Chicago Blackhawks October Review: Goaltenders
By Sean Sarcu
@seansarcu
Getty Images
The Chicago Blackhawks‘ goaltending has been pretty strong so far in 2014-15. Corey Crawford, Antti Raanta and Scott Darling‘s collective save percentage at 5-on-5 this season is 94.2%, a figure that ranks eight in the NHL.
An injury has limited Crawford to just four games, but he has been brilliant between the pipes when called upon. He won the Blackhawks’ season opener against the Dallas Stars nearly on his own, being the only player on the roster to show up for the first forty minutes of regulation. He hasn’t surrendered more than two goals in any of the four games he has started this season.
Raanta started off nicely with a shutout against a listless Philadelphia Flyers team, but looked shaky at times in consecutive losses to the Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues. His rebound control is undeniably dreadful, and is something he’ll need to work on intensively if he hopes to stick at the NHL level in the long term. It’s not all bad, of course; Raanta is easily the most athletic goaltender Chicago has, and he has the physical tools to make a number of saves that Crawford and Darling simply can’t.
Darling, who was sent down to the Rockford IceHogs on Friday in light of Crawford’s impending return, looked solid while minding the net for three straight games to end the month. He’s surprisingly limber for his size and covers a ton of the net. Darling still has some clear weaknesses — his five-hole is nearly as big as he is — but there’s some definite promise here.
Sean Sarcu is a Chicago Blackhawks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter or add him to your network on Google.
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