The Top 10 Best Un-Heralded Performances Of The 2008 NHL Playoffs

And The Conn Smythe Trophy goes to... no I'm not going to attempt to insist that anyone but Henrik Zetterberg should have received the MVP of the Playoffs. No player since perhaps Joe Nieuwendyk of the 1999 Dallas Stars better represented a 2-way playing recipient of this award. Zetterberg routinely scored clutch goals, shut down the opposition's top line, and was just plain consistently effective every game he played. As I was watching games 5 and 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, I came to realize that I would be upset if he did not win it.

However, there are many who played just as hard every shift, and may not have shown up on the score sheet but were certainly effective in other ways, and they have perhaps gone unnoticed; definitely much more unnoticed than Zetterberg. The following is my list for the top 10 best un-exalted players of the 2008 NHL playoffs- that is, players that had a huge impact on their teams' success but did not receive much- or enough recognition.

10. Jeremy Roenick

As a Kings fan, I cringe when I hear this guy's name. I am pretty sure that in Los Angeles, hockey was just below golf on his priority scale.  So as much as I hate to put this guy on this list, it can't be denied that his presence was a factor for the Sharks.  For most of this season he was a role player, that is, a third or fourth line forward. He scored 14 goals this season- 10 of which were game winners. That is a ridiculous statistic. He was a healthy scratch in game 6 of the series vs. the Calgary Flames in a 2-0 loss. He would dress for game 7 to score 2 goals and 2 assists and lead the way for the Sharks to put away the Flames,  5-3.

9. Brooks Laich

Unfortunately for the NHL, the Capitals did not make it out of the first round. Not to say that nobody likes the Flyers or that they are not exciting to watch, but they don't have Alex Ovechkin.  Ovechkin did win the Hart Memorial Trophy this year, so naturally he is the MVP of his team. But goal scorers are nothing without play-makers, and neither of those get the puck as often without grinders like Brooks Laich. This guy was all over the place during this series- I watched a play where he hit both defencemen trying to break the puck out of their own zone, on the same shift. He made all the little plays as well as big ones, scoring 6 points in the 7 game series, which is impressive considering he probably played on all four lines at some point. He also finished the series with 10 hits and a +2. These are the types of guys that never get traded and for good reason.

8. Max Talbot

The Pittsburgh Brooks Laich counterpart; if Washington had gone as far as the Pens I'd have to put Laich closer to #1, but since it was Pittsburgh in the Finals, here's Maxime Talbot. Talbot was another guy that rotated throughout the lines, though most everyone in Pittsburgh did in the Finals while coach Michel Therrien tried to find the answer to Detroit's match-ups, but he was a force on every shift no matter who he was lined up with. He was the first forechecker in deep every time, and unlike some of the young Pens players, was always smart with the puck. Most significantly, in the Stanley Cup Finals, he scored the game tying goal with 34 seconds left in Game 5 to send it into OT where Sykora would win it.  Max was on the ice with the regular power play unit, and normally doesn't see that much P.P. time wi

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