Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford is pissed off. Someone else is leading his team to victory.
Crawford wants his net back in the worst way.
Rookie Scott Darling has a stranglehold on it and doesn't want to give it away.
Crawford is saying all the right things. Still, his competitive fire is a five-alarm blaze in his belly.
“.. a little pissed off at first,… he told Chicago Sun-Times . “It’s only natural. I think that’s a good thing. It shows I want to play. We’re up in the series, so life’s good.…
Darling will be making his fourth straight start tonight when the Blackhawks host to the Nashville Predators in Game 6 at the Madhouse On Madison. Crawford will be rocking his ball cap and watching Game 6 from the bench while the kid starts the game.
Why is rookie journeyman Darling playing in place of the Stanley Cup champ?
Crawford allowed three goals on just 12 shots and was given the hook Game 1.
Darling made 42 saves in the double-OT victory. Crawford then started Game 2 and made 29 saves in a 6-2 loss.
The 30-year-old is 0-1 with an .809 save percentage and 6.75 GAA.
Blackhawks bench boss is riding the hot hand.
“Crow’s a good guy, a good teammate, a good pro,… said Coach Q. “I’m sure he wants to play in the worst way.…
Has Quennville lost all faith in Crawford? Before the playoffs began, Darling had only ever started 16 games in the NHL. If he keeps winning, Crawford won't see his net again for a while.
Darling is 3-1 in the series to go along with his sizzling .950 save percentage and 1.73 GAA.
Crow will have to keep the next warm while Darling is busy busting the Predators.
The Hawks will punch their ticket to the next round of the playoffs by beating the Preds tonight.
Crawford is a $6.5 million cap hit for the next four seasons while Darling is a $570,000 cap hit the next two seasons.
Imagine if the Hawks win the Cup with Darling in their nets. Crawford would be a cap casualty, right? Why pay a goalie $6.5M when you can pay one less than $1M? Kind of like the running backs position in the NFL.
Why overpay for a position of need when there are exceptional talents available for a fraction of the cost?
***
Where are the Pittsburgh Penguins as an organization right now?
They are broken don on the shoulder of the road. They are going nowhere. Fast.
The NY Rangers laid waste to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pens on Friday night. Another heart-breaking one goal OT loss. Another quiet game for teh Pens offense which has been tied up, taken away and held for ransom.
Another first round exit for numbers 87 and 71.
They wanted more than this. They expected more than this. They were promised more than this by former GM Ray Shero and then again by new GM Jim Rutherford.
The Pens have been an old, slow, predictable, ordinary team that just so happens to be scraping the NHL salary cap. Simply put, the Pens don’t scare opponents anymore. They haven’t for a few seasons in a row now.
How can the team with arguably the best two center ice men be as bad as they are right now?
Numbers 87 and 71 used to strike fear into the hearts and minds of opponents. Not anymore because opposing coaches can shift their defensive coverage and isolate Crosby and Malkin. In other words, the rest of the Pittsburgh forwards and defense are not picking up the playmaking and scoring slack when Sid and Geno are being blanketed and rendered obsolete for large chunks of clock time inside games. Sorry folks. If I’m the NY Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers or another hated rival of the Pens, I’m not afraid of Brandon Sutter, Patric Hornqvist, David Perron, Steve Downie, Blake Comeau and Nick Spaling.
If I were Crosby and Malkin, I would want immediate answers from Mario Lemieux as to what is going to be done this summer to correct the course of the once proud Penguins. They deserve to know the answers because they are the faces of the franchise. They were sold a bill of goods last summer when Dan Bylsma and Ray Shero were blown out of the organization. The owner and GM have every right to tell 87 and 71 that the problem with the Penguins for the past couple of seasons is their ginormous-sized salary cap hits. Crosby is a $12 million annual cap hit, while Malkin accounts for $9.5 million. The Pens have $21.5 million in salary cap space tied up in just two players. No wonder Rutherford can’t add talent to his roster to augment and support Sid and Geno. Add in Kris Letang’s $7.25 million cap hit, Paul Martin (pending UFA) $6 million, Christian Ehrhoff (pending UFA) $4 million, and Marc Andre Fleury’s $5.75 million cap hit, that’s $4.5 million in salary cap space being committed to just six players.
You can see why the Pens are the NHL’s hottest mess of 2014-15. “Top heavy… doesn’t even to begin to describe the financial madness with the Pittsburgh lineup.
There just isn’t enough fluff or disposable funds left in the budget when all is said and done. If/when the cap dips to $68 million for the 2015-16 season, the Penguins are going to be in even deeper trouble.
Penguins owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux will have a lot of sleepless nights in the coming days. The post mortem on this season, which is really just an extension of last season, will not be pretty. They made a huge mistake by canning Shero and replacing him with a veteran GM was not up for the challenge of building a winning roster around Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury. It seems to me that the only logical and fiscally responsible thing for Lemieux to do is trade Geno Malkin at the NHL draft. It would be a very unpopular decision considering he is 27 years old and in the prime years of his NHL career. He was a massive disappointment to his team in the playoffs. The Rangers held him scoreless in five straight games. Malkin took just 11 shots and was -1. Where did his game disappear to? To the best of my knowledge, the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner wasn’t injured. The fans of the Penguins should put out an all-points bulletin to find their missing superstar. Malkin had a decent season where he scored 28 goals and compiled 70 points in 69 games played. Could he have played better? Scored more goals? Took a bigger leadership role? I bet he could have. My guess is that Malkin harbored ill feelings towards his general manager for trading away his former set-up man James Neal to Nashville before the start of the 2014-15 season. Malkin and Neal played great together the past few seasons. In October, Malkin expressed his displeasure with the departure of his left winger Neal.
When asked by the Pittsburgh Gazette about the Neal trade in early October, Malkin said:
“I was surprised my buddy Nealer was traded.…
“They did not talk to me (about the trade),… Malkin said. “I read about it in the paper. Nealer texted me the whole summer that he didn’t know what was going on or why he was traded. But it’s a new GM. It’s his job. He never asked me.…
Malkin won the NHL’s Hart Trophy on 2011-12 with Neal as his wing man. He scored 50 goals and 109 points in 75 games that season.
Oops. Rutherford made a huge boo-boo. He must not have read chapter one in the NHL GM “How-To… book, which reads:
“Don’t Shake Your Money Makers…
In Rutherford’s defense, he is in no way required to discuss player trades with his stars performers. However, Rutherford should have had a heart to heart with Malkin. That’s fundamental respect for a guy who helped deliver the Cup to The Burgh in 2009. Malkin wasn’t pleased with the trade of Neal but still soldiered on and played well despite his disappointment. So where did he disappear to in the first round playoff series against the Rangers? He can’t blame Rutherford for his poor performance..
Crosby and Malkin have a lot of thinking to do themselves. The dynamic duo took hometown haircuts to stay in Pittsburgh. They signed up for long term success at a rate of pay that was supposed to be friendly to the ownership of the Penguins. How did that work out? Why did this season veer off the road and plow through the guard rail?
Injuries to Olli Maatta, Kris Letang, and Christian Ehrhoff didn’t help the Penguins. Nor did Rutherfoird lhoosing to open the door to allow Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen to skate to greener pastures in Washington as UFAs last July. The Capitals are still in the playoffs and the Pens are not. Orpik and Niskanen get the last laugh on Rutherford.
Rutherford’s team was 24-9 in December when he boldy traded his 2014 first round pick and Rob Klinkhammer to the lowly Edmonton Oilers for two way winger David Perron. How did that trade work out? The Pens barely made the playoffs and gave up a valuable, essential building block that they desperately need to re-build their team. Oh, by the way. The Oilers will not only get a star player with Pittsburgh’s 2015 first round pick, they also will get Connor McDavid with the first overall pick.
Rutherford wants a do-over on that trade, eh?
The Penguins are prisoners in salary cap jail because they have an upper class and a lower class look to their roster. No middle class.
The Haves outnumber the Have Nots.
Croscy and Malkin will likely put on their brave game faces at locker clean out day. They will talk about their pride in their team and the disappointment of their first round exit. They will commit to getting bigger, faster, and stronger in the offseason. They will say the right things to the scribes and TV cameras who want to know what went wrong.
Sid might sing the company song. I’m not so sure about Malkin. I get the impression that Malkin wants to move on and try another challenge in another NHL town. He still has a ton of hockey left in him and he wants to win more Stanley Cups. Perhaps he doesn’t want to wait for Lemieux and Burkle to re-build the once-dominant Penguins on the fly. He will meet face to face with Rutherford and Lemieux his season ending exit interview.
Will Malkin ask for a trade? Will the Pens beat him to the punch tell him they are moving the team in a new direction? Will Rutherford be the Pens GM come Monday morning? Will Mike Johnston have his head coaching job by this time next week> Will Lemieux blow out his coach and GM for the second time in a year and hire Pierre McGuire (interviewed for Pens GM job last summer) and Mike Babcock to help turn this thing around?
So many questions. Not enough answers.