Duncan Keith Will Lead the Chicago Blackhawks to Lift the Stanley Cup

The Chicago Blackhawks will hoist the Stanley Cup because of the dynamic and experienced play of defensive anchor Duncan Keith.

Keith’s Blackhawks take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final beginning on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET) in large part due to the play of the 31-year-old defenseman.

He has been the team’s best player during this playoff run, and ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun has him Chicago's leading candidate for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

In 17 games this postseason, Keith leads all defenseman with 16 assists, 18 points and a plus-13 rating. He is also logging heavy ice time, averaging more than 31 minutes per game. This has not stopped Keith from making incredible plays, including this setup against the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final:

The team has been way more effective when Keith is on the ice, according to war-on-ice.com (h/t Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post):

Will Keith have trouble with Tampa Bay’s top-six forwards group? So far, Steven Stamkos, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov have combined to score more than 75 percent of the team’s goals, according to CBSSports.com’s Adam Gretz. All five players are 25 or younger.

The young Lightning impressed during their run through the Eastern Conference with their display of speed and skill. They defeated the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers.

According to NHL.com's David Satriano, the matchup with Chicago marks the first time in league history that a team will face four Original Six clubs in the same postseason.

However, the word “young” puts the Lightning at a severe disadvantage against players like Keith and fellow Chicago superstars center Jonathan Toews and winger Patrick Kane. The three have played in 331 playoff games combined since 2009, with Keith playing in 110, according to CBSSports.com's Chris Peters.

The results have been two Stanley Cups and four Western Conference Final appearances.

Keith has 72 points over that span. He has also been the team’s top defenseman, as he plays very effectively in all situations.

By comparison, the Lightning have only six players who have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final to Chicago’s 13.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Chicago has primarily been playing four defensemen since Michal Rozsival’s fractured ankle in the second round against the Minnesota Wild. With the team not trusting its depth defensemen, Keith has logged significant ice time.

Will he run out of gas?

At his current pace, Keith will finish with the highest postseason average ice time since the NHL began keeping the stat in 1998, according to The Canadian Press (h/t CBC.ca). This would be alarming for most defensemen, but not for Keith—at least that's what Chicago is suggesting.

“Everyone wants to talk about his conditioning. How he plays a lot of minutes. But we’ve come to expect that from him,” said captain Toews, according to Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski. “He’s got that determination. He’s never satisfied. He’s got that hunger, like he’s not going to be stopped.” 

His head coach, Joel Quenneville, echoed Toews’ sentiment, according to the Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Keith, twice the winner of the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman, certainly expects the minutes he’s been getting as well, according to Wyshynski.

“I’ve always played a lot of minutes and played the same way,” said Keith, who has played over 600 minutes in a single playoff run twice already in his postseason career. “Because it’s two or three more minutes, and we’ve gone far in the playoffs, maybe it’s gotten more attention.”

Having made it through the grueling Western Conference and a series with a fast and physical team in Anaheim, Keith should once again excel against a speedy Lightning team.

Chicago will win its third Stanley Cup in six years behind the play of its world-class defenseman.