Do NHL fans overrate the importance of 'depth'?

[Nico Cauzuki]

are you not watching Seattle in the playoffs? no stars and just gaved the current champs the boot and also beating a very good Dallas team

 

[McShogun99]

are you not watching Seattle in the playoffs? no stars and just gaved the current champs the boot and also beating a very good Dallas team

They're reminding me of Vegas in their first year. No stars but 4 solid forward lines and 3 solid D pairings and everyone is buying in and working hard.

 

[5 14 6 1]

watch Edmonton slowly destroy the theory of depth

12/12 forward with over 10 goals in the regular season, but sure keep saying this.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Depth doesn't matter until you don't have it.

 

[joestevens29]

Carolina down two of their top players is showing what depth can do.

Seattle is also a team that is pretty deep at forward, just lack the superstar power.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Depth doesn't matter until you don't have it.

watch Edmonton slowly destroy the theory of depth

Edmonton has depth though.

 

[crowi]

I think some fans overrate their own team's depth, but overall I find it massively important. Having depth that can score from the bottom-6 wins games.

 

[joestevens29]

watch Edmonton slowly destroy the theory of depth

Connor or Leon have yet to score a GWG in these playoffs, so something telling me our depth is playing an important role.

 

[Eggtimer]

I’d say in the playoffs ,for the most part , each teams top line or top 6 cancel eachother out amd it becomes a battle of the bottom 6 and bottom pair D being able to handle their minutes.

 

[GreenLine]

If anything, depth is routinely underated by fans. It's too easy to follow big names and assign all the credit/blame to them.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

watch Edmonton slowly destroy the theory of depth

If anything they're a prime example. They didn't become a great team until they got the top two some help.

 

[snag]

Depth doesn't matter until you don't have it.

Edmonton has depth though.

When you have been told something repeatedly eventually that is all you know.

Connor or Leon have yet to score a GWG in these playoffs, so something telling me our depth is playing an important role.

Connor and Leon just so far above that sometimes I think peoples perception of depth is skewed insofar as the Oilers are concerned.

We had 13 players with double digit goals. Carolina by comparison (because people give them such props) had 12. But here Oilers get criticized yet have players with 64, 52, 37 and 36 while Carolina's top 4 were 36, 28, 23, 18.

But everyone seems to talk down Edmonton...and I think largely it is because they had it beaten into them over the course of a decade plus.

 

[Freaky Styley]

No.

Signed,
Colorado Avalanche fan.

Honestly really strange time to start such a thread. The teams left are the only ones with depth.

Look at the Canes with their injuries, the Kraken with no real high-end talent, the Oilers finally finding success with more depth at F and D..

It's a 32 team league now. If anything depth is more important than it's ever been.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

If anything they're a prime example. They didn't become a great team until they got the top two some help.

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?

dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

 

[snag]

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?

View attachment 704866

dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

Case in point to what I was saying:

Connor and Leon just so far above that sometimes I think peoples perception of depth is skewed insofar as the Oilers are concerned.

 

[bossram]

It was impressive how Seattle's top players outplayed Colorado's top players, had nothing to do with losing Landeskog/Nichuskin/Kadri/Burakovsky.

This is literally the opposite of the truth. COL's top players handily outplayed SEA. The problem for COL was when they left the ice.

It's hard to believe you could reach such a poor conclusion. You can't possible have watched any of that series, looked at any stats, or anything.

 

[GAGLine]

Seattle is all depth. They're doing pretty well. You need to outscore your opponent more often than they outscore you. It doesn't matter which line the goals come from.

 

[Despote]

This is literally the opposite of the truth. COL's top players handily outplayed SEA. The problem for COL was when they left the ice.

It's hard to believe you could reach such a poor conclusion. You can't possible have watched any of that series, looked at any stats, or anything.

Yep...

 

[OKR]

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?

View attachment 704866

dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

I don’t think you quite understand what depth means, because McDavid and Draisaitl are very much part of that said depth. Depth is having good players to play different roles and positions, not having every player scoring at a 2.00ppg pace. Take the best scoring player out of any team and their depth goes noticeably down.

Hockey is played on ice, not stat sheet.

 

[BFLO]

It's a common refrain when the stars we love and admire fall out of the playoffs early.

'Oh, well, he/they simply didn't have the support around him to succeed. If only the bottom 6 or 4-through-6 defensemen had been better, they surely would have had the time/space necessary to overcome.'

At what point is it BS rationalization to let star players off the hook for simply failing to perform or being outperformed by the best players on the other team?

The Leafs had excellent depth last year and this year. But they lost and are losing because their star players shrunk in the big moments.

Teams need depth and their stars to perform.

 

[ManofSteel55]

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?

View attachment 704866

dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

Your eyes see the stat lines. Congratulations.

Your eyes also would see that our 3rd and 4th line often control the puck in the offensive zone, even when out there against top six players. They may not score a ton, but they control the puck and add to the success of the team by minimizing opportunities for the opposition. The Foegle/Ryan line has been especially good at that. Kostin has scored 3 from our 4th line, and is at .5 ppg from our 4th line. That's great depth.

 

[Captain Mountain]

No, they don't. You need depth to win, period. You need elite/star talent more, but without depth you're going to be exposed.

watch Edmonton slowly destroy the theory of depth

I'm not sure there's a team over the past 10 years to ever highlight the need for depth more than Edmonton. How many years did we see year after year after year of McDavid, Draisaitl, etc. playing at ridiculous levels to only miss the playoffs or flame out in the playoffs. It was only after adding Hyman, Kane, Ekholm around them (and arguably adding guys like Kulak, Bjugstad, Foegele, etc. as depth pieces) that they've looked like actual contenders.

The common (and accurate) view of the Oilers was that they won the minutes when McDavid and Draisaitl played, but were so utterly demolished with them off the ice that it didn't really matter. Now that doesn't happen because the Oilers actually have depth.

 

[NyQuil]

There’s a narrative no matter what happens.

If your star players score:

“You need your best players to be your best players.”

If your depth players score:

“You won’t make it far in the post-season without depth.”

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

meh, my eyeballs see every time the oilers do anything significant there's either a Mc or a Drai on the ice

i can't say the same thing about the
80s Oilers
90s Penguins
00's RedWings
10's Hawks
20's Lightning

all those examples, are rosters from A to Z that would have done well, yes even if Lemieux got injured

take one of McDrai out of the lineup and are we even talking today?

View attachment 704866

dunno about you, but my EYEBALLS see a massive drop after Bouchard, and yeah you do need a D to feed you some pucks on the PP i get that, would Marc Andre Bergeron or Joe Corvo be sitting comfortably in 3rd with 20 assists if they had a McDrai to feed all the time?

Come on now, the stats are there and obvious

if you prefer not to see it, it's really a matter of opinion at that point, not worth arguing

MY EYES SEE WHAT MY EYES SEE!

Did you block our 4th liner Klim Kostin laying a beatdown on your team in game 6 out of your memory or something?

 

[Jerzey Devil]

If anything fans overrate “playoff experience”. No one ever explains how long it takes to overcome. The answer is 2 games.