the nominal second line, playing with Jarret Stoll — managed just the four goals between them and couldn't quite provide the offensive spark when the Oilers needed it most.

The Patrick Roy unique double award: Cam Ward. The Hurricanes' rookie goaltender won more games in the playoffs (15) than he did in the regular season (14) when he served mostly as the back-up to Martin Gerber, which makes his rags-to-riches story even more compelling. Exactly 20 years ago, Roy also won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe trophy in his rookie season, with numbers that were startlingly similar. Altogether, Roy won four Stanley Cups and three playoff MVP awards in his career and the losing rookie goalie in 1986 didn't do too badly either. That was Mike Vernon, who ultimately outdueled Roy for the 1989 Stanley Cup title and ended up with two Cups and one Conn Smythe himself.

Best player not to win the Conn Smythe award: Defenceman Chris Pronger. The Conn Smythe trophy occasionally goes to a member of the losing team (it happened as recently as 2003, when Anaheim's J.S. Giguere won it, in a seven-game loss to the New Jersey Devils), but only once in history did it ever go to a non-goaltender on a losing team (Reggie Leach in 1976, when the Flyers lost to the Montreal Canadiens). A case could be made that Pronger could have duplicated Leach's feat 30 years after the fact, after playing 30-plus minutes on defence for the first No. 8 seed in modern playoff history to advance to the Stanley Cup final.

The John Druce, who-was-that-masked-man? award: Fernando Pisani, who by the final round, was the only Oilers' player scoring with any consistency. Pisani followed up his 18-goal regular season with a playoff-leading 14-goal performance, five in the final, which included the winners in both Game 5 and 6 and the only goal in the seventh game loss. Pisani actually had the tying goal on his stick late in the third period on virtually the same play that he scored on previously, but this time, Ward managed to get his pad on it. Ultimately, the Oilers needed one more forward to find his scoring touch around the net in the final game to balance the attack. In the end, no one else managed more than seven playoff goals.

The hurting ones: Doug Weight revealed that he had suffered a third-degree shoulder separation in Game 5 and might be ready for the start of training camp. Bret Hedican revealed that he had torn the labrum in his hip in the first game of the series.

Youth will be served: Eric Staal led all playoff scorers with 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists) in 25 games. At 21 years, eight months, Staal was the second-youngest playoff scoring leader in the league's modern era, behind Detroit's Gordie Howe in 1949 (21 years, 16 days).Staal also led in assists (19), power-play goals (seven), power-play assists (10), power-play points (17) and shots (87).