Vegas Golden Knights profitable the Stanley Cup reveals the worth of depth at each place

Leon Draisaitl acknowledged there was a purpose he and the Edmonton Oilers misplaced to the Vegas Golden Knights within the playoffs final season. Asked what stood in regards to the workforce that eradicated them and went on to win the Stanley Cup, one factor got here to the German star’s thoughts.

“They’re deep,” Draisaitl stated. “They have four lines that they can roll against any line out there.”

And it wasn’t simply depth at ahead that helped the Golden Knights end atop the Western Conference after 82 video games and the NHL after 4 grueling rounds of the postseason. They used 10 defensemen and 5 completely different goaltenders alongside the way in which, displaying the worth of depth in hockey at each place, establishing consistency and making a blueprint for different contenders to observe.

“Our team’s a great example of it,” Vegas playoff main scorer Jack Eichel stated. “We were consistent. Our special teams got better. Our goaltending was great. We utilized their depth … and I thought we found our real identity.”

It’s the id of a champion, which current Cup winners level to as a mixture of depth and consistency. And it begins even earlier than the puck drops for the beginning of the season.

Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is aware of that from the Lightning’s back-to-back Cup runs in 2020 and ‘21 – one in all them interrupted a number of months by the pandemic and the opposite when the season was shortened to 65 video games. Sure, the celebrities led the way in which from goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and defenseman Victor Hedman out to heart Brayden Point, winger Nikita Kucherov and captain Steven Stamkos, however contributions all through the lineup got here by way of when it mattered most.

PHOTOS: Vegas Golden Knights profitable the Stanley Cup reveals the worth of depth at each place

“(Depth), it makes your team better because in the training camp, you have a lot of guys that can make the team and sometimes not a lot of guys make it and then they play in the AHL,” Sergachev stated. “But then, at the end of the season, they come up and they’re better, so they help your team win. That’s what we had, and it kind of pushes everybody to be better.”

Same for the Colorado Avalanche in 2022, once they misplaced Samuel Girard to harm in the course of their run and performed with out heart Nazem Kadri for a handful of video games. They finally vanquished the two-time defending champion Lightning as a result of depth allowed them to outlive the surprising absences.

“Injuries are going to happen in the playoffs, for sure,” defenseman Bowen Byram stated. “That’s a non-negotiable, so you need guys that can step in in certain moments and fill roles. … There’s always guys coming in and out of the lineup with injuries, whatever it might be, guys filling in. I think that’s a huge part of having a championship team.”

There isn’t a current Cup winner that hasn’t relied in depth. The St. Louis Blues in 2019 and Washington Capitals in 2018 dealt with a mixture of suspensions and accidents to get the job finished. The Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and ‘17 went again to again as a result of that they had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen down the center at heart.

After being a buzzsaw by way of the playoffs in 2012, the Los Angeles Kings received all of it once more in 2014 due to their blue line depth once they wanted eight completely different defensemen to play.

“You need guys to step up and raise the level of their play,” now-L.A. captain Anze Kopitar stated. “It happened last year (with Vegas) and it happened with us in ’14. We had a couple D-men go down, and a couple other guys stepped in and it seems like we never skipped a beat.”

What set the Golden Knights aside is how they by no means skipped a beat when so many goaltenders went down with harm. First it was All-Star Logan Thomas through the common season, then playoff starter Laurent Brossoit halfway by way of the the second spherical.

Journeyman Adin Hill stepped in and received 11 of 14 begins, permitting simply over two targets a recreation and stopping greater than 93% of the photographs he confronted.

“What we feel really good about is we have confidence in everyone in that room,” Eichel stated. “I think that’s what makes our team special.”

Special however not an anomaly in internet, both. Before 2022, solely 4 earlier instances in league historical past had a workforce gotten 5 wins every from two completely different goaltenders – Colorado grew to become the fifth, and Vegas joined because the sixth.