Mirtle: Do the battered Blackhawks have more heroics left in the tank?

If the Tampa Bay Lightning go on to win the Stanley Cup in the next five days, they'll owe a thank you card to the Anaheim Ducks.

Much was made in Round 3 about the Ducks – one of the bigger, nastier teams in the NHL – punishing the Chicago Blackhawks in the hopes that, over a long series, it would pay off. They went in hard on the fore-check, piled up some hits on their top four on the blueline and tried to win a war of attrition.

It didn't work. Chicago dominated Games 6 and 7 of that series to survive and get to here, needing to win a best-of-three against the Lightning for their third Cup in six years.

Pull that off and the talk of being a modern dynasty and a salary-cap-defying anomaly continues. Lose and the narrative goes a different route… One along these Duck-related lines.

There were certainly signs in Wednesday's Game 4 that fatigue and/or injury was having an effect on Chicago. Their 2-1 win was one of the Blackhawks' least impressive victories of the postseason, as they had only two shots on goal in the first period and five in the third, including Brandon Saad's winner.

Tampa stifled them, but it wasn't just that. Chicago had to hang on for dear life in the game's final five minutes as the Lightning's stars went into action, and it was telling how coach Joel Quenneville used his bench.

His bottom two defencemen played six minutes all night. Two others – Duncan Keith and Johnny Oduya – were hardly their dynamic selves, despite handling 29 and 26 minutes, respectively, yet again.

Oduya, in particular, is fighting some sort of upper-body injury that's limiting his effectiveness, and he didn't have a shot on goal in the game after he played sparingly in Game 3 two nights earlier.

He finished Game 4 with a 33-per-cent possession rating, last among Chicago blueliners.

"As the game went on, we seemed to get to more pucks," Lightning vet Brenden Morrow said. "Guys like [Ryan] Callahan that were playing relentless in corners were winning those battles. That's something you probably don't see against these top defensemen a lot."

Not like this.

But this fatigue factor goes well beyond the previous series against the Ducks. The Blackhawks have played more hockey than any other NHL team in the past three years, with two trips to the finals and another to Game 7 of the third round last year.

Saturday's Game 5 here in Tampa will be their 276th game since Jan. 19, 2013, meaning that, even including two off-seasons with at least three months off, they've been on the ice nearly every third day for 2.5 years.

Eight of the top 10 NHL players in games played in that span are Blackhawks, with Tampa's Anton Stralman (who was part of two long runs with the New York Rangers) and Dan Girardi the only exceptions. The Blackhawks top four defencemen – Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Oduya – have all averaged 21-plus minutes a game in at least 264 of those games.

If they fail here, in a narrow, hard-fought series, against a worthy opponent, that'll be one reason why.

If you're good, you go deep year after year, and the game grinds you down.

That said, it would be absurd to write Chicago off now. This is a team that is 16-3 in Games 5 through 7 in a series in the past three years, one that has shown again and again they can battle back when the hockey world is counting them out.

They may be beat up and tired – and their plane may have arrived late due to weather issues on Friday – but they find ways to win. "It's pretty easy to be motivated," Hjalmarsson said.

Tampa's youthful enthusiasm, meanwhile, is a wild card going into the most pressure-packed games of their lives.

So is the fact they don't know if No. 1 netminder Ben Bishop – who has been in and out of the series the past three games – will be able to play.

But there's also something to be said for this being their first trip to the dance, to being fresh and to not having nearly the miles on the odometer that their opponents do.

"This is the time of our lives," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "There's two teams left playing in June. If we're not having fun doing this, then why are we doing this? It's been such a phenomenal experience to go through this."

"Certainly it's a grind," Quenneville explained. "It's a challenge. It's why they say it's the hardest trophy in the world to win because it's so demanding. That's why you got to commend the players, the way they prepare and the way they push each other, as well. These guys find ways.

"The guys are excited," he added. "They don't have any more practices the rest of the year."

Two – but more likely three – games to go.