Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky is overtaken as favourite to take home Playoff MVP by Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.
The Conn Smythe trophy is awarded to the most valuable player during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and over the past few days we’ve seen then-favourite Sergei Bobrovsky get overtaken by Edmonton’s Connor McDavid causing the conversation on who should take home the award to turn into a frenzy.
Bobrovsky has been near perfect this postseason with a 15-7 record, 2.35 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. This comes after the Russian netminder has allowed nine goals over the past two games as the Oilers battled to stay alive in the Finals.
It begs the question of who people should take to win the MVP now that there are so many options.
All betting lines are from Bet365 and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
Avoid: Aleksander Barkov to win Conn Smythe trophy (+200)
There is no doubt that Barkov has played a pivotal role in the Panthers success as he has been a key shutdown man for them. He helped cool off some of the league’s hottest players like Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, Boston’s David Pastrnak and New York’s Artemi Panarin.
The only problem is his streaky play that doesn’t make me believe in his case as the teams most valuable player. He is only one point behind teammate Matthew Tkachuk and has found the scoresheet in just two of their last seven games.
His defensive prowess is also starting to get lost as he’s recorded no points in the last two games and is a combined minus four.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e72J3ZNpGuU[/embed]
The Conn Smythe is often given out with recency bias as voters will be nudged in the right direction by a big game to win the Stanley Cup for their team.
It feels far more likely for Bobrovsky to have a big game with 24 or more saves, which he has done 11 times in 22 games, rather than Barkov, who has gone 12 of those 22 games this postseason without a point.
Avoid: Connor McDavid to win Conn Smythe trophy (-150)
The case for Connor McDavid is starting to stack up as he is having a historic postseason with eight goals and 34 assists for 42 points.
The trophy is for the teams most valuable player however and he has been without question a large reason for the Oilers success but it is worth mentioning they have two other players with 30 or more points in Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard.
He is ten points ahead of his teammates but for him to be the sixth player (and second forward) ever to win the award while not being on the Stanley Cup winning team makes me uncomfortable taking this pick especially at minus odds.
Bet: Sergei Bobrovsky to win Conn Smythe trophy (+550)
Bobrovsky has been the favourite to win the award until the past two games and if you look at his numbers before that he was 15-5 with a 2.07 goals against average and a .916 save percentage.
They have barely changed, which shows how impeccable he has been this postseason with many games feeling like he was the only reason they were even close to being in the game like Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy-x7BX2nFw[/embed]
If he has a fantastic game to close out the series, he very well could win the award and show voters that he was the reason why they got there. He is listed at fantastic odds that should be worth at least a look as a $10 bet would pay out $65 if he wins.