Burnside makes his Conn Smythe picks
Scott Burnside @ ESPN.com picked his top three Conn Smythe candidates from each of the four remaining NHL teams. Chris Osgood, Johan Franzen, and BTJ favorite Niklas Kronwall made the list for Detroit.
• Hard to look further than “The Mule,” Johan Franzen. The unheralded Swedish goal-scoring monster leads all postseason scorers with 11 goals and is tied for second with 14 points. His three game winners are what would put him at the top of this early ballot. Scoring in bunches is one thing; scoring when it counts is another.
• Franzen’s exploits may have overshadowed another dynamite performance in the Motor City. Niklas Kronwall is enjoying his finest injury-free stretch since coming into the NHL as the 29th pick in the 2000 draft. It’s Kronwall who enters the conference finals as the leading point-getter among defensemen in Detroit, not Nicklas Lidstrom (Kronwall has eight points, Lidstrom seven). The hard-hitting defender also is blocking shots, taking out opposing players and generally looking like a stud on the Detroit blue line.
• How about the new kid in goal, Chris Osgood? OK, he’s not so new and not so young. (He wore the winged wheel a decade ago when the Red Wings won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.) Still, Osgood took over for a shaky Dominik Hasek in Game 4 of the first round against Nashville as the Wings looked like they were coming apart at the seams. Osgood has since won six straight games and leads the playoffs with a 1.52 goals-against average.
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