Defensive Depth Facing Many Injuries

The Chicago Blackhawks have a surprising amount of depth to their defensive groupings and most critics and fans were confused as to why the team invested money in more defense considering their issues with the salary cap to begin with.

Instead of investing in another forward to increase the offensive power the Blackhawks decided to sign Brian Campbell to a one-year, $1.5 million contract with bonuses.  Also rookie Gustav Forsling unexpectedly made the team alongside Michal Kempny as new defensemen this season.

Even the Blackhawks realized that they had too much defense and needed a forward when Trevor van Riemsdyk was placed on the trading block last week.  Also Brian Campbell was almost the healthy scratch during last Friday's game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets.  This simply gives fans and players an idea of how much depth the defense has.

Unfortunately both TVR and Gustav Forsling are injured at the moment which means Blackhawks fans should be happy that with these two players missing we still have enough men to make up decent pairings.  Michal Rozsival played his debut game last night versus the Flames while Kempny was the healthy scratch, perhaps they will both be able to get some ice time while their teammates recover.

We will have to wait until tomorrow's practice to see how the lineups change for more details.