Picking a Conn Smythe Trophy-Winner -- Then (Islanders) & Now, Mid-Series

With Game Four of the increasingly exciting Cup Final taking place tonight, no less thrilling is the race for Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP.

One minute you hear the name Jonathan Marchessault of Vegas and the next second someone chimes in with, "Hey, why not Matthew Tkachuk? Or, maybe Sergei Bobrovsky?"

Certainly the next two games should narrow down the candidates. After all, at this very moment Florida's Carter Verhaeghe and the Knights' Adin Hill have to be considered.

When the Islanders won their first Stanley Cup in 1980 Bryan Trottier captured the Smythe on the basis of setting a playoff record with 29 points.

But I know one hockey columnist who disputed Trottier as winner. "How could they bypass Bob Nystrom," he explained. "After all, he scored the Cup-winner and it was the club's first Stanley Cup. What's more important than that?"

Other scribes remember how Billy Smith held the fort in that memorable sudden death period of Game Six.

"Philly had a big push right off the first face-off in overtime," said one press box regular. "If it wasn't for Smitty's saves, Ny never would have scored."

True enough. Then again, in the midst of the 1981 Final round against Minnesota there also were disputes over which Islander would take the Smythe. (Even then it was a foregone conclusion that New York would win.)

After the Nassaumen beat Edmonton in the second round Trottier was being talked up for the award. "Trots was piling up points," said Hockey News former editor in chief Tom Murray. "Plus he went head to head with Wayne Gretzky and shut down The Great One."

True enough, but in the semifinals, Bossy almost single handedly routed the Rangers in a four-game sweep.

"Bossy's game-winner in the fourth contest was his 81st goal of the season plus playoffs," wrote Barry Wilner of The Associated Press. "Boss snapped the all-time mark set by Reggie Leach of the Flyers in 1976."

But neither Trots nor Boss won the 1981 Smythe. Butch Goring took the prize scoring shorthanded goals, a hat trick and, as Wilner noted, it was "the best series Goring ever put together."

Bossy's Smythe day would come the third time around and this time there really were no other truly legitimate challengers. In the opening game at NassaunVeterans' Memorial Coliseum, Vancouver actually looked like the better team but Bossy was the savior.

He already had scored two goals in regulation time, but that was small potatoes compared to his sudden death histrionics. Just when it seemed as if the first overtime would end, Bossy stepped in the way of a clearing pass by Canucks defenseman Harold Snepsts.

Wilner: "Mike whipped a shot past goalie Richard Brodeur with two seconds remaining in the first overtime period for a 6-5 Islanders victory. And in the fourth and final game he scored twice. One was while he actually was airborne."

As for the fourth -- Dynasty-clinching -- championship, no doubt the Lords of the NHL would have preferred anyone but Bill Smith as the Smythe titlist.

Fleet Bob Bourne certainly was a contender after pulling off a rare end to end rush through the entire Rangers team to score one of the most spectacular goals in playoff history.

"I haven't scored like that," Bourne explained, "since I was in Juniors."

Clark Gillies had a strong series as did Bossy and Trottier. In the four-game sweep of Edmonton in the Final round, Trots again deleted Gretzky.

But Smitty got the Smythe on the basis of superior puck-stopping.

Battlin' Bill shut out the high-scoring Oilers, 2-0 in the opener. Islanders watchers considered Smitty's performance arguably the best exhibition of goaltending superiority in franchise history.

The normally subdued coach Al Arbour waxed ecstatic over Smitty. "It was an extraordinary performance," Radar concluded.

Trottier: "Smitty could have been MVP all four years."

But when NHL President John Ziegler presented the Smythe to Smitty, the goalie ripped members of the Canadian media as well as fans.

"I've never been so hurt," Smith seethed, "for all the abuse I took."

I don't expect any of the Vegas or Florida Smythe contenders to echo Smitty's feelings.

But, hey; we've got at least two more games to play and -- well -- you never know!

All else I have to say is may the most deserving player be named MVP.