i'm not going to speak to which run was better, but just to throw in some series-by-series accounting of the two conn smythe winners and the load they carried relative to their other superstar center--
round one, COL vs VAN: sakic murders vancouver, in a series that was closer than we would think in hindsight. vancouver is without bure, but has a pretty deep team led by linden on one line and mogilny on the other. colorado was the better team at ES, but vancouver's powerplay, QBed by tikkanen, kept things interesting. fun fact: gino odjick scored the GWG in both vancouver wins.
sakic scored the OT winner in game five, then scores the late third period GWG to break a 2-2 tie and take the series, in his hometown, in front of friends and family.
sakic: 7 goals, 4 assists
forsberg: 4 goals, 6 assists
round two, COL vs CHI: sakic and kamensky are the big guns in this series, potting six goals each. colorado was down 2-1 in the series before sakic scores two goals including the OT winner to even the series at 2-2. kamensky is the big hero in the next two games, scoring four goals and an assist, including assisting on ozolinsh's series-winning double OT winner (which sakic also assisted on).
sakic: 6 goals, 2 assists
forsberg: 1 goal, 1 assist
round three, COL vs DET: the real stanley cup finals. in game seven, sakic scores the first three points as colorado cruises to a 4-1 victory.
sakic: 4 goals, 6 assists
forsberg: 2 goals, 2 assists
round four, COL vs FLA: kind of an afterthought. sakic gets a single goal, the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal in the second period of game three. forsberg scores a hat trick in game two blowout; sakic got four assists. if it had been a more challenging opponent, and the series stretched to 6-7 games, would sakic have set the all-time single-season goals record?
sakic: 1 goal, 4 assists
forsberg: 3 goals, 2 assists
so that year at least, sakic was unequivocally the man on his team up front. you could make a decent argument that kamensky was more important than forsberg.
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round one, PIT vs PHI: malkin and crosby split duties pretty evenly. and you look at that deep and tough philly team, with mike richards, carter, and giroux at center, and briere, gagne, hartnell, knuble, and lupul all on the wing and they needed to have both malkin and crosby (and staal).
malkin: 4 goals, 5 assists
crosby: 4 goals, 4 assists
round two, PIT vs WAS: the three best players in the world in the same series. was this the real SCF? i think you have to say crosby took the reins in this series, and it really felt like the series hinged on crosby vs ovechkin, especially with the dueling hat tricks of game two. but malkin was great too, put his stamp on game five to take the 3-2 series lead, two points including the OT GWG.
malkin: 2 goals, 8 assists
crosby 8 goals, 5 assists
(ovechkin: 8 goals, 6 assists)
round three, PIT vs CAR: similar to the florida sweep, only without the defense. malkin went nuts.
malkin: 6 goals, 3 assists
crosby 2 goals, 5 assists
round four, PIT vs DET: similar to the washington series, where pittsburgh fell behind 2-0 only to take it in seven. this is where malkin won his conn smythe. games six and seven belonged to the role players, especially talbot, but malkin was huge in games three and four to get pittsburgh back into the series, scoring five out of seven non-EN points.
malkin: 2 goals, 6 assists
crosby 1 goal, 2 assists
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and finally,
goals that both malkin and crosby were both in on: 8 PP, 4 ES
goals that both sakic and forsberg were both in on: 3 PP, 0 ES
