Kahun - McDavid - Pulju
RNH - Drai - Turris
Neal -Haas - Chiasson
Nygard - Kahira - Archibald
Kunitz - Crosby - Guerin
Fedotenko - Malkin - Talbot
Cooke - Staal - Kennedy
Adam - Dupuis - Satan
Not really seeing a huge difference.
I think there is a significant difference, especially for playoff hockey.
Just because your strength is 2 players, you'll still need other guys to step up at key times. That's what creates problems for the other team and in turn pumps your team up.
Pens roster may not look all that impressive on paper, but they had plenty of veterans who had their game faces on.
- Fedotenko was never a big name but was known for his clutch playoff run with Tampa and had another good one with the Pens. 14 points and 7 goals is solid. Oilers equivalent is probably Kahun who may be a surprise factor but he has no track record.
- Talbot did a lot of the little things you want in the playoffs and on top of that scored 8 goals, including the biggest goals of the season in game 7 as far as i remember. None of the grinders for Edmonton give me similar vibes of being able to do the same thing.
- Guerin was a legit 2nd liner in his final years and delivered. Neal is supposed to be a similar scoring veteran but he's been mostly crap in recent years. So in turn, the Oilers are looking at a young guy like Yamamoto who may or may not deliver (not sure if he's even healthy), he doesn't have 1200 games in the league like Guerin had nor has he been great this season.
- Kunitz and Pulju are playing a similar role i guess but again Pulju has zero playoff experience while Kunitz had a couple runs with the Ducks, and he had a 60 point season under his belt. Maybe this doesn't end up much of a difference but in saying that while Kunitz didn't score many goals he had 14 pts, which would be over half of Pulju's regular season production. Maybe he steps up offensively in the playoffs, maybe not, but you get the point.
- Kennedy played well for the Pens as sort of the less known depth guy but even he had 35 points in 60 something games in the regular season. Who is doing that for the Oilers? None of their depth guys came close to that type of production. Turris maybe if he somehow turns it on for the playoffs?
I just think that the more you start looking closer at the Pens forward group you find stuff that make you prefer them over the Oilers. Pens had a group of grizzled vets and feisty guys who all played like this is their chance to win. When i look at these teams i just feel a sense of comfort with the Pens. It's kind of like looking ahead to the next Olympics as a Finn, i know we'll have the most talented roster ever but still doubt the team is able to play at a similar level as our 06' veteran team that came together with everybody playing their roles to a T and destroyed everyone until the finals.
I just have zero expectation for the Oilers to see unexpectedly solid playoff runs from their depth players scoring big goals. If it happens, good for them. But there's hardly any signs pointing to that.