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It wasn't exactly pretty, but the Hawks went into one of the NHL's toughest buildings last night and extended their league-leading winning streak to eight.
My Three Stars (for Chicago) would be Ben Smith (goal, assist), Scott Darling (32 saves, .941 save%) and Marcus Kruger (2 assists, 64% on face-offs).
Aside from Kruger, the Hawks were absolutely destroyed in the face-off dot, primarily by Patrice Bergeron, a guy who could play on my team any day of the week. But the Hawks "fourth" line of Kruger, Smith and Dan Carcillo was very solid, Patrick Kane is still uncovered on his game-winning goal, and Darling was outstanding (yet again). Hawks win.
Thoughts.
A TOUCH OF KLAS
A young blue liner who plays responsible, solid defense and can occasionally pitch in offensively, just might be able to stick under Joel Quenneville. Such could be the case with rookie Klas Dahlbeck, who scored his first goal last night: a pretty impressive one-timer over the left shoulder of one of the league's best goaltenders—on a bouncing feed from Smith
Dahlbeck appeared somewhat caught off guard on Boston's second goal, however, when Boston winger Reilly Smith beat Darling, but so did some other Hawks on that play.
SEIDENBERG ON TOEWS
Dirty hit? No. Toews' fault for "leaving himself vulnerable" as some are saying this morning? Ummm, no. After the game, Quenneville was saying Toews looks to be alright. Hard to say with a guy who has a history of serious concussions. Time will tell.
You just can't say Toews left himself vulnerable by going after a puck and leaving his back exposed to Seidenberg—5 to 10 feet from the boards. By the same logic, are you leaving yourself vulnerable to any player behind you when you're 15-20 feet from the boards?
Seidenberg was penalized appropriately. Unfortunately, Toews appears to have hit the boards head first.
DARLING, RAANTA, CRAWFORD
A reader tweeted me last night that Corey Crawford could be threatened by Darling. Not going there yet myself. But it is becoming clear that Darling has an NHL future—and it is possibly significant, i.e. a #1 netminder. He is just so big in net which, combined with solid positioning, makes him a tough beat. And his reflexes are pretty good for a big man too.
So at least until the summer of 2015, this is not a bad thing for the Chicago Blackhawks.
If Dahlbeck continues to progress, not unlike the Hawk player he is most often compared to, Niklas Hjalmarsson, did in 2009, the Hawks have a valuable depth chip on the blue line.
And if/when Crawford is healthy, they have three goalies who can win at the NHL level.
So the Hawks wait and see on Toews as they head to Long island for Saturday night's game against a resurgent Islanders' club, and former teammate Nick Leddy—having a really strong year himself.
I'll have a preview tomorrow.
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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