It’s virtually impossible to win a Stanley Cup without your best players being great. But there are far more components involved in a championship run than just getting the most out of your elite talent.
One of those things is getting significant contributions from unheralded players, or those that few foresaw having a critical impact in the post-season. We’ve seen plenty of examples of this in the past, where a third liner catches fire offensively and contributes a handful of key goals during a playoff run. Or a goalie is pressed into action and looks unbeatable for a stretch.
Take Bryan Bickell, for example, who was a member of three Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup teams, but was most instrumental during the 2013 run. Bickell scored nine times during the regular season that year and matched that total in the post-season, while finishing with 17 points in 23 playoff games. He ended up with just as many goals that spring as Patrick Kane, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Bickell piled up the points, but sometimes a single goal from an unlikely source can make all the difference. Stephane Matteau finished his playoff career with just 12 goals in 109 games, though none bigger than the overtime winner that sent the New York Rangers to the Cup Final in 1994. The Rangers went on to win the Cup, thanks to Matteau lifting them over their arch-rival New Jersey Devils in sudden-death of Game 7 in the conference finals.
Let’s look at four players who are already making an unexpected mark during this year’s post-season.
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There was a time that Taylor Hall would’ve been one of those players who felt the pressure to deliver in a big way in the spring, but he’s now on the back nine of his career, and his game isn’t what it once was.
The former Hart Trophy winner has settled into a middle-six role with the Hurricanes and has not topped 50 points since the 2021-22 campaign. He also finished with a meagre six points in Carolina’s 15 playoff games last year. This post-season, though, Hall is turning back the clock and has been one of the team’s best players in the first round and a half. The 34-year-old already has nine points in seven playoff games and they aren’t hollow points either.
Hall has had a major impact in both series for the Canes, though especially when they were trying to close out the Ottawa Senators in round one. He was on the receiving end of a massive hit from Brady Tkachuk in Game 4 versus the Sens that sent the crowd into a frenzy. However, Hall popped right up to his feet and ended up opening the scoring of that contest, silencing the fans in the process. It sent a message that Carolina wasn’t going to be pushed around and gave his team an emotional lift, as the Canes never looked back in closing out Ottawa.
Carolina has struggled to get over the hump in recent years during the post-season. The Florida Panthers have been a significant roadblock, but they aren’t part of the proceedings this time around. With players like Hall stepping up and a wide-open conference, the Canes seem like a decent bet to finally come out of the East.
You could make an argument that the catalyst for the Panthers three-year run of dominance wasn’t Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk or even Sergei Bobrovsky. Without Alex Lyon, Florida’s three-straight final appearances would’ve never had a chance to get off the ground.
At the end of the 2022-23 regular season, the Panthers were on the playoff bubble before Lyon was thrust into action. He won six games in a row down the stretch and finished with a .946 save percentage that April, as Florida snuck in. The rest is history.
Now Lyon is plying his craft in Buffalo and is again proving to be a great stopgap. The journeyman netminder was called upon in relief in Game 2 against the Boston Bruins, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen struggling. All Lyon has done since is stop 132 of the 139 shots he’s faced against Boston and Montreal, while guiding the team to four wins.
Lyon may not be able to be a 55-game starter for you in the regular season, but he’s proven to be an excellent option to help your team get back on the right path. The Sabres will be hoping he can keep this going for as long as possible and carry them deep into the spring.
I’m not sure that when Vegas acquired Mitch Marner last summer, it would’ve envisioned how things have played out.
First, Marner is playing centre for the Golden Knights, something he rarely, if ever, did for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Second, he’s starting to develop a real chemistry with Brett Howden, a winger that few probably expected to play with Marner. Howden’s uptick in play is shining through in the playoffs, as he’s already scored five times in eight games. To put that in perspective, Howden only scored four goals over Vegas’ past two playoff runs across 18 games.
Both Howden and Marner have been clutch, too. Howden notched the double overtime winner in Game 5 against the Utah Mammoth, and Marner had a pair of goals and an assist in the clinching game of the opening round. Marner struggled at times during big playoff moments for the Maple Leafs, but so far, those ghosts haven’t reappeared in Vegas.
Howden did score 23 goals a season ago, so he does have some offensive punch. However, he’s never shown any ability to score at that rate come playoff time. If that changes and Howden continues to score at a great rate, it would be found money for Vegas, which really needs it. Tomas Hertl hasn’t scored since March 4th, and if Howden can pick up the slack, it would be critical to the Golden Knights' success.
Jeffrey Viel’s contributions in these playoffs have been quality over quantity.
The Anaheim Ducks forward has only found the back of the net twice, but both came in wins over the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1. Those tallies helped propel the Ducks to a big upset as Viel was all over the ice against the Oilers, creating havoc shift after shift. Viel scored just three times in 35 games for the Ducks this season, so he’s already nearly equalled his total in this brief playoff run. Prior to that, he hadn’t scored an NHL goal since the 2021-22 season.
Give the Ducks credit for making Viel an under-the-radar add back in January. General manager Pat Verbeek spent a fourth-round pick to pick up Viel from the Bruins, instead of risking not being able to claim him on waivers.
Viel is now part of a line that is making a real impact for the Ducks, and we’ve seen plenty of examples of fourth units from a forward group become a critical part of a team’s success in the playoffs. He very well may end up parlaying this stretch into a good payday as well. Viel is making $775K this season and will be a UFA this summer, so expect a team or two to offer him a raise in hopes he can duplicate his post-season magic.
