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Leddy benched, not hurt, as Chicago rolled five defensemen

nickleddygetty

The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks needed more than 60 minutes to settle Game 4 on Wednesday, but Blackhawks defenseman Nick Leddy watched most of the 6-5 OT thriller from Chicago’s bench.

The 22-year-old logged just 2:37 of ice time in four shifts tonight. Leddy received one shift in the first period, two in the third and one 12-second cup of coffee in overtime. Many wondered if the promising blueliner was injured, but Joel Quenneville told reporters that isn’t the case.

“Nick is fine,” was all Quenneville had to say.

Leddy came into tonight’s game logging about 16 minutes per game in the postseason, down from about 17 and a half in the regular season. His numbers (zero goals, two assists and a -7 rating) indicate that he hasn’t done much with his time.

It’ll be interesting to see if Leddy gets dropped from the lineup for Game 5. His benching put an increased load on Chicago’s five other defensemen -- Michal Rozsival, Johnny Oduya, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Duncan Keith all played over 25 minutes each -- and the ‘Hawks do have veteran Sheldon Brookbank in reserve.

Brookbank, 32, filled in for Keith during his one-game suspension in the Western Conference finals, but only played 6:50 and finished a minus-2.