Panthers fans boo as Oilers’ Connor McDavid wins Conn Smythe in losing effort
Their team may have just won the Stanley Cup but Panthers fans had plenty of boos in them.
Florida fans booed loudly Monday night when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the Oilers’ Connor McDavid — and not Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky — as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, awarded to the postseason MVP, after the Panthers triumphed, 2-1, in Game 7.
Panthers fans started chanting “Bobby” while McDavid did not show up for the presentation, since he had already headed to the dressing room, according to ESPN.
“Yeah, obviously, I guess it’s an honor. With the names on that trophy. But … yeah,” McDavid said after becoming the sixth player to earn the honor on a losing team, per ESPN.
Booing Bettman is a known and accepted development in hockey, and there was no chance he would escape boos Monday when the MVP honors went to an Oiler.
“The winner of the Conn Smythe is a player who has been the most valuable for the entire playoff run,” Bettman started, as some boos began to trickle into Amerant Bank Arena.
Once Bettman made it clear that Bobrovsky had been snubbed, the frustration grew louder.
“The player who is going to be given the Conn Smythe this year led the playoffs in scoring,” Bettman said before the boos intensified, “and broke Wayne Gretzky’s assist record for playoffs. The winner of the Conn Smythe is Connor McDavid.”
Ironically, the television cameras immediately flashed to Bobrovsky, who applauded the decision.
McDavid’s parents were also shown celebrating, perhaps the lone people in the stands happy with the decision.
While the fans booed, McDavid certainly earned the honor, becoming just the second non-goalie from a losing team to do so and the first since the Flyers’ Reggie Leach in 1976, per ESPN.
McDavid’s 42 points ranked fourth in NHL history in a single postseason and he set the new record by tallying 34 assists, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s mark from 1988.
After losing the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final, McDavid put the team on his back with back-to-back four-point games as the Oilers stormed back.
McDavid, however, did go pointless in Games 6 and 7.
“Proud of the way we fought all year. Behind the eight ball almost immediately. We fought an uphill climb for months and months and months,” McDavid said, per ESPN. “[This] just … sucks.”
Bobrovsky made his case for the award by guiding the Panthers to the title, including an epic performance in Game 7 when he made 23 saves and was under constant pressure in the third period with Florida protecting its one-goal lead.
“He deserves it,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov told Sportsnet, as transcribed by Dailyhive.com. “We had a lot of players who deserved it, but Bobby was the one.”
