NHL
Stanley
Cup Final
It’s impossible to replicate another team’s success. Rosters are constructed differently, playing styles vary, and so do leadership perspectives. There are too many elements that go into a season, so it’s impossible to become a carbon copy of a champion. But that doesn’t mean teams can’t take notes from the league’s best and try to emulate certain tactics and thought processes.
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Lessons come from more than just the eventual champions, but from the top contenders. This year, the final four were the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. The 28 teams on the outside looking in should study what went right and wrong for those four teams to figure out how they can reach the level of a conference finalist (and beyond) in the near future.
Jamie Benn isn’t the reason Dallas’ season ended. The Stars’ offense dried up and the coach lost confidence in the number one goalie when it mattered most. But the captain was part of the problem, not the solution.
In 18 games, Benn only mustered one goal and three points. When accounting for minutes played, that shakes out to 0.76 points per 60 in all situations, which is a massive drop off from last postseason’s 2.76, or 2.38 the year before. The Stars should have scored more in Benn’s minutes, but only converted on 4.71 percent of their shots at five-on-five. Some of that falls on his shoulders. So do some defensive lapses against top competition, which contributed to Dallas getting outscored 13-4 when he was on the ice at five-on-five.
All of that is a lesson for the Stars on where Benn is at this point in his career and how he should be deployed. But there is something for the rest of the league to take note of, too.
Teams have to know when an era is over and when to make the tough decisions around core players. That’s what the Stars are facing this summer with Benn now that his eight-year, $76 million contract expires on July 1. After getting his game back on track over the last couple of seasons, Benn’s impact has dwindled again. And realistically, GM Jim Nill has to decide how much Benn has left in the tank. Should the captain be signed to play in a bottom-six capacity? Or is it time to move on?
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The Stars taught the rest of the league not to nickel-and-dime elite players with the Mikko Rantanen situation. But can Dallas afford to take its own advice over the next couple of seasons if Benn extends for Evolving-Hockey’s projection of $4.44 million? And what would be the trickle-down effect of an extension? Will another player be able to take on a leadership role while the captain is still in the locker room? After three straight conference final eliminations, this is one of the pressing questions Dallas has to consider over the next couple of weeks.
Year after year, the Hurricanes look like the team to beat in the regular season, but it doesn’t translate well enough in the playoffs. When that inevitable elimination happens, fingers tend to point to one element of consistency from season to season: the system. But is that really the problem?
Running an aggressive forecheck is ideal in a playoff environment. Playing disruptive defense is another strong quality to have. The strength of that system allows the Canes to interchange the supporting cast around franchise cornerstones, so management doesn’t have to overspend on depth positions. That can be the key to surviving in a cap world.
That is something most teams should strive for… to an extent. It just isn’t the perfect tactic for building every part of the lineup. And that is what separates the Panthers and the Hurricanes, two forechecking-heavy teams that play suffocating defense.
That style helped Carolina eliminate weaker opponents in Rounds 1 and 2. But there’s a reason why they fell short to Florida: roster strength. The Panthers have high-end talent through three lines and two pairs. Carolina doesn’t.
Hockey’s a strong-link game, especially in the playoffs, and the Eastern Conference final was a reminder of that. The Canes need more needle-movers to execute the system around Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov and Jaccob Slavin, in the form of a true second-line center, another top-six caliber winger, and one or two top-four defensemen. And this summer, the team has cap space and trade assets to make that happen.
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With enough talent, the Corsi Canes should be able to turn those shots into goals at a higher clip. Then, depending on the personnel added, there can be a conversation about whether it’s worth tweaking some tactics (such as switching to a less taxing system than man-on-man defense).
The takeaway for the rest of the league should be that a system can help a team perform greater than the sum of its parts and become a team’s identity. But it can’t carry a team to the Stanley Cup Final alone — elite talent matters a lot in the playoffs, and can be what keeps a team from breaking through.
While teams should look to the Stars and Hurricanes and study what they did right and wrong, the best models are the two still standing. Now, 30 teams at home have a front-row seat to the top contenders in the league, in a rematch from last spring. This rematch presents even more learning opportunities, as it’s a chance to see how much these teams have improved since last June.
The Oilers’ regular season was filled with red flags; last year’s depth scoring dried up around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the defense was chaotic, and the goaltending was even more volatile. While Jake Walman was a strong addition at the deadline, the consensus was that Edmonton should have been busier.
And yet here they are, three wins away from the Stanley Cup. It’s a reminder that the playoffs are a completely different animal from regular-season action. Sometimes a team needs to cruise through those 82 games, and then amp it up.
Not every team has that luxury, not when half of the league doesn’t qualify for the playoffs. Getting through the season is a grind, and some need every second to battle for position. Even assumed playoff locks can slip out of the picture — the Rangers and Canucks learned that the hard way this year.
But the Oilers are showing what this can successfully look like. After going down 2-0 to the Kings in Round 1, the Oilers’ offense surged and their defense improved. Even Stuart Skinner brought his best hockey when the starter’s net opened back up in Round 2.
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Last season’s experience likely helped fuel this mentality. After trailing 3-0 in the series, Edmonton won three straight games while facing elimination to force Game 7. But after coming as close as it gets to glory, the Oilers ultimately fell short. And that unfinished business has weighed on the team for the last year.
The one challenge of intensifying play in a postseason environment, with one goal, is keeping a level head. As McDavid explained after eliminating the Stars, this run “hasn’t been as emotional,” so the team isn’t as drained this time around.
Contending for the Stanley Cup is no easy feat, especially across multiple seasons. It takes a full commitment, at all different levels, to compete year after year. The Panthers are in the final for the third straight season because the team has gone all-in.
It starts with team building. The Panthers’ strategy revolves around an elite core, with a revolving door for the supporting cast. While Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell are homegrown talents, Gus Forsling and Carter Verhaeghe were reclamation projects. And then there were the big swings, from Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart to Brad Marchand and Seth Jones.
These moves came at a high cost — a bunch of first-round picks, Spencer Knight, Mackenzie Weegar, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Devon Levi, among others. Not every team would have been willing to make such risky bets. Some might have stopped at one star-caliber trade and opted for inexpensive moves around that. Maybe that would be enough for some teams to become a playoff fixture, or a flash in the pan that goes on one deep run.
But the Panthers aimed higher than that. Management built this team into a Stanley Cup fixture, which is aiming for perfection. And that required dedication to bringing in the best players for this window, at any cost.
If a team truly wants to go all-in, it’s deeper than just roster management. The coaches have to employ an impenetrable system. The players then have to buy in and fully commit to that style. This team has done exactly that over the last few years, going from a team that only thrives in transition to one of the best forechecking teams in the league. The Panthers have a swarming offense, a stingy defense and steady goaltending to support it all.
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Then once the playoffs start, there’s another level of going all-in. Players must become the best, most competitive versions of themselves while embracing the intensity and physicality of a playoff environment. The Panthers push the boundaries until opponents or officials draw a line that can’t be crossed, leaving their opponents with little to no room on the ice.
Will going all-in ultimately burn the Panthers in the long run? It might once the core ages, considering how much management depleted Florida’s pool of future assets. But flags fly forever. The Panthers already have one, and could hoist another if all goes right over the next couple of weeks. That will elevate them from a champion to a dynasty every other team will strive to match.
(Top photo of Corey Perry and Jamie Benn: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)
Shayna Goldman is a staff writer for The Athletic who focuses on blending data-driven analysis and video to dive deeper into hockey. She covers fantasy hockey and national stories that affect the entire NHL. She is the co-creator of BehindtheBenches.com and 1/3 of the Too Many Men podcast. Her work has also appeared at Sportsnet, HockeyGraphs and McKeen’s Hockey. She has a Master of Science in sports business from New York University. Follow Shayna on Twitter @hayyyshayyy
