Raanta's Road Struggles Continue in Shutout Loss to San Jose

photo from suntimes.com

We've seen this game three times already this season. The Blackhawks give up an early goal, and spend the next fifty five minutes trying to tie it up, to no avail.

Shaw, Kane lead Blackhawks past Struggling Coyotes

photo from foxsports.com

It's been a while since the Blackhawks had such an offensively dominant game. The last occasion would probably be the first meeting with Edmonton, a 7-1 rout that left the Oilers scrambling. This was more of the same, with six different Blackhawks registering at least two points in their first meeting this season against the Coyotes.

With Heavy Hearts, Blackhawks Win It For Clint

photo from usatoday.com

Early yesterday morning, the Blackhawks lost one of their own. Assistant equipment manager Clint Reif passed away unexpectedly, and the Blackhawks dedicated their 4-0 shutout against the Maple Leafs to him.

Hawks Take the Season Series with a Win Against Struggling Flames

photo from dawindycity.com

The Blackhawks rebounded well from Saturday night's loss to the Islanders to retake first place in the Central Division, handing the Flames their fifth straight loss to win the season series 2-1, and take five of a possible six points.

Three Third Period Goals Put The Blues Away

photo from bleacherreport.com

The Blackhawks were riding a three game win streak going into this game, and were fresh off a successful six game, five win road trip. They were also without Corey Crawford, one of their best players so far this season, for the first of at least seven games, and were just coming out of a hardfought weekend against Anaheim and LA. The game could honestly have gone either way.

Raanta Reassigned to Rockford

photo from calgaryherald.com

Late last night, Stan Bowman reassigned back up goaltender Antti Raanta to the Rockford Icehogs, and recalled Scott Darling.

Last season, Raanta played parts of twenty five games for the Blackhawks and had a record of 13-5-4. He started fifteen straight games when Corey Crawford was injured last season, and won eleven of them (including his first career NHL shutout). When Raanta gets a chance to play, he's excellent.

However, when Crawford was healthy, Raanta started just seven games that season, and only won two of them. It's understandable, when you have a young, inexperienced back up like Raanta (last season was his first North American season, not just his first NHL season). What he needs is to be playing games, not sitting on the bench, if you want him to develop.

This season is Scott Darling's first NHL season, and it's starting out well. Called up when Crawford suffered an upper body injury early in the season, he started three straight games, and won two of them. He impressed everyone in training camp, and has played outstandingly so far this season in Rockford (a record of 5-1-0, with a .939 save percentage and 1.79 GAA).

This move makes a lot of sense. Chicago wants Raanta on the ice, and they're not going to be able to do that with Crawford healthy and playing as well as he is. Darling also has a slightly better record this season than Raanta, and that might make Quenneville happier to play him. Raanta hasn't played since October 25th, against the Blues. Crawford has started every game since returning from his injury (seven straight starts, including both games in a back to back). That can't continue for the entire season. Chicago needs to have a backup goalie they can trust to win games, but they also need to think about the development of their younger goalies. Having Raanta in Rockford starting the bulk of the games down there can only be a good thing in terms of his development.

Other News

• Yesterday the Blackhawks reassigned Peter Regin to Rockford, and then called up Joakim Nordstrom. Regin had one point in four games so far this season. Last season, Nordstrom had three points in sixteen regular season games for Chicago. This season with Rockford he has eight points in thirteen games.
• Daniel Carcillo looks set to make his return to the roster for tonight's game against Dallas. He has missed ten games with a lower body injury suffered in the October 25th loss to St. Louis.

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.

Crawford Injury Not the End of the World

photo from sports-kings.com

Twitter announced today that Chicago goalie Corey Crawford is out with a day-to-day upper body injury, confirmed by Coach Joel Quennville after teammate Patrick Sharp said he was just 'sick'.

A year ago, this would have been a problem.