The Blackhawks announced this morning that they had re-assigned hometown golden boy Scott Darling back to Rockford, which really rubbed me the wrong way.
Go figure, right?
This is why I'm agitated at the Blackhawks organization over this move. When Darling was brought up to fill the vacant spot left by Corey Crawford, Antti Raanta was anointed the starter. He shut out the Flyers in his first game and, kind of, tailed off a bit. It was shown that he was getting over aggressive and having issues controlling rebounds, which calmed the meatballs some. I was not a big fan of switching to the unproven Scott Darling, Sunday, but he made me a liar and a fool, which is not hard to do. Darling deserved a shutout, but Brad Richards had other ideas.
I was sure that Raanta would be back in net against one of the toughest teams in the league, Tuesday, but Quenneville made me look silly again, against the Ducks. Darling played well, and deserved yet another shutout, but this time Brent Seabrook had other plans.
Surely, two in a row was a fluke, right?
Fast forward to Thursday night, and there is Scott Darling in net against the Senators, again. Not Darling's greatest game, but the Blackhawks defense was dreadful in front of him. The only clear one on him was the 4th goal, that beat him 5-hole. Again, the defense did him NO favors. In the shootout, he was stellar. He allowed no goals against, and earned the SO win.
None of this takes into account the flood of media attention Scott Darling has knocked loose around the Chicago area, FROM THE BLACKHAWKS ORGANIZATION, and the league in general.
Did you guys know Scott Darling is from Lemont? Did you know he grew up a Blackhawks fan?
Literally, most people that follow the team closely had accepted that Darling was going to be the new glory hound of the team, once Crawford was healthy enough to play. He is cheaper against the cap, physically bigger, and obviously a positive media circus lightning rod. So the Blackhawks can save cap money and have this new fan favorite take the focus off things like the progressive failure of Brad Richards, or Antti Raanta's lack of rebound control. Right? Raanta doesn't have to pass through waivers, so this would be a perfect opportunity to give him some more playing time to brush up. All makes sense, right?
The organization just spent the last 5 days pumping the tires on this guy, as the feel good hometown hero, indirectly shitting all over Antti Raanta's confidence and image for a quick 5 day thrill, and then it's "back to normal" on Friday. That quickly. Brush it off, Rebound-aanta, and "fuck you" Scott Darling. Back to the farm for your trouble.
None of it makes more sense than this:
Why jerk everyone around? I was told Sunday that they need to go with the system, because early season games aren't as important as later season ones. So, let me get this straight...
The plan all along was to start Antti Raanta for three straight, this week, but the roles reversed when Crawford got hurt?
Crawford would not have played against Anaheim, if he was healthy, correct?
DA PLAN DOH!
Let's get to the funniest part of this ordeal. All of a sudden twitter reports that Scott Darling has a gaping 5-hole, after giving up one 5-hole goal last night. This just before a pretty impressive shootout 5-hole stop, against NHL sniper Bobby Ryan.
I can't even make this donkey dung up.
Antti Raanta spent the better part of 2 1/2 games flopping around like a fish out of water and kicking rebounds to the tape of opponent's sticks, and it's Scott Darling that needs the work on his 5-hole in the AHL.
