from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Now, as the Tampa Bay Lightning are about to win their second straight Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe decision comes down to the best goaltender in the world, Andrei Vasilevskiy, or the most understated, subtle star in hockey, Nikita Kucherov.

It’s one or the other and the choice is not an easy one....

- This is a cool stat: Victor Hedman, the best defenceman in the world and last year’s Conn Smythe winner, scored a goal in each of the past 12 months. No one has ever done that before.

- Brian Kilrea, Terry Simpson, Bill LaForge and Craig Hartsburg all tried to jump from junior hockey coaching to the NHL without taking a step in between. It didn’t work out so well for any of them. Wonder if the Arizona Coyotes looked into any of this before hiring Andre Tourigny, out of Kilrea’s old Ottawa team, as their new coach?

- It wasn’t the worst vote out there. Somebody voted Tyson Barrie first team all-star on defence.

- When Connor McDavid led the NHL in scoring in 2018, which he seems to do just about every year, he was pushed aside in the Hart Trophy balloting, essentially because the Edmonton Oilers failed to make the playoffs that year.

The thinking was: How can he be a league MVP if his team wasn’t good enough for the post-season?

The award went to Taylor Hall, which upon looking back seems rather odd, but didn’t seem that way at the time.

The question now is: If you can’t win an MVP in the National Hockey League while playing for a non-playoff team, how can you win a Norris Trophy as best defenceman playing for a team that doesn’t qualify for the post-season?...

more on the first and last topics plus more notes...