Return to Form for Blackhawks

from blackhawkup.com

Antti Raanta started his season strong last night, with a 4-0 shutout against an admittedly struggling Philadelphia team. His performance seemed to light somewhat of a fire underneath the rest of the Blackhawks, who have been struggling as of late with the offensive side of the game, being held to one goal in regular in three of their four games prior to this one.


Last night, every single Blackhawk got a shot on goal except for defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson, who only had 45% of his starts in the offensive zone, compared to Michal Rozsival, who had 80% of his. Hjalmarsson is very much a defensive defenceman, and this especially showed in his game last night. Last season he and his defensive partner Johnny Oduya regularly faced the toughest opponents (giving Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook more time to jump up on the play and join the rushes), and I feel like the same will be the case for this season. Hjalmarsson and Oduya are developing into a legitimate threat to the other teams' strongest offence,

The overall defence of this game was much stronger than it's been, limiting the Flyers to thirty two shots (they recorded thirty seven against Dallas, and forty two against Anaheim in their last two games, the only team to hold them to less was Boston, limiting them to twenty shots), however, the offence really had a chance to shine in this game, scoring four goals on forty three shots, and giving two point nights to four players (Patrick Kane, Bryan Bickell, Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp). Patrick Kane recorded his 20th career multigoal night, and ignited a lukewarm powerplay, scoring both of his goals on rebounds from the point.

Line switch ups were inevitable, because this is the Chicago Blackhawks, and this is Joel Quennville. Initially, taking Saad away from Kane (possibly the best winger combination on the whole team) seemed foolish. Why not move Andrew Shaw back down to the third line and reunite the Saad-Richards-Kane line that was so promising in the preseason? Putting Kris Versteeg in Saad's old left wing spot made for an admittedly fast, but very small line (none of the three players are over six foot or 180lbs) that created a lot of good scoring chances, but the real success of the game was pairing up Saad and Bickell, who combined for two goals, four points and a monstrous eight hits over the course of sixty minutes. Brandon Saad is slowly turning into a player that can create success with anyone, whether he plays left wing, right wing, or even center. He might be one of the most versatile players the Blackhawks have.

Overall, this looks like business as usual for the Blackhawks, despite losing their starting goalie short notice, they pulled out a dominating win, and hopefully they can take this momentum on the road with them to Nashville.

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Brandon Saad. Saad consistently turns up to every minute of every game, and he's starting to be rewarded for that. The Saad-Shaw-Kane line I imagine won't be separated for too long, and I think the best possible thing that he can do now is have consistent linemates. If he plays like this being juggled between the second and third line, imagine what he'd be able to do with a little bit of stability in the people around him.

2. Patrick Kane. Kane is two points away from 500, and last night he seemed determined to get them. Playing with Versteeg again seemed to help, because Versteeg is one of those unselfish players that would rather create plays than score goals (evidenced by his attempt to give Kane the hat-trick last night), but the fact of the matter is that Patrick Kane comes to every game playing like he's going to score, and if you have that attitude, chances are, something is going to find the back of the net.

1. Antti Raanta. Like it was ever going to be anyone else. Raanta recorded thirty two saves in his season debut, his first regular season game since April (he played a game and a half in the preseason, and not at all in the postseason), and he slid back into the crease like his last game was yesterday. If Corey Crawford is out for any significant period of time, I'm confident that Raanta can step up like he did last year, and keep racking up wins for the team.

Next game: Thursday, October 23rd, vs. Predators