Blackhawks Need To Increase The Peace At The Crease

Tommie Lee
Apr 22, 2015
4 min read

Two distinctive camps have formed on social media.

There are those who feel Scott Darling’s hot hand has earned him the starter’s job right now, and there are those who feel Corey Crawford needs to get back at the crease as soon as possible.

It’s like the Hatfields and McCoys. The Federation and the Klingons. The Jets and the Sharks. (The other Jets and Sharks, not the Hockey ones. You know, the movie ones with all the snapping and dancing.)

The problem is that both sides can make a strong argument. Crawford, one of the best goalies in the game, has been absolutely awful in the Nashville series. He has given up 9 goals on 47 shots. Some of those goals were so soft they could be washed with your wife’s favorite sweaters. In relief, Chicago native Darling came in and stood tall like a monolith. He was perfect for the first 83 minutes of his post-season career, gave up all of 2 goals in Game 3 stopping 35 shots. That shutout streak is a franchise record to start a career. On Monday Darling was named to start again in Game 4 at the United Center Tuesday night. His Goals Against average is 0.94 and his save percentage is .975. If the ice melts, there’s the slimmest chance he might still be able to skate on water.

On the other hand, Corey Crawford is the starter because…he’s the better goalie. The team pays him a buttload of money to be that better goalie, and he usually delivers. He had a bad period to start off the playoffs, no one can argue that. He coughed up three goals in the first of the first. It was ugly. It was Chicago White Sox ugly.

Patrick Kane said in an interview over the weekend that he sees Darling’s starts as a chance to take some of the pressure off Crawford. No one guy should shoulder the entire load, he says. Crawford himself says that Darling is a great player and you have to be happy for him getting these opportunities. There’s so much love flying around on the team’s public face right now that it’s almost sickening.

Crawford, like any quality Goaltender, needs to know that his team has confidence in him. Keeping him out of the net is not going to accomplish that, especially when we’re talking about a home game against a team you just crushed that was as cold as lunch meat and are struggling to find the net without their Captain.

It’s the perfect scenario, coming off that win. It would be the perfect time to get Crawford back in front of the net. Coach Quenneville has his reasons for not doing this, I’m sure, but I don’t understand them at this point. All we can do as fans is trust that Q has a logic beyond our understanding and sees something we don’t know about. After years of watching Q make magic happen in both Colorado and Chicago…I’m always of the opinion that Q is a genius.

And yet he continues to do things I just don’t get. Such as keeping Michal Roszival out on the ice. I know I complain about him a lot, but it’s just because he is truly, truly horrible. By the same token I was very concerned about the Wheel of Fortune-style of line rotations. But Nashville was even more confused by that than I was, and that’s kind of the friggin’ point, n’est-ce pas?

Other notables from the first three games of this series: Marian Hossa is skating like a man twenty years younger, but with every minute of his experience. He might not be finding the net as much as we’d like, but he’s getting the chances and he’s a going concern for the Predator D-men. Hossa also had two assists on Sunday, and leads the team with 4 in these playoffs. It was his 37th multi-point playoff game in a long career.

Captain Jonathan Toews has been spectacular. After pouring in a goal and an assist, Game 3 was the 23rd multi-point game of his playoff career. Patrick Kane has come back strong and is hungry to show he hasn’t lost a step…I’ve never been happier to have underestimated a guy’s comeback. Andrew Desjardins anchored a surprising line in Game 3 and really poured it on. Brandon Saad and Brent Seabrook are also looking fantastic so far in this series.

Andrew Shaw is a guy to watch in Game 4. At the end of Game 3 he was the recipient of a cheap shot from Mike Ribiero, who is a Michelangelo among cheap shot artists and has been since the team acquired him from the Capitals. He gave some ridiculous attitude to the Blackhawk bench afterward, and Shaw is just the sort of guy who won’t shake off something like that. He’s enough of a hothead to possibly do something retaliatory in the next game.

In other news: The Sharks (the Hockey ones this time) have parted ways with coach Todd McLellan, who led San Jose to 311 wins and six postseason appearances over seven seasons. He just couldn’t get them over the hump, though, and the rafters remain banner-free at the Shark Tank.

One last thing: The night Darling buried the Preds down in Nashville, the yellow-clad horde down there had the opportunity to bash a sportscar with a Blackhawks paint job with sledgehammers. I assume it was for charity.

Either way, it was adorable. And I could totally see how it might be a useful tool to allow those fans a chance to vent their frustration. Lord knows if MY favorite team was the Nashville Predators…I’d want to destroy something with a sledgehammer, too.

Go Hawks!