Defense? Anyone? Defense? – Your Weekly Blackhawks Recap

By Kevin Schroeder
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: April 6, 2016

(Week of 3/27 – 4/2)

Hawks – Canucks Recap

Hawks – Wild Recap

Hawks – Jets Recap

The Blackhawks went 2-1 on the week all on the road, defeating the Canucks in regulation and the Jets in overtime, and losing to the Wild.

Notes

Forwards: The Shake An Bake line woke up against the Jets, which is certainly a welcome sight. Andrew Shaw got dinged up in Minnesota and is day-to-day. Ladd and Fleischmann continued to look like good acquisitions and Weise is beginning to fit in.

Defensemen: Duncan Keith took a stupid match penalty in Minnesota, swinging his stick at Charlie Coyle and nailing him in the head. Coyle was no angel there, but it was still really stupid of Keith to do. He was suspended six games for it. That’s not good news for a defensive group that has been really not good as of late. If there’s a reason for optimism there, it’s that once Keith gets back, he can play cyborg minutes again and that will end up hiding deficiencies elsewhere. Still, the defense really needs to step up.

Goalies: Crawford is still out with a head injury. He’s close to rejoining the team, but if it’s something that’s going to linger, it obviously makes repeating harder. Does it make it impossible? Absolutely not. The Blackhawks can absolutely win the Stanley Cup with Scott Darling in net. Let me repeat that, the Blackhawks can absolutely win the Stanley Cup with Scott Darling in net. He’s a good goalie, and that shows when the defense isn’t letting him down. So those guys are going to have to take an extra step up. This past week, Darling had a great outing, a good one, and one where he needed to be better, but the fact that four goals got by him wasn’t his fault. If he’s got to be the man, he can.

Blackhawks 3 stars of the week:

★★★ Patrick Kane, RW (1 G, 1 A)

★★ Teuvo Teräväinen, F (1 G, 1 A)

★ Artemi Panarin, LW (2 G, 2 A)

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com