Edmonton Oilers: What Lowetide means by balance is a team, that in all three important positions, are equally strong. This means not being over-reliant on forwards to win games through pure offense. It also means not riding your goalie too hard and not forcing your defense to limit teams to two or fewer goals per game.
Very few teams in today’s NHL can afford to have perfect balance, but some teams are close. Nashville has Ellis, Subban, Josi, and Ekholm on defense, Pekka Rinne in net, and Forsberg, Johansen, Arvidsson, and Turris up front. That is a stable core of players that can challenge for a championship year in, year out.