There are three teams in the NHL with at least two players who are top 10 in scoring. Yet two of them, the Blackhawks and the Oilers, aren’t in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. How does this happen?
There are three teams in the league right now who have 2+ players on the top 10 list for goals. The Edmonton Oilers have Leon Draisaitl (49) and Connor McDavid (41), the Chicago Blackhawks have Patrick Kane (44) and Alex DeBrincat (41), and the Tampa Bay Lightning have Steven Stamkos (44), Brayden Point (41) and Nikita Kucherov (40).
Of those three teams, only the Lightning are in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Oilers are second last in the Western Conference and the Blackhawks have missed the playoffs for the second straight year.
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Sure, the Lightning have three top 10 scorers while the others have two, but that’s not the root of the problem. Tampa has a strong supporting cast that allows its star players to shine to the height of their abilities. They have 15 players with at least 20 points and seven with at least 15 goals. Now that’s a strong supporting cast.
By comparison, the Oilers have just nine players with at least 20 points and only five with at least 15 goals and the Blackhawks have 10 players with 20+ points and 7 with 15+ goals.
The Lightning have a boatload of skill and depth. This allows them to spread out their talent to create four dominant lines. It doesn’t matter if Stamkos, Kucherov, and Point aren’t on the ice, they have guys like Yanni Gourde, Anthony Cirelli, and Tyler Johnson to continue the production.
They are built with speed, skill, and they have enough depth to fill out two rosters. When one player goes down, there is a “next man up mentality” which allows the Lightning to continue their commanding style of play through tough times.
The Oilers, on the other hand, have quality players like McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Darnell Nurse, but that’s about it. The amount of offensive production drops off a cliff from there, as there are virtually no contributions from anyone else. Their first line has 105 goals, their second line has 38, their third line has 24, and their fourth line has just six.
In comparison, the Lightning’s third line has 64 goals, which is more than Edmonton’s third and fourth lines combined. And only four fewer than their second, third, and fourth lines combined. The Oilers have been unable to find wingers that can keep up with McDavid and they have resorted to putting Draisaitl on his wing.
While that makes for a formidable first line (as seen with their 105 goals), that leaves Edmonton with virtually no one left from lines two through four. If the Oilers want to build a sustainable team, they’re going to have to make Draisaitl a second-line center and find suitable wingers for all their centerman.
For goodness sake, the Oilers could have an impressive trio of McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins down the middle, but they don’t have the winger support to make that happen. It’s ridiculous how they have managed to butcher such a perfect set up.
The Blackhawks are having a much better time in terms of balanced lines. Their goals per line are far more reasonable – 90, 74, 51, and 12 respectively – but they have been unable to be strong defensively and prevent goals from going into their own net.
So while the Oilers are having problems scoring up and down their lineup, the Blackhawks are having problems because they sacrifice their defense for a high-octane offense which doesn’t fly every game.
Hockey is a team sport that requires everyone to be working together to achieve the same goal. The Tampa Bay Lightning have nailed it with their team buildup as they have superstars who are supported properly to allow them to play to their fullest potential.
The Oilers still need to find players who can compliment their nuclear weapons, and the Blackhawks need to find more depth and put guys in the right roles for the team’s success. Sure, it’s great to have some of the best scorers in the NHL, but unless you can surround them with proper depth and support, the only thing you’ll be competing for is the draft lottery.