Which NHL playoff year produced the best roster of overtime goal scorers?

Were a week into this years playoffs, and there hasnt been enough overtime.

Theres been some, sure, but it hasnt been enough.

Thats because it cant be.

Its not possible.

Playoff overtime is the best thing in sports, always, unless its your team playing, in which case its the absolute worst, right up until its maybe the best again.

Cocaine, helicopter, you know the drill .

Advertisement And of course, in those big moments, you expect the sports biggest stars to shine the brightest.

Overtime is a canvas on which great artists create their masterpieces.

Its the stage for the biggest names to leave their marks for generations to come.

Names like Alex Ovechkin.

And, uh, Simon Benoit.

Yeah, overtime is weird that way.

So today, Im going to dig into a question that a Puck Soup listener sent in a while ago: Which seasons had the best collection of overtime goal scorers? In other words, whats the best all-star team we can build using only a given years sudden-death heroes? I have no idea, so lets find out.

But first, a few ground rulesTM: For any given year, were going to build two forward lines and one defense pair.

Forwards score more OT goals, after all, but we do want to get those blueliners some recognition.

Beyond the forward/defense divide, we wont worry about position.

We wont use goaltenders on these rosters because a goalie has never scored in playoff overtime because goalies just arent clutch.

Well do this as a top 10, with the basic idea being, Which team is best, assuming you get all of the guys at whatever skill level they were at that year.

So its not just name value; ideally we want these stars in their primes.

In theory, we can go back as far into history as we want.

In reality, our eight-man rosters eliminate almost all of the NHLs first few decades, when the playoffs were shorter and we wont have enough OT games to work with.

Sorry, old-timers.

For each team, well also pick one spare from any position who feels like the least likely OT hero.

Call it the Benoit spot.

Its there just for fun, and to remind us that in sudden death, you just never know.

Here are the 10 squads I came up with.

10.

1982 Its slim pickings on the blue line, but we have to find a way to get prime Wayne Gretzky in here somewhere.

Well put him with the Islander legends in a preview of the 1983 and 1984 Stanley Cup Finals.

Our second line will have Bernie Federko trying to skate around all the injured bodies caused by his linemates.

Advertisement Forward line 1: Wayne Gretzky, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy Forward line 2: Bernie Federko, Dale Hunter, Tiger Williams Defense pairing: Colin Campbell, Greg Fox Random spare: Darryl Evans No, thats not the baseball player in the spare slot, although maybe it might as well be.

The point is that this team will ice a decent roster with the lists best celebrations.

9.

1995 As youll see, most of our list is going to be driven by elite forwards.

This one is an outlier, where its the blue line that lifts it to consideration.

In fact, our second pairing of Eric Desjardins and Vlad Konstantinov would be better than a lot of other years best options.

Forward line 1: Eric Lindros, Luc Robitaille, Steve Larmer Forward line 2: Cliff Ronning, Joe Murphy, Neal Broten Defense pairing: Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios Random spare: Kevin Haller/Karl Dykhuis The Lidstrom winner was the only one of his career, and its a very old-school goal that features a booming slapshot off of one of those weird faceoffs that dont use the circle.

Also, I cant choose between Haller and Dykhuis for our spare spot because theyre basically the same guy.

Both big defensive defensemen, both played for the Flyers that year, both had three goals during the season, both got their winner in a 4-3 game, and theyd go on to put up nearly identical career numbers.

Its weird, and I dont want to talk about it anymore.

8.

2001 I like this one, and not just because we get to use our first line as a nod to the legacy of the Quebec Nordiques.

Mix in a blue line built around a classic Hall of Very Good guy in Brian Rafalski, and we could do some damage here.

That second line is hit-and-miss, though.

Muller and BrindAmour could spend time between shifts debating the finer points of coaching the Hurricanes, but Glen Murray knows what he did .

Advertisement Forward line 1: Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin Forward line 2: Rod BrindAmour, Kirk Muller, Glenn Murray Defense pairing: Brian Rafalski, Darius Kasparaitis Random spare: Cory Cross If you dont want Cross as the spare, we could also go with Jay McKee or Bryce Salvador.

It was a good year for plodding defensemen in overtime.

7.

2020 This was the weird bubble year, and yes, were counting the qualifying rounds as being the playoffs.

That lets us put together two strong forward lines and a decent backend that fits the one good offensive guy, one stay-at-home guy mold.

Forward line 1: Patrice Bergon, Auston Matthews, Brayden Point Forward line 2: Mathew Barzal, Brayden Schenn, Bo Horvat Defense pairing: Victor Hedman, Chris Tanev Random spare: Philippe Myers I like the Atlantic Division-themed first line, which would be a beast at both ends of the ice.

And the second line will be good too, as long as Horvat has Quinn Hughes feeding him beauties.

6.

2019 This is another strong year from not that long ago.

What can we say? Weve been spoiled by the hockey gods in recent years.

And check out this first line man, if you had those three on the same team youd never let one of them get away.

Forward line 1: Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen Forward line 2: Kyle Connor, Tomas Hertl, Matt Duchene Defense pairing: Erik Karlsson, John Klingberg Random spare: Carl Gunnarsson We could also go Pat Maroon as the spare, as he had a Game 7 winner for the Blues.

But well go with Gunnarsson and his long-distance marker that was a final turning point, if only because hell get along with our other Swedish defensemen.

5.

1979 This is the furthest back well go, and like 1995, its a team built around the blue line.

(Wed even have HHOFer Serge Savard available as depth.) But theyve got more firepower up front, and it adds up to a very solid entry.

Advertisement Forward line 1: Phil Esposito, Mike Bossy, Jean Ratelle Forward line 2: Bob Bourne, Ken Linseman, Bob Nystrom Defense pairing: Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson Random spare: Cam Connor Not bad at all, and we didnt even have to reach for maybe the biggest goal of the decade to make it all work.

In case youre wondering, Connor was a tough guy winger who had some success in the WHA but scored only 10 goals across parts of four seasons in the NHL.

The only one in the playoffs came in OT to give the Canadiens the win on a Saturday night at Maple Leaf Gardens .

4.

1993 It only makes sense that the greatest season in NHL history would rank highly on this list.

And sure enough, we get a strong mix of stars at all positions.

As youd expect given their 10-game OT luck-drenched fluke winning streak, the Canadiens are well represented.

Forward line 1: Wayne Gretzky, Teemu Selanne, Doug Gilmour Forward line 2: Kirk Muller, Guy Carbonneau, John LeClair Defense pairing: Eric Desjardins, Jeff Brown Random spare: Gary Shuchuk And yes, Im sure Gilmour and Gretzky will have plenty to talk about.

Anything interesting you want to tell us about your overtime goal, Wayne? Just let us know.

Anyway, lets put that aside and use this as an opportunity to enjoy some prime Bob Cole goodness.

3.

1996 Is this squad any good up front? Ive got three Hall of Famers on each forward line.

Hows the blue line? Look, Ive got three Hall of Famers on each forward line.

Forward line 1: Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Mike Gartner Forward line 2: Mats Sundin, Jeremy Roenick, Glenn Anderson Defense pairing: Sandis Ozolinsh, Igor Kravchuk Random spare: Uwe Krupp Krupps the obvious pick here based on his seeing-eye goal being a Cup-winner .

That one wasnt pretty, and thats fine because were not giving out points for artistic impression here.

Still, it doesnt hurt that our roster is built around quite possibly the greatest single shot in the history of the league.

I would leave my wife and kids to marry that last replay.

2.

2014 This is one of our strongest forward groups, so much so that we dont even really think about solid options like Patrick Marleau and Justin Williams.

Forward line 1: Nathan MacKinnon, Jarome Iginla, Martin St.

Louis Forward line 2: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Gaborik Advertisement Defense pairing: P.K.

Subban, Alec Martinez Random spare: Matt Fraser The only weak-ish spot is Martinez as the second defenseman, but this was the year he had two series-enders, including the Cup winner.

1.

2022 This is our most recent entry, although 2023 is an honorable mention.

Accuse me of recency bias if you must, but this is a very good mix, led by a first line that feels right for a few reasons.

Forward line 1: Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Johnny Gaudreau Forward line 2: Evgeni Malkin, Brayden Point, Carter Verhaeghe Defense pairing: Cale Makar, Josh Manson Random spare: Ian Cole Hell yeah, Johnny Hockey.

Lets watch it one more time.

(Top photo of Johnny Gaudreau: Candice Ward / USA Today Sports).

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