No excuses here for the Blackhawks after yet another late collapse last night, blowing a 2-goal lead to lose in overtime to Phoenix, 5-4.
The Hawks did come away with a tough road point, ironically enough moving into first place in the Western Conference. More on Chicago in a second.
Here's a newsflash: the Phoenix Coyotes are good, folks.
Now, let's face it, they're on an 8-game winning streak and they'll come back to earth. And I don't know if they're "go deep into the playoffs" good.
But they're good. They have a good goalie, a slew of good, young forwards and a couple of pretty good graybeard defensemen in Derek Morris and a rejuvenated Adrian Aucoin. And they play the game with spirit and hustle under Dave Tippett. In fact, they remind me a little bit of the Hawks when they're on top of their game.
Which, of course, they aren't right now.
Antti Niemi is starting to remind me a lot of, well, Cristobal Huet—with highlight reel saves and confoundingly soft goals in the course of the same game. Overall, Niemi was pretty good last night and had virtually no chance on a couple of Phoenix goals. But he was down on his pads a lot and giving up too many rebounds, the most egregious being the one that led to Adrian Aucoin's tying goal in the third period. And that was a shot Niemi could have saved as well.
I'll reiterate here what I've said in the past on this subject. Either of the Hawk goalies can be more than good enough to carry you for a while. And either of them can break your heart.
In the end, Cristobal Huet is a more proven commodity than Antti Niemi is. And, in the end, that might make Huet the guy in the playoffs. And I would look for him to be in net the next time the Hawks hit the ice.
But, no, you can't put all the blame on the goalie. For what it's worth, I did not see huge coverage lapses by the Hawk defensemen last night.
Brent Sopel's limited mobility is what it is. But I did see a lot of late-coming Phoenix forwards and d-men not being picked up by Hawk forwards.
Ben Eager's lame attempt to engage Shane Doan in a fight after a Phoenix goal was only surpassed by how completely out of the play he was on the goal itself. If I were Joel Quenneville, I'd have Bryan Bickell skating in that spot and Eager in the press box when the team returns to the U.C.
In fact, perhaps a greater problem facing the Hawks than their injuries on defense is the play of their fourth line. Quenneville has 10 games to find the right combination among Adam Burish, Eager, Colin Fraser, Tomas Kopecky and perhaps Bickell.
Positives? The offense is definitely there.
I liked the way the Byfuglien-Hjalmarsson pairing played again last night. Were it not for Hjalmarsson effectively tying up Vern Fiddler's stick, he would have had an easy tap in to win the game, costing the Hawks a point, on the goal that was disallowed for kicking.
Though he wasn't playing like it lately, Brent Seabrook's return should help solidify the defense. If I were Quenneville, with Byfuglien and Nick Boynton to work in now, I'd sit Brent Sopel for a few games to give him some badly needed rest.
Thanks for reading,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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