Two Things: On Cup odds and Fedorov’s Conn Smythe-worthy 1997 campaign

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. According to the Detroit News, the Vegas odds of the Wings winning the Stanley Cup in the 2018-19 season are understandably long…

It’s not an indicator of making the playoffs, but sports betting site Bovada’s opening Stanley Cup odds aren’t kind of the Red Wings, who own 75-1 odds to win their first Stanley Cup since 2007-08.

Sixteen teams make the NHL playoffs. Only three teams — the Arizona Coyotes (80-1), Vancouver Canucks (80-1) and Ottawa Senators (100-1) face longer odds to win the Stanley Cup.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the favorites, at 9-1. The Washington Capitals, who defeated the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to win their first Stanley Cup, own 14-1 odds, just eighth on Bovada’s list.

2. And the Hockey News’s Jared Clinton offers an in-hindsight selection of players who could have and perhaps should have won the Conn Smythe trophy during their teams’ Cup runs:

SERGEI FEDOROV, DETROIT RED WINGS — 1997
Since the NHL’s original wave of expansion, there are 57 goaltenders who have played at least 20 games in a post-season, and there’s a big gap – a chasm, really – between those netminders in terms of how often they were tested. For example, Tim Thomas faced 849 shots in 25 games during the 2010-11 post-season, but Martin Brodeur was only tested 463 times in 20 games during the 1994-95 playoffs. But Mike Vernon holds the distinction of being the only Conn Smythe-winning netminder to play in at least 20 games while seeing less than 500 shots. The Red Wings goaltender faced only 494 pucks en route to his Conn Smythe win in 1996-97, a run that saw him post a .927 SP and 1.76 GAA.

So, while Vernon’s post-season play was all well and good, it’s difficult to understand how he took the award over Fedorov, who was dynamite for Detroit. Fedorov scored eight goals and 20 points in 20 games for the Red Wings, including four game-winning goals. Better yet, two of Fedorov’s game winners came in the final against the Flyers, and Game 3 against Philadelphia was a monster contest from Fedorov. He finished that game with two goals and four points to help give Detroit to a commanding 3-0 series lead in their eventual sweep of the final.

Continued, and it really was a toss-up between Vernon and Fedorov in 1997.

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

6 thoughts on “Two Things: On Cup odds and Fedorov’s Conn Smythe-worthy 1997 campaign”

  1. The conn smyth trophy seems to be as much of a popularity contest as it is a measure of playoff performance these days.

    1. 24 playoff games with over 1.1 pts per game (15 G/12 A).
      Ovechkin earned the Conn Smythe, regardless of popularity.

    2. Not this year imo but yeah the last 2 I’ll agree. Anytime Crosby is involved you know it’s already planned on going to him. Last year the Conn Smyth should’ve gone to Malkin and the year before to Kessel imo

  2. This year, going into game 5, it was kind of a tossup btw Ovi and Kuznetsov (who had like one more goal and point), in which case the tie goes to Ovi. But then he scored a goal and was all over the ice blocking shots and whatnot, so he was the clear winner.

    In ’97, one of the CBC guys, when they gave the Conn Smythe to Vernon, said that you could easily say that everyone else on the Wings came in second.

  3. In 08, my vote was Ozzy, but Z is probably close to a slam dunk.

    In 02, it went to Lidstrom, but I would have gone with Yzerman. 2nd in points and the intangibles with that knee injury. Hasek was 1.86 / .920 and 6!! Shutouts.

Comments are closed.