'Hawks Win Eight Straight, Lose Toews

photo from zimbio.com

The Blackhawks were in an excellent position to win this game, and win it easily. With two minutes left in the second period, the Blackhawks were up 3-0 and were looking like the stronger team everywhere on the ice. But halfway through the second period, Jonathan Toews was hit head first into the boards, and was incredibly slow to get up. He stayed in the game to complete the power play from the boarding call, but left for the locker room shortly after, and didn't return to the game. He's had concussion problems at least three times in his career.


The Blackhawks deteriorated a little bit after the hit, allowing a goal late in the second and another in the third period. They were outshot 10-2 in the third period, and looked like they were playing a twenty minute long penalty kill. Luckily, Scott Darling was strong behind the team, and faced off thirty two of thirty four Boston shots, including two or three unbelievable sprawling saves from Patrice Bergeron shots. Equally, on the other side of the ice, although he only faced twenty one shots, Tuukka Rask also made a couple of outstanding saves, including a Marian Hossa breakaway.

This is the fourth game in five that the Blackhawks have been outshot, all since losing Corey Crawford, although Antti Raanta and Darling have been great so far, allowing only nine goals in those five games (they've collectively faced 174 shots). This was Scott Darling's third consecutive start since the Crawford injury at the start of December, he has a record of 5-1-0 so far, and it looks like he's in danger of taking the backup job away from Antti Raanta, who's played well this season, but has somehow found himself on the wrong side of Quenneville. It's an odd mirror of last season, where the Blackhawks seemed to allow less shots when playing in front of Raanta. Either way, the Blackhawks don't have to worry about goaltending, especially with Corey Crawford already skating again, and possibly back as early as next week.

Ben Smith had his first career multi point game last night, setting up Klas Dalbeck's first NHL goal, and then scoring his own from a Daniel Carcillo rebound later that period. That fourth line combined for five points last night (adding two assists for Marcus Kruger), and the PB&K line came up with another game winning goal after failing to score in three straight games previously (the longest stretch since they were put together earlier in the season). This is Patrick Kane's fourth game winner this season, good for first in the league. He leads the Blackhawks in goals and points, and his linemate, Kris Versteeg became first in assists after getting the primary helper on the GWG.

My Three Stars of the Games

3. Scott Darling. He regularly got left on his own in this game, with defencemen like Duncan Keith jumping up and joining the rush too soon,  but he played well, and collected his fourth straight win of the season, giving him a save percentage of .939 and a 1.80 GAA. When Crawford returns, Quenneville is going to have a tough decision to make re: backup goaltending.

2. Klas Dahlbeck. Dahlbeck is the second Blackhawks defenceman to score his first NHL goal this season, and this one came from an excellent pass from Ben Smith. Dahlbeck followed it up with a second attempt less than a minute later. He's making an excellent case to be the replacement for rookie Trevor van Riemsdyk, who will miss the next two to three months recovering from knee surgery.

1. Ben Smith. Smith had possibly his best game of the season, after collecting two points, he spent the rest of the game as first line center. If Toews ends up missing any time, we could see Smith up on that spot, possibly for the whole game, and he'd likely adjust well. 

Next game: December 13th, vs. Islanders