The worst feeling in the world: a goalie looking behind him. Kris Versteeg's goal made it 2-1 Hawks.
On Saturday night, Nikolai Khabibulin didn’t feel well enough to start against his former team.
Maybe he had a bad back. Maybe he remembered fighting nearly 40 shots in Chicago. Maybe he watched the Hawks put seven goals on Mikka Kipprusoff on Thursday. No matter the reason, the Bulin Wall had fallen.
So a 25-year old with six career starts was asked to play between the Oilers’ pipes on Saturday night against the hottest team in the entire NHL. As you might expect, that didn’t go too well.
The Oilers came out of the gates hitting as hard and as often as they could, obviously trying to rattle the Blackhawks’ cage. It didn’t work. After Bryan Bickell landed on his head after hitting Dustin Penner, the scoring was on. The Hawks stormed out to a 3-1 lead after one and it didn’t get close for the Oilers from there.
Penner was the total of the Oilers’ offense, scoring both goals and really being their only effective player against the Hawks defense. On the other side, Jonathan Toews scored two goals and assisted on another as the Hawks again won with a balanced attack, strong defense and excellent work in the net.
Cristobal Huet stopped 25 of 27 shots, 11 of which came in a desperate flurry from Edmonton in the third period. The Hawks’ power play was again effective, scoring on one of their two chances, while the Hawks once again didn’t give up dumb penalties and killed the oppositions chances when they did; Penner’s goal to begin the third period was with a man advantage, but the Hawks only had to kill one other power play the entire game.
Patrick Kane has scored in every game he’s played as a 21-year old, putting in a gorgeous goal and also notching an assist on Saturday night. Kris Versteeg and John Madden also scored goals for the Hawks, while Brian Campbell had two assists in the game.
Saturday was the Hawks’ sixth straight win, and the team extended one of the best starts to a season of any team in Blackhawks history. The annual Circus Trip is sox games, and the Hawks had hoped to win four; they’re half way to their goal after just two games.
It seems like just yesterday that many Blackhawks fans, including yours truly, were calling for the Hawks to make a permanent change at the top of their goalie depth chart.
Cristobal Huet went through a terrible stretch in the middle of October, and many of the issues that lost him the starting goalie job to Nikolai Khabibulin became glaring holes teams were taking advantage of regularly. Huet did not play very well in the Hawks loss in Detroit, and then infamously was pulled early in the first period of the Calgary game in which the Hawks climbed out of a 5-0 first period deficit to win 6-5 in overtime.
When the Calgary game felt like the bottom for Huet, the Dallas game five days later was perhaps his low point as a professional. After Antti Niemi started winning the fans’ favor, and played well enough for wins the Calgary and Edmonton games, Huet allowed four goals, at least two of which were embarassing, to the Stars in a tough home loss.
The fans were booing, and the rumor mill was swirling with questions about the Hawks willingness to continue giving the $5 million Frenchman chances when he had disappointed out of the gates for a team that was supposed to contend for the conference championship.
Names like Jaroslav Halak, Carey Price and Jean-Sebastian Giguere floated around the Blackhawks all over the web, and it was generally at the expense of Huet.
Then, on October 21, the Blackhawks collectively came out flat. They took the banged up Vancouver Canucks for granted, lost a game, and lost both Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews to concussions.
It was on that night, after suffering a 3-2 loss, that something clicked for Huet.
Perhaps it was the lost leadership of Seabrook and Toews forcing Huet to step up his game, or maybe it was the reality that he was on such thin ice, but Huet became every bit the goalie the Hawks paid the king’s ransom last summer.
Since that Vancouver game, Huet has started seven of eight games and has stopped 166 of 177 shots (93.7%). He has allowed more than two goals in a game only once in that stretch, and has lowered his goals against average to 2.21 for the season.
Once a goalie nobody wanted to see in the United Center, Huet just a couple weeks later ranks sixth in goals against average in the entire NHL and can be held personally responsible for the Hawks staying in a couple games when the offense didn’t show up for 40 minutes.
The two home games to begin this week-long four-game homestand have been great tests of Huet and the defense in front of him, and both have responded with exceptional performances.
Monday, the Los Angeles Kings came to town among the top five scoring offenses in the league, averaging over 3.30 goals per game. They were also averaging nearly 30 shots on goal per night.
The Blackhawks and Huet dominated the Kings, though. Huet stopped 17 of only 18 shots he faced in the game, and the offense responded to Toews’ return from injury to blow out the first place Kings 4-1 at the United Center. Even though there weren’t a lot of shots, there were tough chances from the Kings and Anze Kopitar, the league’s leading scorer, that Huet shut down well.
Wednesday, the Colorado Avalanche played the Hawks for the third time already this year and all three have been tight contests. The first two saw 17 shooters from each team give their best in the shootout before the two games were settled, with the two teams splitting the games.
Whenever a competitor faces another athlete performing at a high level, it’s interesting to see how he steps up his
game. For Colorado, Craig Anderson has been among the best goalies in all of hockey this season and was nothing short of spectacular on Wednesday night. Anderson allowed only two goals in regulation and the overtime period despite facing 39 shots. Huet needed to answer.
And he did.
Huet faced 24 shots through only two periods, more shots than the league-leading Hawks allow on average for an entire game (22.6). But to Huet’s credit, despite a number of hot rushes at the Hawks net and a number of opportunities in traffic for a shot to understandably slip past him, he didn’t fold.
Only two slid past him in the first two periods, and he shut out the Avalanche in the third and overtime. He was also superb in the shootout for a third time against Colorado, allowing only one of the three shooters to score.
Huet is now being cheered, not jeered, at the United Center. He has been as good over the last couple weeks as he was bad in the early part of the season, and has gained the favor of his coaches and the Blackhawks fans back.
October’s in the books, and now November begins with even more questions than answers in the NHL’s Western Conference. So many injuries have hit the rosters that it’s beginning to raise concerns that some teams, like Vancouver, might not be able to withstand the losses of players and games early in the year.
Other teams, like Colorado and Los Angeles, have jumped out of the gates with a stronger showing than expected. Anze Kopitar leads the league in scoring, and Craig Anderson in Denver has been phenomenal (former Hawks prospect, too).
So let’s put it on paper. How do the teams in the West stack up after one month of the season, and how do they project moving forward.
15. Minnesota (5-9-0 10 pts)
The Wild thought adding injury plagued players like Martin Havlat would help them compete for a playoff spot this year, but the chance they took with those checkered pasts has come to haunt them. They’ve been outscored 42-31 through 14 games. Injuries and sloppy play have left Minnesota the lowest scoring team in the league.
14. Anaheim (4-6-2 10 pts)
The Ducks aren’t so mighty right now, and have fallen well behind the Kings in their annual competition to be southern California’s best insignificant team. Ryan Getzlaf has only scored one goal in 12 games, and the team’s third leading scorer is James Wisniewski. If not for Corey Perry and Getzlaf, the team’s 34-42 point differential would look a lot worse.
13. St. Louis (5-6-1 11 pts)
They definitely have the Blues in St. Louis right now, as they’ve only been able to muster a 2-5-0 record at home so far. Their offense has disappeared, climaxing with consecutive shutouts to end the month of October. Not a single Blues player has reached double digits in points yet, and Chris Mason is allowing 2.74 goals per game.
12. Nashville (6-6-1 13 points)
Until their last three games, the Predators weren’t living up to their name. They’ve been outscored 38-28, the worst differential in the Western Conference, and have had issues settling on a goalie. Their last three games, though, have been exceptional and they may have not only found a goalie, but their offense has come alive. Pekka Rinne appears to have established himself as the top goalie, benefiting from a 10-5 scoring differential in those three games (including a shutout of the Blackhawks).
11. Detroit Red Wings (5-4-3 13 pts)
They’ve struggled to stay healthy so far this year, already missing key components from last year’s conference championship team from free agency. With two of their top three centers out for between eight weeks and four months, the Wings are desperately seeking defense. They’ve come out of the gate averaging 3.50 goals per game, but are allowing nearly four. If there’s anything to the rumors that Detroit’s going to make a strong play to add Peter Forsberg, they could be a dangerous team.
10. Edmonton (7-7-1 15 pts)
The Oilers paid a lot of money for the 2008-09 Nikolai Khabibulin, but have seen the goalie that was regularly booed in Chicago the two previous seasons. The Bulin Wall has allowed 3.12 goals per game so far, and the offense has skated hard to keep pace. They’re very much an average team that will struggle to break into the top eight spots this spring for the playoffs without a trade.
9. Vancouver (8-7-0 16 pts)
What happens when you take Daniel Sedin, Sami Salo, Pavol Demitra and Roberto Luongo out of multiple games? That’s just to mention a few of the Canucks’ injury concerns to start this season, and they’re understandably struggling to stay above .500 through a tough early schedule. Sedin and Salo are both expected to miss most of November, so the ice will stay thin for the Canucks.
8. Dallas (6-3-5 17 pts)
If only they faced Cristobal Huet every night! Their inability to get it done in regulation has killed a team trying to get much-needed early wins without Mike Modano. They’re only converting 17.7 percent of their power play opportunities, perhaps the biggest impact of Modano’s absence. If they can get healthy and play defense (3.25 goals against per game), they could be a playoff team.
7. Columbus (7-5-1 15 pts)
The Jackets are in second place in the Central behind a strong start from Rick Nash, but are being outscored after a month of action (42-46). They’re going to need to step up their defense to allow their strong offense to shine. Obviously, getting Jan Hejda back off injured reserve should improve their defense, and that could happen as soon as Wednesday. They just lost Andrew Murray for four weeks, though. Like many teams, health is an ongoing issue.
6. Calgary (7-4-1 15 pts)
The Flames have the best converting power play in the conference (27.8 percent), but they’re allowing 3.5 goals per game. They’re an older, veteran squad that hasn’t received what they had hoped for from Mikka Kiprusoff in goal, but have been pleasantly surprised by former Blackhawks wing Rene Borque, who leads Calgary in scoring to date.
5. Phoenix (9-5-0 18 pts)
The Coyotes, unlike Edmonton, haven’t missed Wayne Gretzky for one second and have admirably played through their off-ice distractions to have a solid start. They’re third in the Pacific Division, and have held opponents to just over two goals per game. The NHL might have bought the best goalie in hockey in bankruptcy court, too, in Ilya Bryzgalov; he’s allowing only 1.78 goals per night and has sprinted out to an 8-3-0 record.
4. Los Angeles (9-4-2 20 pts)
Their offense, led by Kopitar, is as good as it gets in the league (51 goals through 15 games), but they’re not doing a lot of the little things right to jump into the top spot in the Pacific. The Kings are only killing 74.1 percent of power plays, and are only 5-3-2 in their last ten games. They’ll need to allow fewer than their current three goals per game to win their division, much less the conference.
3. Chicago (8-4-1 17 pts)
The Blackhawks are certainly talented enough to end the regular season in the top spot in the West, but haven’t jumped to that spot yet. Missing Jonathan Toews for two weeks hasn’t help a strikingly unproductive power play (17.3 percent), but their defense has been good around Cristobal Huet’s roller coaster season. Once they get Toews, Eager and Hossa back, watch out.
2. Colorado (10-3-2 22 pts)
The Avalanche have followed Anderson’s lead between the pipes and sprinted to an early lead in the Northwest, and could expand their six-point lead on a banged up Vancouver team. The perfect storm might have landed in Denver to begin this season, as the Avalanche are playing well while the rest of their division gets hurt and plays poorly. They could run away with their division before the Olympics.
1. San Jose (10-4-1 21 pts)
They took the huge gamble this summer in adding Dany Heatley to their roster, and it’s payed off on paper so far. They’ve scored almost a full goal per game more than their opponents, have the second ranked power play in the conference (25 percent) and third-best power play killing unit in the conference (85 percent). Chemistry will be a theme to watch as this season progresses, though… Heatley has never been known for making friends.
The Chicago Blackhawks opened their home calendar with three tough contests on paper. The Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are all among the top teams in there Western Conference, and the Blackhawks got each team’s best shot.
Even when the Hawks weren’t their best, though, they were good enough to beat all three teams.
On Wednesday, two days after giving up five quick goals in the first period against Calgary, the Hawks got on the board only 51 seconds into the contest. Patrick Sharp, who’s been as hot as any skater in the league, beat Nikolai Khabibulin to get the Hawks started.
But the Oilers countered minutes later, tying the game at one. With just under seven minutes left in the opening frame, though, Jack Skille broke the tie with his first goal of the season. The period would end with the Blackhawks up 2-1.
The Hawks were noticeably more aggressive on the boards and shooting the puck in the first period, and their defense stiffled the Oilers. The Hawks outshot the Oilers 16-6 in the first period, and it showed on the scoreboard.
The rush from the Hawks continued in the second period. Kris Versteeg scored on a great assist from Brian Campbell to extend the lead to 3-1, and the Blackhawks had a great chance to add another when Sharp was awarded a penalty shot after being tripped on a breakaway by Jason Studwick. Khabibulin stopped Sharp to keep the score at 3-1 as the second period ended.
At the end of two periods, the Hawks were dominating the Oilers in every part of the game. They had outshot the visitors 30-10, were leading by two, and had drawn the only penalty of the game to that point. Khabibulin was playing a fantastic game, but wasn’t getting much help.
The third period started slowly but climbed to a frantic climax as the Oilers clawed back into the game with a push that ended up being too little, too late. Cam Barker scored the game winning goal with a blast from the blue line that beat Khabibulin, who was fighting around a Sharp screen when the puck passed his shoulder.
In the game, Niemi stopped 16 of 19 shots and improved his record on the young season to 3-0-0. Khabibulin was marvelous, stopping 34 of 38 shots in the loss.
Scoring goals for the Blackhawks were Sharp, Versteeg, Skille and Barker. Jonathan Toews and Campbell each had two assists, and Andrew Ladd, Sharp, Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson all had one assist in the victory.
Antti Niemi, and not Cristobal Huet, will be in goal against Edmonton on Wednesday.
Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville told the media Wednesday that Antti Niemi will start in goal against Edmonton. The news isn’t a total surprise, but does come with some questions and consequences.
Cristobal Huet has struggled to begin the season, making Niemi the newest popular-for-little-reason athlete in Chicago. This title has historically been reserved for the backup quarterback on the Bears, but it appears Niemi has now become the winner of “the unknown is better than what we’re watching” contest.
It doesn’t help Huet’s cause when Niemi’s first start of the season was a 4-0 shut out of the Florida Panthers in Helsinki, and he was solid protecting the nylon for the final 45 minutes of Monday’s now-legendary comeback win against Calgary.
Fans have quickly forgotten how easily the Flames scored two goals against Niemi to extend their lead to five on Monday night. The boo birds reserved their vocal chords’ strength for Huet.
The biggest potential consequence from Niemi starting on Wednesday is that Huet has an allegedly fragile psyche. There were whispers last year that his confidence was shallow because he didn’t keep the number one goalie job away from Nikolai Khabibulin, and now he’s again struggling to keep the role of top goalie for the Hawks.
The next question is regarding the confidence of the players and coaches in the locker room. While Huet certainly didn’t face many shots before he had allowed three goals on Monday, he’s stopping only 83 percent of the shots he’s faced so far.
Having attended the game on Monday personally, I can attest to the difference in defensive intensity shown by the Blackhawks in front of the goalie from Huet’s time to Niemi’s. The Flames only got 10 shots on goal between the second and third periods combined, and not many of those were quality looks.
I’m certainly not calling into question the effort from the players surrounding the goalie. But reality is that the defense was more physical and gave up fewer opportunities while Niemi was in goal. Was the change in goal the wake-up call the team needed?
Finally, which of these items played a role in Quenneville’s decision to play Niemi on Wednesday? He mentioned in his remarks to the media that, because of the schedule and Niemi’s performance against Florida, he was going to start one of the games this week no matter what happened on Saturday or Monday.
But this is the game on the calendar that must have been circled for Huet to prove himself as the viable replacement for Khabibulin; the Bulin Wall will be watching from the other side of the ice. Head to head is the perfect opportunity for Huet to quiet his critics, but Quenneville isn’t going to give him the chance.
It will be Niemi in goal tonight. We’ll see how this plays out moving forward on Madison Street.
The Bulin Wall returns to Chicago on Wednesday.
On Wednesday night, the Edmonton Oilers will skate at the United Center before a Chicago crowd that’s seen two incredible games to start the Blackhawks home schedule.
Saturday, the Blackhawks beat the first place Colorado Avalanche in the longest shootout in franchise history. Then Monday, the Hawks tied the NHL all-time record for largest deficit ever overcome in beating the Calgary Flames. The emotion and excitement at the United Center is as high as it’s been in the regular season in years.
Now place those two dramatic victories into the context of the situation in goal for the Hawks. Many fans weren’t thrilled with Cristobal Huet and his $5.6 million salary last year, when he failed to win the number one goalie job in preseason. As this season begins, he’s been consistently vulnerable and was pulled early in the first period on Monday.
Indeed, the reaction from the capacity crowds at the Hawks’ first two home games have been telling. To say it was “mixed” might be generous, especially after Saturday took nine shots to win a shootout. He wasn’t very good in Helsinki, wasn’t good enough in Detroit and wasn’t good at all against Calgary.
Enter Wednesday night’s opponent. The Oilers are having a nice season, and are among the leaders in the Western Conference.
Oh, and their goalie just happens to be Nikolai Khabibulin.
The Bulin Wall will return to the United Center at perhaps the worst time possible for the Blackhawks’ front office and Huet’s ego. Whether or not Huet will even be in the net against Khabibulin is still undetermined, with Antti Niemi becoming a cult hero among Hawks fans, largely for no reason other than he isn’t Huet.
The numbers for both Huet and Khabibulin are average at best, but in the 20,000-vote popularity contest that will take place during player introductions on Wednesday, the odds are strongly in Khabibulin’s favor.
Khabibulin is 2-1-1 with a .890 save percentage and a 3.14 goals against average so far to start the 2009-10 season. Huet, meanwhile, is 1-1-1 with a .831 save percentage and a 3.69 goals against average. Neither of these stat lines is exceptional, but Huet didn’t carry the Hawks to the Western Conference Finals last year.
There will likely be a hero’s welcome for Khabibulin on Wednesday night, and he deserves one because of his time as a Blackhawk. It’s now up to Huet to earn his salary, or lose the starting job for a second consecutive season.
On Saturday in Helsinki, Finland the Chicago Blackhawks won a big game against the Florida Panthers 4-0, and now head home three points ahead of winless Detroit.
What made the outcome on Saturday interesting was that rookie goalie Antti Niemi stopped all 23 shots he faced just one day after Cristobal Huet blew three separate leads against the same Panthers team. Indeed, the Blackhawks offense showed that it can score when they want to (seven goals in two games), but the wild card this season will be competent play in net for Chicago.
Huet struggled in the season opener; Niemi was solid the next day. Chicago doesn’t have a quarterback controversy any more, but could a debate begin surrounding these two goalies?
Last year, the Hawks gave Huet a bigger contract than he probably deserved to bolster their defense. Once Huet was signed, the team tried to sell Nikolai Khabibulin to anyone that would take him, and ended up stuck with him. Khabibulin won the starting job and was outstanding all season, carrying the youngest team in the league to the Western Conference Finals.
Huet was far from exceptional in the preseason, and Niemi won a stiffly contested open tryout with Corey Crawford for the backup job.
Granted, it has only been two games, but the knock on Huet during his career is that he drops too quickly and has a vulnerable top shelf. Every goal the Panthers scored on Friday were high shots.
If the season progresses and Huet continues to struggle, there might be discussion of Niemi getting more chances to be the Number One goalie.
