Photo: ABC30
Over the past several seasons, the Stanley Cup has not necessarily been decided solely because of how deep and skilled a team is but also the intangibles, including toughness, one has. The Florida Panthers this season have been a prime example after acquiring 6’2”, 201-pound left-wing Matthew Tkachuk last summer.
Last season, Florida won the Presidents’ Trophy and was the highest scoring team that the NHL has seen in a long time, averaging 4.11 goals-per-game and having five scorers with at least 28 goals in addition to one with 24.
Over last summer, Florida lost right-wing Claude Giroux, a proven, consistent scorer thought his NHL career; left-wing Jonathan Huberdeau, who was coming off of a season where he tied for second in the league in scoring (115 points) and led it in assists (85); and left-wing Mason Marchment, who was coming off of a season where he notched 47 points in just 54 games.
Due to salary cap constraints, Florida was unable to adequately replace all three of them but acquired Tkachuk, one of the top scorers in the game (tied for 14th with 40 goals, sixth with 109 points) who also brought some bite to the team (tied for fourth with 123 penalty minutes).
In addition to Tkachuk, Florida added 6’0”, 185-pound defenseman Josh Mahura (sixth among team defensemen with 14:49 average time on ice per game) and 6’4”, 208-pound blueliner Marc Staal (fourth: 21:54) over the past year.
Perhaps no one has exemplified this model better than the Tampa Bay Lightning, who tied then NHL records 62 wins and 128 standings points during the 2018-19 regular-season with three 40-goal, 90-point players and nine scorers with 40 points. Though they had 6’5”, 224-pound defenseman Braydon Coburn, two-time 80-penalty minute center Cedric Paquette, and 6’4”, 224-pound blueliner Erik Cernak, Cernak averaged just 16:07 per game (sixth among Tampa Bay defensemen) while Paquette played only 12 minutes (10th among team forwards to appear in at least 50 games). Despite their success in the regular season, Tampa Bay was swept in the first round.
Over their three postseasons in which they made the Stanley Cup Final, which included two championships, 6’3”, 223-pound center Nick Paul has been fifth among all Tampa Bay forwards in ice time-per-game (18:18) over that span and 6’2”, 204 pound left-wing Barclay Goodrow (17:46) eighth (ahead of center Steven Stamkos). They also acquired 6’0”, 212-pound defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (19:30, fifth); 6’2”, 210-pound defenseman Luke Witkowski; 6’2”, 222-pound defenseman Zach Bogosian (17:40, seventh); 6’2”, 225-pound defenseman Luke Schenn (10:52, ninth); and 6’3”, 234-pound left-wing Pat Maroon (12:36, 10th) during the 2019-20 season prior to lifting the Cup.
After the Colorado Avalanche were bounced in the second round in three straight seasons, the team added 6’5”, 233-pound defenseman Kurtis MacDermid; 6’3”, 218-pound blueliner Josh Manson (17:11, fifth); 6’1”, 227-pound defenseman Jack Johnson (11:06, seventh); 6’0”, 207-pound left-wing Nicolas Aube-Kubel (10:22, 12th); and 6’3”, 209-pound center Nico Sturm (8:27, last among Colorado forwards). Despite losing left-wing Brandon Saad and right-wing Joonas Donskoi, the toughness Colorado acquired seemed to offset the subtraction of scoring.
While toughness and grit have played key roles in long postseason runs throughout the NHL lately, there is much more to it than that. There is not just one factor that gets a team a Stanley Cup but how several come together at the right time. However, that does not minimize the need of grit.
While Tkachuk, Staal, and Mahura have all played crucial roles to Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Final, the team already had a strong foundation in place with players not known for their feistiness such as center Aleksander Barkov, left-wing Carter Verhaeghe, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad. The same goes for Tampa Bay, Colorado, and any other Stanley Cup Champion team. The key seems to be teams going with their guys and implementing some toughness around them.
Teams like the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers arguably had more depth and superstars than Florida currently has but both were not able to find as much success due to the different style of roster construction, two that did not have as grit which they needed at this time of the year.
The Western Conference finalist Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars have a few guys who bring grit throughout their respective lineups (6’2”, 218-pound Vegas left-wing William Carrier? 6’2”, 217-pound Vegas right-wing Keegan Kolesar? 6’6”, 230-pound Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague? 6’3”, 205-pound Dallas defenseman Thomas Harley? 6’2”, 205-pound Dallas left-wing Jamie Benn? 6’3”, 225-pound Dallas center Radek Faksa?) but no bruisers, per say. Yet, they have both gotten to this point. Will it make a difference for the winner of the series against Florida?
By Harrison Brown