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Depth is key. In this man's opinion if there is any one thing that is paramount in a team's success, it is depth. The Kings have been heralded as a team that sports tremendous depth. Center depth in particular. That depth did indeed help the Kings to two cups. There were obviously other factors like goaltending, top defensive pairings, and a few scorers going nuts, but depth opens up the roster for others.
While scoring by committee is not always a successful approach, especially when you do not have top end weapons, it can be a conducive approach to results.
Right now we are seeing some fine examples from the final four playoff teams when it comes to the importance of depth. The Ducks are having a marvelous playoff run, and not only is it coming from the sticks of Perry and Getzlaf, it is coming from Silfverberg, from Belesky, from Rakell. The Tampa Bay Lightning are seeing big playoff runs from Kucherov, Filppula, and Killorn.
You get the picture.
From a purely non investigative perspective, the Los Angeles Kings seemed to lose some depth this year. Without looking at numbers, at goals, at individual performances, it just seemed like the scoring was coming from too few places. The bottom six is not a part of the roster that you should depend on for scoring, but it would be really nice if it chipped in when the top guys go cold.
So how much did the bottom six role players score for the Kings this year at even strength?
Los Angeles put up a total of 154 even strength goals this season. Overall they were a good five on five team for 2014-15. They had a 1.18 goals for/against number, which was sixth overall. That is right in line in comparison to previous years where they were third (13-14) and eighth (12-13).
However, things definitely have changed from the total production and where it comes from.
The Kings used a combination of 10 players in top 6 roles this year. The following players were mainly top 6:
Tyler Toffoli Anze Kopitar Jeff Carter Tanner Pearson Marian Gaborik
The other five players were used at various times in the year to different degrees. Some lasted a few games, some lasted longer:
Justin Williams Kyle Clifford Dustin Brown Dwight King Trevor Lewis
In order to figure out their contribution and where it came from, stats.hockeyanalysis.com's WOWY numbers were used. The numbers should be fairly accurate.
Of the 154 goals scored, 90 came from players playing in a top 6 role.
Nearly 60% of the goals came from just the top six. Hey, that does not seem so bad right?
Hold on a moment.
While the Kings defensive group really lacked some good punch this year, they still chipped in 27 goals. That number has grown to 117 of 154 now. That leaves just 37 goals coming from players playing in bottom six minutes.
How many players did the Kings use in the bottom six? 11.
11 players, 37 goals.
To put that into perspective of numbers, that is 24-percent of the Kings even strength goals.
Justin Williams led the way in bottom six scoring 11 goals. Next came Dustin Brown with 7, and the trio of Stoll, Richards, and Nolan all scoring 6.
Now these numbers do not really mean anything unless we have a comparison or two right? Quick and dirty, using the same method to get the Kings' numbers, here are some other teams.
Boston Bruins Total 5v5 Goals: 140 # from Top 6: 70 # from Bottom 6: 43 # from Defensemen: 27
In percentages, 50% comes from the top lines, while 31% from the bottom. Compared that again to the 60% and 24% for the Kings.
Let's pull another team.
Washington Capitals Total 5v5 Goals: 148 # from Top 6: 72 # from Bottom 6: 52 # from Defensemen: 24
Let's look at the percentages again. 48% from the top six, about 35% from the bottom six (Thanks largely in part to Eric Fehr, Joel Ward, and Jay Beagle).
Now granted, these are just two teams compared to the Kings. Who knows, these teams may be number one and number two in balanced scoring in the league. Who knows.
Let us go back a year for the Kings and see how it pans out.
Los Angeles 2013-14
Total Goals For: 131 #from Top 6: 62 #from Bottom 6: 49 # from Defensemen: 20
In percentages, one last time, 47% from the top line, 37% from the bottom line.
That is vastly different from the near 60-25 spread the Kings put up this year. Top heavy scoring is no way to achieve success, and just based on some rough numbers and estimates, it looks like the Kings were not evenly spread this year at five on five. Once that 60% got shut down or limited, things got a little dicey in terms of scoring.
This may be something to investigate further in a league wide perspective. After a few teams and a comparison to last year, you can see some issues with Los Angeles potentially being a bit too top heavy at the moment.
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