3 takeaways from Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final

It wasn't pretty, but with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Chicago Blackhawks effectively dragged the Tampa Bay Lightning into the lion's den.

Chicago improved to 41-14 in the Joel Quenneville era in Games 4-7, and appear primed to feast in the elimination contests to follow - like they always seem to do.

Here are three things we took away from Game 4:

Hurts so good

The league's next great power forward (hey, wasn't that Bryan Bickell) put his frame to work at another opportune moment while adding a few more thousands to his future biweekly pay.

Brandon Saad added to his career spring with another assertive moment midway through the third, scoring an archetypal eighth goal of the playoffs on a sweeping drive through the Lightning crease. With his second in as many games, Saad lifted the Blackhawks back into the series, but will soon pose a problem more significant than any the club has effectively dealt with in the past.

Like Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Bickell before him, Saad is playing his way into a significant raise from his current entry-level status. But he's coming off the books in the same summer Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have their $10.5 million cap hits kick in.

The Blackhawks have already expressed their inclination to keep Saad under their banner, but the pressure is continuing to mount even before the two sides can sit down in the boardroom to discuss his pros and cons.

And, at the same time, there are suitors (with bank books open wide) lining up for the burgeoning, prospective two-time Stanley Cup champion.

In the back of their mind ...

There's something about the presence of a backup goaltender that improves team defense - even if it is a factor buried deep in a collective subconscious.

Tampa Bay reduced the Blackhawks to a franchise-low two shots in the first period, and limited their total to six at the halfway point of the contest in protection of Andrei Vasilevskiy. Including his cameo in Game 2, Tampa Bay kept the Blackhawks to 11 shots in Vasilevskiy's first 39 minutes of Stanley Cup action.

Now, this is simply a theory, but it's been seen elsewhere this postseason. The Washington Capitals clamped down on the New York Islanders in their Game 2 win with Philipp Grubauer in net, while the Detroit Red Wings were more sound defensively when rolling with their backup, Petr Mrazek.

Though the Blackhawks might have experienced the negative side of it Game 4, they would argue that it's not quite a science. Their backup, Scott Darling, who was called on at times in their first-round series win over the Nashville Predators, saw 111 shots in his first three appearances of these playoffs.

Sweet(ish) send-off

This wasn't the way Kimmo Timonen drew it up. A top-paring NHL defender for more than a decade, Timonen is cut from championship cloth. A winner, a front-line contributor, someone whose tired hands deserve to hoist sport's greatest trophy.

It appears, maybe more likely than not, that Timonen will have his chance to hoist Lord Stanley, but it will hardly be a fairy-tale ending. Timonen has been at war with his body, at odds with the coaching staff, and unable to play the role he was always supposed to for a Cup winner.

It might feel a little empty (though that stinger of the crossbar surely would have helped), but Game 4 was an important one for Timonen. He played his requisite Stanley Cup Final game, and will indeed have his name etched onto the trophy - a legacy inscription, of sorts - should Chicago take the best of three.

It's been a bumpy, humbling ride for the 40-year-old, but hopefully one he can come to appreciate.