Jean-Sébastien Giguère remembers very well the moment he got his hands on the Conn-Smythe Trophy a few moments after his club’s defeat in the final.
“Before the handshakes, a guy from the National League came up to me to tell me to stay on the ice,” he remembers. All the guys on my team went back to the locker room while I had to wait alone while seeing the Devils celebrate… At that moment, it’s not the trophy you want. »
The trophy “you want” is of course the big silver cup, which Giguère will still end up winning four years later with these same Anaheim Ducks. But not this time, because this time, at the end of the 2003 final, the ex-goalkeeper felt rather alone.
“Plus, we lost the last game on Devils ice,” he adds. So when I went to get the Conn-Smythe, people started booing me… I took the trophy, I put it on a table in the locker room, next to the sticks, and I left it there. I’m not sure what happened with it afterwards. The guys on the team, I don’t even know if they saw it… It must have taken about 30 minutes before a teammate came to congratulate me! »
With so many memories in mind, Giguère is fully able to understand what Connor McDavid could experience if he and his Oilers fail to overcome this 2-3 gap in this final against the Florida Panthers.
With 42 points since the start of the playoffs, the Oilers’ star forward, win or lose, is now the big favourite to win the Conn Smythe, awarded to the most valuable player of the playoffs. But Giguère assumes that McDavid would prefer to leave with this honour in a more festive atmosphere, for example while his teammates have fun lifting the Stanley Cup alongside him.
“There is no one who plays hockey in the street when they are younger and imagines themselves winning the Conn-Smythe… we all imagine ourselves winning the Stanley Cup! So, to win this trophy after two months of playing playoff matches, when you fought to get there, but lost in the final, it’s a funny feeling. I wasn’t going to go into the locker room with that trophy and tell the guys: look what I just won! »
Giguère’s story still remains quite unique in the NHL’s great book. Since the creation of this award in 1965, only five members of a losing team have won it, including four goalies, notably the Quebecer from the Ducks. Only one player from a losing club has obtained it, namely forward Reggie Leach of the Philadelphia Flyers, who was crowned the best of the 1976 playoffs despite his club losing in the final and in only four games against the Canadian. big years.
It is therefore this type of perhaps not so enviable feat which awaits McDavid if he and his Oilers are not capable of achieving the miracle of winning this final after a 0-3 delay. Game 6 will be presented Friday evening in Edmonton.
“It’s still a great honor, and more than 20 years later, I am finally able to appreciate it better,” added Giguère. It’s an important trophy for the National League. When we win it, the League sends us a reply, and it’s on display here at home, next to my little Stanley Cup. But there’s not a day that goes by that I wouldn’t trade it for another Stanley Cup instead! »
It also happens that the winner of the Conn-Smythe later obtains the privilege of being able to spend a day with this trophy. What Jean-Sébastien Giguère was able to do on his wedding day in Halifax. “We went to pick up the trophy at the airport,” he recalls, “and then the guests had their photo taken with it. People really liked it! »
