"Sweet Home Chicago"
Much has been made in the past week of the Blackhawks goaltending situation since Corey Crawford went down with an upper body injury. On Tuesday Antti Raanta pitched a shutout in his season debut, and thus by the meatball coalition was anointed the new starting goalie. Fast forward a few days, two straight losses, and facing the second game of a back to back, we now have a new favorite goalie in town. His name is Scott Darling and he hails from Lemont, IL. So not only is he a "hometown hero," but he is now in the category of a winning Blackhawks goalie. Enjoy it while it lasts, because in a few days when Crawford is back, Darling will be on the I90 Express to Rock Vegas.
The game itself started out fairly sloppy and undisciplined for both teams. In the first period we saw two sequences of 4 on 4 hockey, which is the only time we should see it, after offsetting penalties. Darling to his credit held his own in net, facing 12 shots, and stopping them all. After one the game was scoreless.
There's been a lot of talk on how the Blackhawks haven't scored a 2nd period goal all season, but The Captain ended that just 21 seconds into the 2nd frame on a nice wrap-around goal. Later in the period, while on the Power Play, Brad Richards allowed a bad bounce of the puck off the ref to get the best of him and led Ottawa to a 3 on 1. Needless to say, Darling had a slim chance, and the Sens tied the game at 1. Just past the midway point in the 2nd period, a blast from Brent Seabrook found the back of the net and gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead.
The third period saw a lot of shots for both teams, but neither could find the net. Aside from the shot attempts, it was a ho hum period to say the least. All in all, it was a solid effort from the Blackhawks which saw Scott Darling get a win in his NHL debut. Despite that, there is no goalie controversy folks. Next up for the Blackhawks is a meeting at The UC on Tuesday night with the Anaheim Ducks.
The Good
- Scott Darling was good in net, its nice to finally have a goalie in the system who is taller than 6' 5"
- Bryan Bickell deserves some credit for finally doing his job, going to the front of the net, which led to Seabrook's goal
- We had a Jonathan Toews sighting
- Finally a good nice at the faceoff dot for the Hawks winning 39 draws
The Bad
- The spattering of ice time throughout the lineup was headscratching to say the least. One the 2nd of a back to back the 3rd pair of Rundblad and van Riemsdyk saw 6 and 7 minutes a piece.
- Once again it sounds like a broken record. The Hawks draw 6 Power Plays, but only can score on one of them
The Ugly
- I think Brad Richards is still cemented into the ice in the same spot, bitching about the puck bouncing off the ref. How much longer of Richards on the point of the Power Play are we going to take? Yes, he did have the nice keep in that led to Seabrook's goal, but right now he's a liability on the point.
- This was Jeremy Morin's best game by far. He was generating chances, and was all over the ice, yet Q felt the need to only give him 7:19 of ice time. At this point Morin looks more like the kid who won a contest to sit on the bench with the team than being an actual hockey player, since he sees such little ice time.