Broken Blue Line Hurting Blackhawks Badly as Lightning Take Control of Cup Final

The Chicago Blackhawks have been playing with fire all playoffs. The loss of Michal Rozsival in the second round of the postseason essentially left the team with four trusted defencemen—a precarious position for any team, let alone one in the final stages of a Stanley Cup run.

That delicate defensive situation got worse on Monday, as a Game 3 injury to Johnny Oduya left the Blackhawks with effectively three defencemen in the back half of the contest.

It also led pretty directly to a 3-2 Tampa Bay Lightning victory, a win which gave the Bolts a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Oduya had his legs knocked out from under him by Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov near the halfway mark of the second period, with Kucherov being penalized on the play. Oduya was clearly in discomfort after the incident, and his ice time plummeted, as we can see when we look at minutes played by Chicago's defencemen in the game's second half:

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Minutes by #Blackhawks D, final half of Game 3: Keith: 16.9 Seabrook: 14.3 Hjalmarsson: 12.0 van Riemsdyk: 6.2 Oduya: 5.6 Cumiskey: 4.0

— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) June 9, 2015"

Chicago's top defencemen have been asked to play an unprecedented amount of hockey lately.

As the Globe and Mail's James Mirtle noted during the third round, no team since the 2004-05 NHL lockout has used its top four more than the 'Hawks.

Not even the 2006-07 Ducks that featured Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and Francois Beauchemin used their best rearguards as often as Chicago has during these playoffs.

There's a real risk of fatigue taking a toll on those players, but so far the Blackhawks have gotten away with it. There's also a real risk in playing defencemen whom head coach Joel Quenneville seemingly knows aren't to be trusted, and that risk was in evidence on Monday night.

Oduya, as we've already noted, didn't leave the game after getting hurt, but he was noticeably less effective. The most obvious instance of him struggling resulted in Tampa Bay's tying goal in the third period, when he was Johnny-on-the-spot (and not in a good way):

Oduya didn't challenge Kucherov at the blue line, instead staying cautiously back so as not to get beat to the outside. Despite this, Kucherov came within a whisper of sneaking past him on Tampa Bay's initial rush.

Then Oduya was shoved aside with apparent ease by Ondrej Palat, who promptly knotted the game at 2-2.

Generally dependable, Oduya showed on that play and several others that he was obviously fighting through an injury significant enough to impair his performance.

Asked after the game about the defenceman's health, Quenneville was tight-lipped but not encouraging, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Lazerus:

The loss of Oduya meant more minutes for Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson, but it also forced the Blackhawks to lean a little more on rookie Trevor van Riemsdyk (playing his first NHL game since an injury in November) and fringe NHLer Kyle Cumiskey.

That proved costly, as Cumiskey brutally misplayed Cedric Paquette in front of the Chicago net on a shift late in the third period, allowing Paquette to pick up his third point of the playoffs and give the Lightning the win:

There was no reason for Paquette to score there.

Tampa Bay's three-on-two rush had fizzled down to a routine two-on-two, and all Cumiskey had to do was take his man. Instead, he hung back, giving Paquette time and space at point-blank range, and the Blackhawks lost the game.

The question is what the 'Hawks do now, besides continuing to load the minutes onto their top three.

If Oduya is out, Chicago has an ugly list of options and will have to play three of Van Riemsdyk, Cumiskey, David Rundblad and Kimmo Timonen. At least one of those players will end up having to take significant minutes as a top-four option.

Bill Smith/Getty Images

In that sense, it's probably fortunate that Van Riemsdyk was able to find his way into the lineup.

Though a rookie, he was quite impressive at the start of the season and might be Chicago's best bet for a top-four assignment. Such a move would likely see Hjalmarsson switch back to the left side.

It's not ideal, but the other choices aren't any better.

Rundblad couldn't earn Quenneville's trust over 49 regular-season games. At 40, Timonen looks finished and forced his way out of the lineup with poor play. Despite his pricey cost, he can't be leaned on. Cumiskey is 28, spent most of the year in the minors and just cost his team a game by bumbling a routine defensive play.

Chicago simply has to hope that Oduya is healthy, and not just healthy enough to dress but healthy enough to play a lot.

Otherwise, the Blackhawks will face the prospect of trying to overcome a deficit to Tampa Bay with only three bona fide NHL defencemen.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com.