Playoffs: Strength down the middle or a #1 elite Dman?

[SeanMoneyHands]

Obviously both are very important factors in playoff success. You look at all the cup winners in the last 15 years and they all had a #1 elite dman who logged 30 mins a night. And they all had strength down the middle. You can't win the cup if you don't have both.

But if you had to choose one, which do you think is the more important factor of the two in playoff success?

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[daver]

The Pens won in 2017 without Letang or anyone particularly close to an elite d-man. Same can be said about 2009 as Gonchar was playing injured.

 

[ESH]

Strength down the middle is a pretty vague term, so I’m not sure how to vote here.

One thing I will say is that the Blackhawks biggest weakness was their center depth. 35-year-old Michal Handzus in 2013 and 34-year-old Brad Richards in 2015 as your 2nd line centers doesn’t exactly scream “strong down the middle”.

 

[biturbo19]

Strength down the middle for sure. It's exceptionally hard to do anything without at least a legitimate 1C and a good 2C. The 3C and 4C slots are also the real anchors of a strong lineup.


A #1D is also hugely important and almost nobody wins without one, but i think in the right situation, you can win without one. The Canucks circa 2011 come to mind as an example of how you might be able to do that. But a lot of things have to fall into place just right for that to work, and they obviously came up like an inch short anyway. I just think that's more tenable than not having a 1C.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Is strength down the middle mean 2 good centre’s or 3,4 good ones

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

The Pens won in 2017 without Letang or anyone particularly close to an elite d-man. Same can be said about 2009 as Gonchar was playing injured.

Yea pens defense that year in order of ice time was Brian Dumoulin, Ron Hainsey, Olli Maatta, Justin Schultz, Trevor Daley, and Ian Cole.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Is strength down the middle mean 2 good centre’s or 3,4 good ones

I think we're all interpreting it as:


Jack Hughes+Hirschier

Vs

Quinn Hughes.



Who'd you rather build around?

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

strength down the middle because I can name more teams that have won without an elite dman than I can without strong center depth

 

[BB88]

History suggests you can’t win without quality at C

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Who was elite #1 Dman for the Panthers?

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

I read it as having above average centers for 3-4 lines, so I’ll take that. You still gotta have the other right parts for either situation, but if your centers are better that’s an advantage all the time. Your #1 dman can still only play half the game, I’m just workin around him if the rest of the D ain’t solid.