LOS ANGELES — After making one clutch play after another for the Kings during their Stanley Cup-winning run, Justin Williams picked up an additional piece of hardware Friday night.
Williams won the Conn Smythe Trophy, earning MVP honors for this postseason after finishing with nine goals and 16 assists for the Kings, including the first goal in their 3-2 double overtime series-clinching victory over the Rangers on Friday night at Staples Center.
"I can't believe I won that," Williams, a former Flyer, said. "That will, I don't think, ever sink it.
"I'm just a guy from Cobourg [Ontario, Canada] who plays the game he loves and got to be surrounded with a lot of great teammates in my career."
In addition to that description, Williams has also earned the reputation for finding a way to be in the right place at the right time for his team, something he only reinforced during these playoffs. Having picked up the monicker "Mr. Game 7" for his career-long excellence in those games — he has seven goals and seven assists, to go along with a perfect 7-0 record, after helping the Kings win three of them during this postseason — but he also scored the overtime winner in Game 1 of this series.
"Justin Williams is an unbelievable hockey player," said Alec Martinez, who scored the game-winning goal. "He's such a great leader in the room, and he's always got the puck on a string.
"You guys have quoted him 'Mr. Game 7,' and I think I've called him that a few times, too, but I couldn't be happier for him. He's a clutch player, a big-time player, and he makes big plays in big games."
After winning a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006, Williams suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee before later suffering a torn right Achilles tendon, leading to him being traded to the Kings in March 2009. Since then, he has become an integral part of a pair of Cup-winning teams with the Kings, an opportunity he hasn't taken for granted.
"[Kings general manager] Dean Lombardi has given me a great opportunity here, and he saw a player that not a lot of people saw," Williams said. "He gave me a chance, gave me an opportunity where my career wasn't going the way I wanted it to.
"I was able to be a piece of this puzzle of the team that he built, and I'm privileged to play on this team, and with all of these great players."
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