I thought Murray actually cost his team two games in the finals. That in and of itself will lose a Conn Smythe. Also many playoff wins where the result of suffocating defense (hardly beer league) causing low shot totals against. The Sharks were only able to get two shots on goals in the third last night.
The system they play is total team defense with the forwards defensively responsible. Crosby was usually tasked with facing the other teams top lines. Sullivan calls that playing a 200 foot game and strength on strength. You can tell what the assignment for that line is by whether they had Letang behind them (they need offense) or two defensive defensemen (Lovejoy-Maata for the shut-down pair). Nowhere was that more evident than the Washington series where the matchup was Sheary-Crosby-Hornquist vs. Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie. On paper that shouldn’t have been close. The Crosby line (make no mistake, those two wingers blow in comparison to Ovechkin-Oshie) was able to hold them in check allowing the other lines the weaker matchups. Malkins line took on Kuznetsov which left the Penguins third line to win the series.
If I were to pick an alternate to Crosby for the Conn Smythe it would be Kessel.
Or Letang. He was a beast on defense.