NHL: 7 Teams That Rely Too Much on 1 Player

Every NHL team has their go-to guys who are supposed to be the ones that take care of business in crunch time, but not every team has a lot of support to go with that player.

Some teams rely too much on that one superstar, hoping that they are able to get things done by themselves.

Here are some teams that rely a bit too much on that one player.

Carolina Hurricanes

Cam Ward is one of the best goalies in the NHL, but the Carolina Hurricanes rely on him way too much.

He likes to play close to 70 games or more per season, which is just far too much for a guy if you expect to make a big push into the playoffs.

Ward is a young guy that may have a bit more energy than some of the other goalies in the league, but he should take a lesson out of Patrick Roy's book. Roy always wanted to make sure that he played about 65 games a season and not more in order to be certain that he was fresh enough for the physical push that it takes to go deep into the playoffs.

While Carolina isn't a playoff team just yet, they aren't that far away, and they might want to think about keeping Ward as fresh as they can for the intensity of the playoffs.

Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators are in the heat of a rebuild right now, and they are definitely a little short of things on the offensive side of things.

Jason Spezza is really their primary weapon, as Daniel Alfredsson has greatly dropped off in production over the past couple of seasons.

Spezza was the team's leading scorer with 57 points last season, and he missed 20 games in the season.

Ottawa desperately needs some help on the offensive side of the puck, or else it's going to be a very long season in Ottawa. Especially since new goalie Craig Anderson, who has moments of brilliance, isn't mentally tough enough to handle adversity, as he showed in Colorado.

New York Islanders

For a team that has as much young talent as the Islanders do, they certainly rely on Tavares to do a whole lot.

Tavares has handled the pressure very well, leading the Islanders in scoring both of the years he has played in the league so far.

If the Islanders are going to climb up the standings as they want to, they are going to need a bit more secondary scoring than they have.

New Jersey Devils

Strange how a guy who got a 15-year, $100 million contract might be overly relied upon by his team, as if that salary might make it hard to bring in any secondary scoring.

Kovi is definitely the guy the Devils rely on for offense now, though the return of Zach Parise should help out a great deal.

Last year, things didn't go as well for him, as he didn't even lead his team in scoring. That will have to change this year in order to get the Devils back into the playoffs.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Ever since he has been on the team, Rick Nash has been pretty much been the offense for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Even with the acquisition of Jeff Carter this offseason, the Blue Jackets still go through Rick Nash, and there is no doubt about that.

Nash has always been able to deliver for his team, but having a guy like Carter should help take a bit more of the pressure off of Nash.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are another team that has a lot of talent on the team, but really only one prime-time guy.

Phil Kessel has so many expectations of him every single year, and he faces so much scrutiny from the fans in Toronto whenever he doesn't put up monster numbers. A lot of that isn't really his fault considering what Brian Burke gave up in order to acquire Kessel, but fans will hold players to a certain standard based on what was given up to get them.

It really would have been great for Kessel and Toronto to have acquired Brad Richards this summer, but since they didn't, Kessel will have to deal with the same level of expectations.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers have always depended far too much on the goaltending, to their detriment.

This season will have to be different, though it most likely won't be, because they no longer have stud goalie Tomas Vokoun in their lineup.

Jose Theodore and Scott Clemensen are not going to be able to handle the massive onslaught that Florida Panthers teams are used to giving up.

Some of their preseason performances have already shown that.