Edmonton cannot win on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl alone, and Toronto’s 7-2 rout, in which William Nylander reached 300 career goals, showed what a deeper team does to a top heavy one. The Leafs scored from across their lineup, their depth overwhelmed an Oilers team that relies on its two stars to carry the scoring, and the result was a game that was effectively decided before the third period. Nylander’s milestone, his 300th goal, was the headline, but the depth gap was the story.
The pattern is familiar to Oilers watchers. McDavid and Draisaitl are among the best players in the world, and on any given night they can win a game by themselves. Over a season, however, hockey is won by the third line as much as by the first, by the defence pair that holds a lead, and by the goaltender who makes the save that keeps a game close. Toronto, in this game, had those contributions from across the roster. Edmonton, too often, has had to hope that its stars can cover for the absence of them.
What depth looks like
Depth is not only about scoring. It is about matchups, about a coach being able to roll four lines without fearing that one of them will be overwhelmed, and about a team that can survive an injury to a star without collapsing. Toronto’s 7-2 win demonstrated all of those things: goals from different lines, a defence that limited Edmonton’s chances when the stars were off the ice, and a goaltending performance that made the lead safe. Edmonton’s stars scored, as they usually do, but the rest of the game belonged to Toronto.
The Oilers’ challenge is structural, not motivational. Salary cap constraints mean that paying two superstars leaves less for the rest of the roster, and the front office must find value in depth signings, in young players on entry level deals, and in trades that add role players rather than stars. That is a harder task than signing a star, and it is the task on which Edmonton’s season will ultimately be judged.
The season ahead
One game in October does not decide a season, and Edmonton has time to address its depth. But the Toronto game is a useful early warning, because it showed the gap in its clearest form: a deep team against a top heavy team, on a night when both sets of stars played. The championship lessons from other sports this week point the same way: titles are won by rosters, not by individuals, and the teams that understand that are the ones still playing in the spring.
Edmonton still has its two stars, and that is a better starting point than most teams enjoy. But until the depth arrives, the Oilers will keep losing games like this one, in which the stars do their part and the rest of the roster cannot keep up.
