Dynamic young duos leading the way for Sens, Utah
Published
There aren’t many connecting points for the Ottawa Senators and Utah Hockey Club, two National Hockey League teams nearly 3,000 kilometres apart.
And yet, both are surging in the standings, keyed by dynamic young duos that seem unstoppable whenever they’re on the ice. So much so that both organizations are positioned for a genuine playoff push as the calendar year turns.
For Ottawa, it could be the long-awaited ending to a rebuild that started seven years ago. And for Utah, the ultimate nail-in-coffin moment of the long-beleaguered Coyotes franchise.
Last weekend, having noticed both teams eclipsing legacy franchises like the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche in goal differential, I started looking at the success drivers for both teams.
It goes without saying that apportioning who is responsible for each team’s gain in the standings is multi-faceted and, in both markets, likely starts with the goaltending discussion.
Linus Ullmark has been an upgrade over the cast of goalies the Senators have tried over the years, and Karel Vejmelka in Utah has been one of the best puck-stoppers this season. (Note: I’d also argue Sens defenceman Thomas Chabot is in the Norris Trophy discussion).
But it’s a pair of wondrous young forwards at the top of each lineup that intrigue the most, in large part because of how complementary their skill sets are to one another.
In Ottawa, you have 25-year-old winger Brady Tkachuk — a fiery attacker who scores goals through force and attrition — commonly playing with 22-year-old playmaker Tim Stützle. In Utah, it’s 21-year-old Dylan Guenther and his outrageous shooting skill paired with 20-year-old Logan Cooley. This duo is as green as grass, and yet they are feeding the opposition uppercuts on a nightly basis.
These four young forwards all grade inside of the top 50 in league scoring right now, and their comparables are some of the best forwards in the league – Guenther and Stützle sharing company with names like New York’s Artemi Panarin and Toronto’s William Nylander, and Cooley and Tkachuk sandwiching veterans like Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele and Sebastian Aho in Carolina:
Yost1
The individual scoring is fantastic, but even more meaningful is the advantage play both groups are realizing. Consider the on-ice performance of Ottawa and Utah when these dynamic duos are on the ice versus off, and note how disparate the results are – Ottawa’s more than a full goal better every 60 minutes with Stützle and Tkachuk deployed versus off, and that’s tiny in comparison to the Utah splits.
Yost2
There is no defined science or magic bullet for player development, but a common theme you find when things do go well is that of complementary skill sets. Every player has a unique skill set, and every player is capable of seeing that skill set accentuated or diminished by those he plays with — after all, it’s why hockey is the ultimate team game.
In Ottawa and Utah, they have tapped into this wholesale. The top of their lineups are delivering against tough competition, and have done so now for three months. It’s the sort of sustained performance that increases your conviction that these teams, however flawed they may be elsewhere, can hang with the best the NHL has to offer.
For my money, these are two of the most fascinating playoff contenders having emerged this season.
Data via Evolving Hockey, Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com