Any avid sports fan has definitely heard the phrase “Defense wins championships”. But in hockey, what really wins games? So many NHL teams today have really even teams, with both a dominant offense and defense. The Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets both have talent in both the forward group and on the backend. Teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lighting are even more driven with a powerful offense, including some talented defensemen more driven to play offense. While the San Jose Sharks have one of the best defensive groups in the NHL with not as good of forward depth pairings. In order to win a Stanley Cup you need to be a deep NHL team, with a great group of forwards and defenseman. Let’s take a look at how past groups of Stanley Cup Champions ranked on offense and defense.
2018 Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals, a usually loud regular season team, snuck into the playoffs with very little hype this year. They were not the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, however this team managed to make it all the way. Both the power play and the penalty kill was ranked above the league average for the Washington Capitals. (Average PK 79.82% Capitals PK 80.3%). The Caps also had less goals against than the average NHL team. Defensively, the team was lead by John Carlson and Michal Kempny during the playoffs. Washington was close to the league average for both offense and defense during the regular season. The team that had the best penalty kill during 2018 was the Los Angeles Kings, who, unfortunately, did not escape the first round of the playoffs.
2016/2017 Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins may be the team proved that the more goals you score, the more you will win. Pittsburgh won back to back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. The back to back champs won the cup with players like Justin Schultz and Kris Letang leading the defense. Although a very good group of defenders, Pittsburgh’s main threat was their offense. Their power play percentage was 4%, above the league average and they had 51 more goals then the league average (2017). Pittsburgh is a very dominant team. In 2016, their identity was different. The Pens won the cup with a more dominant defense than offense, with the PK ranked 3%, higher than the average. Pittsburgh proved that you can win the Stanley Cup with either a dominant offense or defense.
2015 Chicago Blackhawks
Disclaimer: This is my favorite team that I am covering in this article. Chicago was amazing. Their 2015 run consisted of great goaltending and defense. Chicago’s penalty kill was better than the league average and their power play was a little below. The Hawks were lead by just 4 defensemen throughout the entire Stanley Cup playoffs. Keith Seabrook Hjalmarsson and Oduya all averaged above 24 minutes of ice time a game. Chicago was lead to a Stanley Cup with very strong goaltending.
The NHL is changing and adapting. It is still too soon to predict who will win the Stanley Cup, but I am going to ask the question, what would I do if I was a GM?
Here is my GM checklist
Step 1 Draft really good players (duh)
Step 2 Bring in veteran talent (depth)
Step 3 Trade for centers and puck moving defenseman
Step 4 Win Stanley Cup
-I completely understand if teams copy my strategy.
So to conclude, I have no real clue what is better offense or defense. A lot of teams opt to be average at both and it works out, like the Washington Capitals from 2018 for example. Some other teams decided to be really good certain categories, like offense for the Pens and defense for the Hawks. That is not to say the Hawks were bad on offense or the Pens were bad at defense, it just means that they were really good in the one side of the ice.
At the end of the day teams win by scoring more goals.
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