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| photo from usatoday.com |
Antti Raanta was outstanding last night, playing a great game, and making some point blank saves at several points in the game. He's now 6-2-0 on the season, with two shutouts, a save percentage of .945%, and a GAA of 1.76. James Reimer was also good, making a ton of important stops when he needed to, and being hung out to dry by both his non existent defencemen and the struggling offence, allowing four goals on thirty four shots, and getting nothing in return. The Blackhawks never sat back on their lead, hungry for more goals, and if not for Reimer's performance, the game could easily have been 6-0 or 7-0.
Patrick Kane had his fourth three point night of the season, giving him thirty six points on the season. He's currently on pace for eighty six, just two short of his career high, set in 2009-10. With Brad Richards out of the line up, Patrick Sharp was returned to left wing, and with them being centred by Kris Versteeg, that line put up two goals and five assists between them. Kane is currently on a six game point streak, with ten points in those games. Sharp's success in this game also suggests that perhaps as well as he's playing down on the third line right wing, he's a natural left wing, and plays much better there, as a right handed shot who loves to shoot (since his return from injury, seven games ago, he has thirty two shots on goal, including two games where he had seven shots each time). He has eighty eight shots in twenty games this season, and doesn't look like he plans to slow down, even after the injury that kept him out for fourteen games.
Defence was excellent for the first two periods, keeping the Maple Leafs to only sixteen shots, and David Rundblad scored his first goal as a Blackhawk, and his second career goal ever to open the scoring for Chicago. Brent Seabrook picked up two assists to land in first place for points on the blue line, and Duncan Keith added his thirteenth assist of the season for second place. The Maple Leafs picked it up in the third period though, and Chicago allowed fifteen shots in the third period alone, almost doubling their shot count, but Raanta stood tall and turned away every single one of them.
The penalty kill continues to be excellent, edging closer and close to 92%, and the power play got a look in last night too, Kane scoring the twenty third Chicago power play goal of the season, bringing their success rate up to 18%, good for sixteenth in the league. It's nowhere near good enough that a power play unit containing Kane, Toews, Keith, Sharp and Seabrook should be, but it's slowly improving.
My Three Stars of the Game
3. Antti Raanta. Raanta now has a shutout in 25% of his starts this season, and his 6-2-0 record is excellent. He's allowed only fourteen goals in those eight games, and although with Crawford finally healthy, he'll be getting far fewer starts, hopefully he can continue this performance and put up similar or better numbers to last season.
2. Patrick Sharp. Sharp's barely missed a step since missing fourteen games over November, and seems to be playing well no matter where you put him. Having a thirty four goal scorer on your third line seems absurd though, and I wouldn't be surprised if this level of play causes Quenneville to shift the lines around a little bit in the next few games.
1. Patrick Kane. There's just no stopping Kane this season it seems. Of the eleven losses they've had this season, Kane has been held pointless in six of them. To say that Kane isn't vital to this teams offence is laughable at best, stupid at worst, and games like last night show us that when the game matters, and they need to pull out a win, he can turn on the offence and haul this team to two points whenever possible.
Next game: December 23rd, vs. Jets
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