Checking the fallout from Game 3 concerning the Chicago blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks, one reaches unfortunately a conclusion: Depth on defense will decide this Stanley Cup playoffs series.
Game 4 arrives Saturday, after which the Blackhawks may some misconception and lower the Western Conference finals to some best-of-3.
MORE: Ducks grind out Game 3 victory | Rangers-Lightning, Game 4 | Playoff images | Video
Still, you have to wonder whether the Blackhawks can rebound of their biggest weakne s: a defense corps this really is two players shy of full.
Observers rightfully note the Ducks' ability to prevent Blackhawks stars from scoring. That, plus the obverse that Blackhawks stars must score
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Defense is really a team concept, especially this deep within the playoffs. The Ducks showed that in regards to what The Oc Register booked a "workmanlike effort."
But once the Blackhawks remain to work out four solid defensemen, playing them heavy minutes while two guys get scant ice time, it becomes obvious they're just for a disadvantage. The stats: Keith and Seabrook, 28 minutes; Hjalmar son and Oduya, 19 minutes; Kyle Cumiskey, 8 minutes; Kimmo Timonen, 7 minutes.
In contrast, four Ducks defensemen played between 21 and 23 minutes; different ones, 16 and 14. That's balance the Blackhawks was without.
Good as Duncan Keith is, to the extent that Brent Seabrook, Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmar son play, the workload against an actual physical, aggre sive and fast flight of Ducks forwards will wear them down.
The Blackhawks dearly mi s Michal Rozsival and cannot get enough from Cumiskey, Timonen or now-benched David Rundblad. Five deep, maybe, would've worked. Rozsival's broken ankle is a pain the Blackhawks feel every single night.
Timonen, a risky pickup with the trade deadline, isn't the player he was before blood clots threatened to finish his career. At 40, Timonen doesn't have enough left compare unique car features.
Allan Muir of Sports
Travis Ishikawa Jersey Illustrated noted the Blackhawks' best defensemen "need some help if theyre about to survive this series." Younger population . noted the Ducks' prefer to hit those defensemen early and they sometimes. Hjalmar son was nailed nine times in Game 1.
Bruce Boudreau won't change the things that work. And his bang-bang scheme has yet to fail him, in Game 1 when Boudreau said his team "got lucky" in the 4-1 victory; po sibly Game 2 when his team never score. Things were tighter in Game 3, neverthele s the alteration in Thursday's game was Simon Despres, a defenseman the Ducks acquired previous to the trade deadline.
Despres' performance is solid since he joined the group and was paired with Cam Fowler. With Game 3 on the line, Despres was in the ice making plays.
"I just like the confidence through the coach to place me to be found," Despres told The la
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At 23, Despres is everything Timonen isn't young, fresh, a trusted a part of a six-man defense corps that sees roughly equivalent ice time.
Yes, the Blackhawks' four defensemen were being used heavily. But, they still can produce a
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Before Game 3, coach Joel Quenneville was asked if exce sively was being made from minutes played by his defensemen.
"It's up to you guys. You're speaking about it a good deal," Quenneville said, turning the i sue back about the media members. "That's our focus, is hoping to get through and hoping to win that game. We place an emphasis on every shift's importance, likewise, getting guys to be found in those right situations is you take into account too. Every game's different. The score dictates more often than not ice times a properly."
Strategy in the years ahead? Stay the program.
"We don't need to reinvent the wheel using this group," Quenneville said.
Don't expect Boudreau to regulate what's working either.