It seems to me that, in the first three rounds, Vegas was able to control the style of play, whereas in the SCF, Washington figured out a way to deal with Vegas's style, and Vegas has been unable to adjust.
As far as the Conn Smythe, based on the playoffs so far, I think Kuznetsov has the edge. His numbers are better than Ovi's in every category except goals. Caveat: I didn't see a lot of Washington's games in the first couple of rounds.