"Is it too early to start talking about Dwayne Roloson and the Conn Smythe Trophy?

Maybe it is. It's only early May, not early June. Roli has played only nine games for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a pretty small sample if we're going to single him out as the playoff MVP leader.

Still, it's hard not to laugh softly at how well Roloson is playing, saving 304 of 321 shots. The only one he'd dearly like back is a bad-angle hopper from James Neal that beat him in overtime in the first series with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Roloson, 41, is one of only three goalies in NHL history to have won at least six games in the playoffs as a 40-year-old.

Jacques Plante won eight games in 1969 at age 40 while Dominik Hasek was 42 when he won 10 games in 2007. Plante is in the Hall of Fame. Hasek, if he ever quits playing — he played this past season for Spartak in Moscow at age 46 — will also be included in that club some day.

This is heady stuff, not that Roloson ever lets much go to his head, which has an awful lot of pepper in his scalp and playoff beard. He is all about today, not tomorrow.

The goalie at the other end of the ice in the Tampa Bay-Washington Capitals series is Michal Neuvirth, 23. Roloson has shoes in his closet older than that. In 1999, when he was 30, he was Hasek's caddy (139 playoff minutes) when the Buffalo Sabres got to the Stanley Cup final, losing to Brett Hull and the Dallas Stars.

Now, he's trucking along, the second oldest player in the post-season next to the Boston Bruins' Mark Recchi, who is 43. Roloson has a 1.80 goals-against average, just behind Neuvirth's 1.77.

"Holy crow, I didn't realize Dwayne was that old," said Hall of Famer Glenn Hall, who quit playing at age 39.

Hall remembers Roloson from his days as the Calgary Flames goalie coach in the 1990s."