On the recent episode of Ice Time, Bill Meltzer joined the show with the theme being “Myth Busters” or debunking hockey myths. There are plenty of myths in the NHL and sports in general that are accepted as fact when that’s simply not the case. Some classic sports ones include “Defense Wins Championships” (it will give you a chance but complete teams win it all) and “You Can’t Repeat as Champions” (The Florida Panthers just did).
The NHL has plenty of cliches that get thrown around, and diving into them, there’s some truth. That said, they aren’t correct all the time. So, let’s dive into a few, starting with team-building ones.
Myth 1: Overpaying Stars Prevents a Team From Winning The Cup
There’s always a belief that a player who fails to win the Stanley Cup despite being elite for years is seen as a legacy setback. Like Ray Bourque, who was a dominant defenseman for years, was viewed as a good player who couldn’t get over the hump. There was a perception that the Boston Bruins couldn’t win with him.
The reality is that no individual player can prevent a team from winning the Cup (ok, maybe a goaltender who allows anything shot at them). Teams often must build around a star player to get over the hump, and that’s where most teams fall short. Take Nazem Kadri, for example, a two-way center who plays a physical brand of hockey. The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t see him as part of their core but the Colorado Avalanche saw a role for him on their second line, helping them win the Cup in 2022.
Where this myth turns into a reality is when a good player who isn’t a star is paid like one. Dylan Larkin is a good center, as is Bo Horvat, yet the reality is they are paid to carry their teams, and they can’t. It’s when teams are locked into difficult contracts that the issue starts to become prevalent.
Even so, those players aren’t preventing a team from winning a Cup. The circumstances often do. Good GMs can find a way to work around a tough contract and still put a Cup contender on the ice. It’s why the Edmonton Oilers made two deep playoff runs despite having Darnell Nurse on a tough contract playing a depth role.
Side Note Myth: There’s a belief in the team-building world that teams should look for players at the same position with different skill sets. When a team has a two-way defenseman, they should find a stay-at-home defenseman to balance things out. The Dallas Stars prove that teams can and should look for talent and worry about everything else afterwards, notably with their defense having both Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley on it. Likewise, the Florida Panthers won the Cup with the team having multiple forwards with the same skills and playing the same style, allowing them to still overwhelm teams despite not having a speed presence on their roster.
Home Ice Advantage… Isn’t That Big An Advantage
It’s often said, especially when the playoffs roll around, that teams are great at home or that teams have this distinct home ice advantage. It’s been a part of hockey since the NHL was established.
It’s worth noting that there are some advantages, even with the arenas being more similar these days than they were in the past. The ice is different in every arena, and the surface can be faster or slower depending on the city the rink is located in, which subsequently allows teams to play a specific style. Likewise, the home team gets the last change, so when play is stopped, the head coach can see the line the other team is rolling out on the ice and put on a line to match up with it. These advantages help but they don’t the bottom line is that teams aren’t significantly better at home.
An exercise worth doing, particularly during the dog days of summer when not much is happening, is compiling the home and road records of every team from the past season. In the end, it will show that home teams are better, only slightly. Likewise, the teams that are good at home are also good on the road.
The Florida Panthers, for example, went 6-4 at home in the playoffs. They also went 9-3 on the road. Ok, so maybe the Panthers were the opposite and relished in the road warrior mentality. The Edmonton Oilers, a team known for their home ice advantage, went 7-4 at home while going 7-5 on the road (not much different).
The bottom line is that teams that are good at home are also good on the road. That’s what good teams do: they win games regardless of where it’s played, even though we like to believe that the fans and their energy make a tangible difference to the play on the ice (it doesn’t).
Teams Won’t Make a Trade Within The Division
This is a common belief in the hockey world and something often heard close to the trade deadline. There’s this idea that teams won’t want to trade a star player to a team in their division, with the fear of that star going on to beat that team for years to come.
The first issue is that there are only 32 teams in the NHL (although that’s subject to change with the league’s fascination for expansion and overexpansion). There are only 31 trade partners to begin with; a GM isn’t cutting that list down to 24. That list, it is worth adding, is smaller at the trade deadline, when only a handful of teams are buying and making a push for the Cup.
The other reason why this isn’t true is that GMs see themselves winning every trade. When a GM thinks they can and will win the trade, then it’s best to make that deal with a team in the division. When a team trades a star player for a ton of future assets and those assets turn into star players, it suddenly looks like an even better deal.
History suggests teams are willing to trade players within the division all the time as well. Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, Eric Lindros was moved from the Quebec Nordiques to the Philadelphia Flyers, and even recently, Jake Guentzel was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Carolina Hurricanes. Sometimes, it’s the best deal on the board (or the only deal), and teams will make the trade.
Side Note Myth: There’s also a belief that star players, especially franchise icons, can’t be traded and must end their careers with the teams that drafted them. Gretzky, Mark Messier, Patrick Kane, and Brad Marchand suggest otherwise.
Side Note Myth: When it comes to team-building, there’s this idea that a rebuild team can’t have too many picks or prospects. It turns out they can. Eventually, when a team has too many assets and not enough NHL-caliber talent, it holds the rebuild back and sends a negative message to the team itself (that the front office doesn’t value winning and instead cares more about projections).
Other NHL Myths
- There’s a belief that a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey, and particularly, a 3-1 lead is the worst. Ask any coach who is leading 2-1 and on the power play if they want to just sit it out and retain their one-goal lead. The one-goal lead is the worst lead and often the one that teams blow.
- There’s a recent belief that Canada can’t win the Cup because players prefer to sign with teams where there’s no state tax. This has become a recent discussion since Florida and Nevada have won five of the last six Stanley Cup titles. The reality is that they are well-run teams that, for years, were punchlines but now are juggernauts because they figured everything out. The big picture truth about cities or destinations is that every market is marketable but some have become the opposites of destinations (where players want to avoid some places that are poorly run).
- Then there are the refs. The first is the myth that they want a certain team to win or lose and purposely make bad calls to fix games. This is a myth that’s been a part of sports since the 1800s.
- On the same note regarding the refs, there’s a belief that they swallow the whistles in the playoffs. There’s some truth to that, as the officials won’t call everything. However, the other side is that the teams in the playoffs take fewer penalties, which is why they don’t get called as often. The good teams are also the disciplined ones, and it’s why they make deep playoff runs.
What hockey myths come to mind? Let us know in the comments section below!
