Bruins Villain Among Favorites For NHL’s Conn Smythe Trophy

Matthew Tkachuk’s stellar play terrorized the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers star kept that act going through the next two rounds en route to leading Florida to the Stanley Cup Finals by putting the finishing touches on a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night with the game-winning goal with 4.3 seconds left.

Tkachuk has taken over the playoffs with his sensational and clutch performances — he scored or assisted on each of Florida’s game-winning goals in the Eastern Conference finals — making him one of the favorites to take home the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player in the postseason. But Tkachuk didn’t top the DraftKings Sportsbook betting sheet Thursday evening prior to Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. That distinction instead belongs to Tkachuk’s teammate Sergei Bobrovsky.

The veteran netminder has been exceptional in the Panthers’ fairy-tale run as well. Bobrovsky stopped an eye-popping 63 shots in Florida’s quadruple overtime Game 1 victory against the Hurricanes and posted a 2.21 goals-against average and .935 save percentage thus far in the playoffs.

With Bobrovsky at the top of the list, here are the top favorites to take home the coveted Conn Smythe, courtesy of DraftKings:

Sergei Bobrovsky +230
Matthew Tkachuk +290
Jack Eichel +380
Mark Stone +750
Jonathan Marchessault +1400
Adin Hill +2000

It really is a four-player race between Bobrovsky, Tkachuk, Eichel and Stone at the moment. Tkachuk has nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 16 games, which gives him a leg up on Eichel and Stone who both have six goals each.

It is wild to think that Bobrovsky didn’t even start the first three games in net to begin the playoffs for the Panthers with Paul Maurice initially giving the nod to Alex Lyon.

While the Panthers are riding a hot goaltender now, it just feels inevitable that Tkachuk has more big goals left in him and that will help him skate away with the Conn Smythe.