The Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 last night. It was Martin Havlat’s regular season return to the United Center and was held silent by his old club. The ‘Hawks were able to put this win over the Wild together due to solid goaltending from Cristobal Huet, a couple key rebounds in front of the net and a highlight goal from Patrick Kane in the third period.
With Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews missing the last two games with their respective head injuries, the Blackhawks have been able to come away with two victories and four points. Last night was just another win over a weaker Western Conference team. The current stretch of the schedule seems to make the Blackhawks’ problems appear to be not so bad.
If the ‘Hawks were playing tougher opponents, however, would the out come of the last two games differ? Would Seabrook and Toews stepped up and played through their concussion-like symptoms? Would Huet have been good enough to come away with just one goal scored on him in 120 minutes? The great thing is that we don’t have to worry about any of that. Despite all the team’s issues, the Blackhawks are first in the Central Division with fifteen points and a record of 7-3-1.
The biggest beneficiary of the Blackhawks current winning streak has to be The Man from France – as Eddie O tends to call him. Huet has seen his goals-against-average drop to a very respectable 2.49 on the year. It’s always nice to see better numbers, but at this point of the season the forward momentum he gets from winning is more important.
The Blackhawks don’t play another game until Thursday in Nashville with another on Friday at home hosting Les Canadiens. Coach Quenneville should start different goalies in back-to-back games. So what game does Huet get? I’m going to stick by my guns and say that he starts in Nashville, and that Antti Niemi will get the nod vs. Montreal.
There is still no timetable as to when Seabrook and Toews (and Ben Eager) will return, or if one is closer than the other. Forcing them to return to the ice before the concussion-like symptoms have regressed could be detrimental to career of each player. Seeing that Seabrook and Toews are the present and future of the franchise, the right decision will be made here.
In other news, the Blackhawks reassigned Jake Dowell to Rockford. Once again, Dowell could return to the NHL team before Thursday’s game if Toews is still recovering from concussion-like symptoms.
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