SAN JOSE — The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2015 by giving the majority of their blue line minutes to just four defenseman in the playoffs, providing a model that could be useful to the Sharks this spring.
Pete DeBoer cut Joakim Ryan’s audition as the Sharks sixth-playoff defenseman down to just 3:18 in Game 1 of his team’s opening-round series with the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, choosing to lean heavily on his top-five blue liners instead of rolling the dice with a rear guard who’s been wildly inconsistent since he rejoined the lineup in the aftermath of Radim Simek’s injury on March 12.