Originally posted on 05/17/2018:

Quote Originally Posted by jtoler View Post
An expansion team in its inaugural year can make it to the Western Conference Finals and possibly finals and of course possibly become Stanley Cup Champions. This would never happen in any other sport. Admittedly I dont know much about hockey but does it say something about the lack of skill level needed in order to play this game, that there isnt a wide distance between the best and worst nhl players, what gives?
It's not about the level of skill. The skill these guys have is incredible and to diminsh what the world's best players do on a daily basis is ridiculous. I think what your question is asking is the impact of an individual vs the team as a whole. It's called strong-link vs weak-link and there has been plenty of research on it. Strong link games are ones where the best player has a strong influence on results. In contrast, in a weak link game, the team without the worst player usually wins.
Soccer is a weak link game because it's low scoring and no one player has possession of the ball for very long. Therefore their impact is reduced. Basketball is a stong link game because Curry/Lebron play all but a few minutes and have the ball in their hands for a large % of time.
Hockey falls in between. In the reg. season it's been shown as a strong link game in that the team with elite talent ends up winning. But in the playoffs I would argue it's the opposite. It's low scoring, and the top players don't touch the puck as often as opposing teams have time to game plan against specific players...time they don't have during the reg. season. This means mistakes and luck play a larger role. You can't control luck but teams with fewer weak players don't make mistakes.
That's what has happened in Vegas. Gallant is a hell of a coach and right from day one the players have bought in to the team concept and without a big name star they just don't make mistakes and have enough skill to capitalize when the other team makes mistakes.