These are Pat Stapleton and Bill White. I’m not old enough to have seen them play live but I was fortunate enough to be able to watch them on the Summit Series DVDs and they were arguably Canada’s best defensive pairing and Coach Harry Sinden’s first choice when Team Canada needed to defend a lead. After sitting out the first game, they drew into the lineup for game two and played through the rest of the series. Though they only scored two points between them, they finished the series a combined +13 and were two of the only Canadians who had the speed and the skill to match up well with the Soviets.

Bill White didn’t get into the NHL until he was 28, but it wasn’t because he wasn’t good enough. White had both the benefit and misfortune of playing for Eddie Shore’s Springfield Indians. While he credits Shore for teaching him and turning him into the defenseman he became, Shore was also a curmudgeon who refused to part with White for anything less than a huge overpayment. Because of that, White toiled in the minors until the Indians were bought out by the LA Kings and he was finally given his chance in the bigs. He was a tall, strong defender who relied more on mobility and smarts than nastiness to get the job done in the defensive zone. He was so revered for his defense that he finished third for the Norris trophy three years running, finishing behind only Bobby Orr, Brad Park, and Guy Lapointe over that span.

Pat Stapleton was a small defenseman who had to be smart enough to not put himself in situations where his lack of size became an issue. He was known for his great stick and his ability to anticipate the play and intercept passes and shots with ease. Once he had the puck, he was quick to start the counter attack. He wasn’t your typical rushing defenseman like Bobby Orr but instead relied on his passing ability to get the play going in the other direction and springing his forwards on the attack. Stapleton managed to finish top-5 for defensemen in scoring six times because of his passing.

Stapleton and White manned the Chicago Blackhawks blueline together for three and a half years before Stapleton bolted for big money in the WHA. Over that time, they were a combined +240 while playing top pairing shut-down minutes and for their strong play they earned themselves four second all-star team selections in just three years. There is a striking similarity in style and substance between these two and the Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook pairing that has emerged this season as the top defensive unit on the current edition of the Blackhawks. While Seabrook uses his size and strength to defend the front of the net and the corners much like Bill White did, Keith is a small defender that anticipates plays well and uses his passing to generate offensive in the same way that Stapleton did. In sharp contrast to other young teams that treaded water in the standings, like the Kings and the Coyotes, the Hawks established themselves as a bonafide playoff team and a big difference between the Hawks and those other two teams is that the Hawks have a quality defensive pairing that can eat up big minutes against tough competition. In Bill White and Pat Stapleton’s first year together, they led the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Finals where they were eventually stopped by a rookie goaltender by the name of Ken Dryden who went on to win the Conn Smythe trophy. The Hawks are going to need their two top defensemen to have a similar impact if they want to have a successful run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

For the Canucks, generating offense when those two are on the ice will be one of their biggest challenges of the series. Though the Sedins have drawn that match up all season long and have been relatively successful, it’s going to be a different beast having to contend with those two and Sami Pahlsson with the Blackhawks playing much better than they were during a post all-star break lull. During the regular season the Keith and Seabrook were hard matched against the toughest lines in the league on a nightly basis and yet they were only on the ice for an ESGA about every other game. The other danger lies in their ability to counter attack; only Mike Green scored more even strength points on defense than Keith and the Blackhawks have a number of forwards who are effective off the rush. To date the Sedins have done well in a new role where they have constantly played against the opposition’s best since the team’s checking line was broken up but it’s a big task to not only generate offense but also to ensure that they aren’t being scored against. While Roberto Luongo is clearly the key to the series for the Canucks, the offense will most likely only go as far as the Sedins will take it and they will need to be on top of their game in order to be effective against the Blackhawks.

(I totally copped Lowetide’s style for this post but only because I love his work. He’s my favourite hockey blogger out there).