Is this an Asham, Rupp thing? Because 2011’s roster blew. D blew. Crosby led that team on a unrealistic run. It was basically the 2014 of those early years. Went all in 2008, 9, and 10. We got hit with a cap crunch.
Ya, that's revisionism.
Dustin Jeffrey was on fire before he blew his knee out (which would ruin his career). We had Letestu and a solid D, 1-6 (arguably 1-8). Just because people on THIS site made Niskanen a whipping boy at that time doesn't mean he wasn't comfortably contributing as a 5/6 (which he was). 2011 Niskanen was certainly better than 2017 Ruhwedel, let alone some of the guys we've seen on "contenders" in the recent past (Mike Weber, f/e).
Even Adams was still a contributor at that time. Plus, Rupp and Asham did a ton compared to what it's reasonable to expect from 4th liners. Kuhnhackl and Rowney are significantly worse than those 2. Staal/Kennedy/Cooke were awesome.
The only thing that team was missing at mid-season was wings for Malkin, but Neal and the 2011 incarnation of Dustin Jeffrey solve that problem, in my view, were Malkin to have not blown his own knee out.
Edit: and a better coach.