I don't think it's necessarily a depth issue as much as it is a consistency issue through the whole top 9. We have too many guys who go through long scoring droughts and others who are completely useless unless they're scoring.
To put it on a list
The streaky ones
Namestnikov- streaky and starts floating around doing little to nothing for weeks at a time. Useless on a slump
Killorn- streaky and floats around occasionally making physical ruckus for weeks at a time. Useless in a slump unless on a PK
Filppula- streaky and starts over passing in his slumps for weeks to months at a time. Useless on a slump except for faceoffs and PK
Callahan- streaky and when he slumps he does NOTHING that is conducive to scoring. He just hits everything in sight, takes bad shots and gets easily frustrated for weeks to months at a time. Damn near useless in a slump because we already have high energy players who bust their ass.
Stamkos- streaky and when he slumps he starts over passing like Filppula for weeks at a time and to his credit, pulls out of his funks faster than his cohorts. Useless in a slump
The more consistent ones
Kucherov- floats around doing little to nothing during slumps. Useless in a slump
Palat- Plays like Palat when not scoring. However in my opinion is more useful than Callahan (sorry D2B) still useful in a slump
Johnson- floats around doing nothing and does the Callahan treatment... bad shots, turnovers and visible frustration. To say the kid is useless is an understatement. I wanted Johnson outright benched with Filppula back in October. Blame it on his injury but oh my God I've never seen a forward struggle like he did. I'd like to say this year is an anomaly for him. Useless in a slump
PS- Not even sure I can count JAM since he gets scratched so often
The Callahan, Filppula, Stamkos and Killorn combination plays together in some variation in pretty much every game. Once one of them goes cold they ALL go cold together. I said it a billion times before the trade deadline but Yzerman needs to shake this team up. We have a GREAT team but there is such little natural chemistry with the most important scorers outside of the TKO members that we go through these long scoring funks waiting 3 to 7 games for anyone to start playing worth a care.
I'm holding hope that Drouin comes back and jump starts the team.
Dude, Callahan is not useless when he is not scoring. He is one of the few on this team who does all the little things to help the team win. He is a huge reason for our PK success, he blocks shots, hits hard, and is one of the top players on the team in taking the puck away, along with the grit and toughness something this team needs. But don't be sorry it's your opinion.
No player except Bishop has been consistent this year. Even Kucherov has had his ups and downs. If Callahan had one more of those streaks, he would be pushing 50 points right now, but now he is likely going to be stuck on the 3rd line with little or no PP time, which he has for most of the season. Johnson, Palat, and Killorn, have been cemented into the top 6, so they all should be on pace for mid 50 points, they are not. Injuries or no injuries, Cally was hurt also, and playing hurt earlier in the year and has missed a few games. It sucks in the Dallas game he got hurt, was not the same and we could not see the Pallahan/johnson line really take off, so hope Coop realized that and gives them another crack.