Postby mikey » Sun Sep 20, 2015 11:51 am
When you're talking about the difference between 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, for me, beyond anything else, you're talking about the ability to "lead" a pairing...so what does that mean?
Well, so it's more common to witness in forward groupings than with defense because it's more obvious. We have Sidney Crosby, he is a take-charge, #1 elite center ice-man, no question. You look at Chris Kunitz or Pascal Dupuis, his running mates for the better part of the last several years...are those really "traditional" first line wingers...? Dupuis, certainly not. Kunitz you can make an argument for - probably no longer, of course. But is Kunitz, on skillset, more a complementary piece than a true #1 LW? I think there is some grounds for that. Kunitz would probably be labeled better (and is generally labeled over the past 6 or 7 years prior to last) as a "top six forward"...not a first line forward...
From joining the Pens until the end of 2013-14 season, Kunitz is top-25 among NHL LWs in EV ATOI, points (11th), goals (10th), the whole bit...even his under-performing season in 14-15 does little to damage those marks...
But is he really a "drive the bus" top line LWer? Or can he play top line LWer...
A good example on defense is in Boston with the Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg pairing in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, they easily could have split a Conn Smythe Trophy and it would have be wholly justified. But Seidenberg as a top pair d-man is not really a natural play. And this would pan out in the seasons to follow when they were split up during the regular season (and often re-joined forces in the playoffs), the guy that played brilliantly as a #2 with Zdeno Chara and had a huge active role in winning that Stanley Cup, was not at all effective as a #3 in following seasons...and he and his partner struggled as a result. Seidenberg is a "top four" d-man, he can be a #2 with a strong partner, he can be a #4...but he is not a #1 or a #3...
He's not really a "direct traffic", "take control" type of player...he's a support player on retrievals, he's not a very strong puck carrier, he's not the strongest outlet passer, but he does a lot of things really well...it's just that he does them so much better in tandem with another smart+better player that it's senseless to have him drag a partner along with him, like say, Adam McQuaid...not a good match.
A lot of this is just kind of feel, the line between complementary/support player on a unit and "leader" can be blurred certainly...but it will make itself apparent in a lot of instances...our defense is ripe for that to expose itself...Olli Maatta, to me, looks like a good example of what a #2 might look like, but not a future #1, for instance...we'll watch that progression over the next few seasons...