Antti, Antti, Antti
Philadelphia is known for the little guy who comes out of no where, and captures the emotion of a city. And after one game in net for the Blackhawks this season, Antti Raanta has won over the hearts of the meatball coalition. Raanta posted a 32 save shutout en route to the Blackhawks 4-0 win over the Flyers. It was a surprise start for Raanta as starter Corey Crawford was ruled out for the game late this morning with an upper body injury. Raanta to his credit was ready to play when called upon, something that cannot be understated for a backup goalie. It remains to be seen how long Crawford will be sidelined, but lets make one thing clear. Corey Crawford is the starter for the Chicago Blackhawks. As much as the meatballs would want to create a goalie controversy, there is none. Once Crawford is healthy, its his net. So in the meantime, lets allow Raanta to bask in his Rocky Balboa moment, because its going to be short lived.
With the offense sputtering of late, we all knew it was coming. It just took Dr. Line Blender an extra game to get fired up. Heading into tonight's game, the Blackhawks found themselves with different line combinations. For now it was a nice spark to jolt the offense, as the Blackhawks came out flying. Something that has been screamed about before is the lack of the net front presence other than Andrew Shaw. Tonight we finally saw what crashing the net can, as that was a direct result of Brandon Saad's opening goal. Another touchy subject amongst Blackhawks fans has been the Power Play and the play of Bryan Bickell. In the first period we got to see a sighting of both, as Patrick Kane tallied the 2nd goal of the night on the Power Play (courtesy of a bad Flyers penalty), and Bryan Bickell capped the 1st period scoring by adding his 1st goal of the season. All in all, we saw the Blackhawks offense explode for 3 goals in just over 2 minutes. Its that kind of outburst we've been waiting to see.
The second period featured the Flyers taking undisciplined penalties, but the Blackhawks were unable to add another Power Play goal. Raanta saw 10 shots in the period, and turned them all aside. Early in the third period Patrick Kane was able to beat Steve Mason again for his 2nd goal of the game, and 2nd Power Play goal of the night for the Blackhawks. All in all, this was the type of game we expect the Blackhawks to play against a subpar opponent. Next up for the Blackhawks is a trip to Nashville on Thursday night.
The Good
- I mentioned it earlier, but Antti Raanta was fantastic in net
- Patrick Kane scoring two goals on the night, both Power Play goals
- Trevor van Riemsdyk, he keeps getting more confidence, and more comfortable
- Net front presence from Saad and Bickell
- Dan Carcillo for drawing penalties, and actually having hockey sense and not retaliating
The Bad
- Kris Versteeg returned (I had to put something in the bad category)
The Ugly
- Zac Rinaldo and Michael Raffl for being certified dickbags. But as a Blackhawks fan, I'm not complaining the dumb penalties they took.