Sutter talked a lot last year about the importance of using four lines and three defence pairings. I don't think he was forced into anything. It appears to me that his approach is to shorten the bench when needed, but not to start from the assumption that your bench is going to be short.
In '20-21, Giordano and Tanev averaged 22:57 and 21:44 respectively (total TOI; the site I'm looking at doesn't break down special-team TOI for past years). Andersson and Hanifin were just over 20 minutes. But then you have to look at the quality of the third pairing that year. The #5 D that year by total minutes played was Valimaki, with Nesterov #6. I don't see those guys breaking down the doors of any NHL locker rooms this year.
If anything, I'd say Sutter was forced to ride the top two pairs hard that year because he couldn't trust the third pairing at all.
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