Hockey Outsider
Registered User
- Jan 16, 2005
- 9,171
- 14,523
I think there has to be some kind of terminology effort here.
The Art Ross is a "numerical" award. You score the most points, you win. The choice of the winner can absolutely not be questionned. Of course, there are Art Rosses that are weaker and stronger than others due to a myriad of reasons, and MSL's 2013 might be a slightly "weak" one, partly because of Crosby. It's also very impressive since he was about 82 years old by then. Patrick Kane's recent Art Ross was certainly strong. I can't see how there can be an undeserved Art Ross since Max Bentley (who didn't even get an actual Art Ross, he just led the NHL in points) or Roy Conacher (and even then it's debateable, considering his teammate was 2nd and everyone else was so much behind them there's no way of telling if Lindsay had a shot).
Back to Crosby... If one uses "undeserving", it probably implies that somebody else should've won, and that Crosby was a bad choice. I think myself that he was absolutely not undeserving. I would've given it to Letang after the 3rd round, but the trophy is awarded after the Finals.
I'd say, however, that it was a "weak" Conn Smythe award. Conn Smythe winners usually have better playoffs than the ones Crosby had in '16. If you only consider the 4 playoffs during which Crosby got to the finals, 2016 was almost certainly his weakest. But the Conn Smythe is awarded to one player, every year. Not two. Not zero. Not three. One. Someone had to win it in 2016, and only one player could win it in 2009.
And it's not a Crosby-special. The same thing applies for other awards. The 2015 Vezina (Price) was a strong Vezina. The 2016 Vezina (Holtby) was a weak Vezina, probably the weakest DESERVED Vezina since, I don't know.... Kolzig? But it was a totally deserved Vezina. Same thing for the Calder : Matthews is a rather strong Calder, and I can't think of a weak one on top of my head (Drury?), but it doesn't mean their respective Calders were not deserved.
I agree, this is a great response. An award can simultaneously be deserved and weak (two separate concepts), as was the case with Crosby's 2016 Conn Smythe.