As a Blackhawks fan, I fear I might have to get used to the picture at left. That's Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet, with the puck behind him in the net. That's a sight we saw five times in Sunday's putrid 6-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.
I don't really care to rehash Sunday's game. The Hawks didn't show up, and they were dominated from start to finish. End of story. There's no point in doing anything now except looking ahead to Wednesday night's Game 5.
Unfortunately, it looks like Huet is going to be in net again for the injured Nikolai Khabibulin. Boy, was I off base Saturday night when I blogged that there isn't much of a dropoff from Khabibulin to Huet.
My rationale was as follows: Khabibulin has been decent, but not great, in this series against the Red Wings. I never expected Huet to be great, but I thought he could be decent. Denied. He was awful. Of course, so were the rest of the Hawks Sunday, but it seems to me that awfulness is the norm for Huet.
Khabibulin is a free agent at the end of the season, and if he doesn't return to play again in these playoffs, he has played his last game in a Blackhawk uniform. Due to the salary-cap issues the Hawks face, there is no chance he will be retained.
Huet still has three years remaining on the lucrative free-agent deal he signed last offseason. It certainly seems like Blackhawks' brass thought Huet would be the guy to eventually get them over the top. Sorry, but I'm having trouble seeing that. Huet is adept at giving up the demoralizing soft goal, like the weak Johan Franzen wrist shot that floated into the net to give Detroit a 2-0 lead with 20.7 seconds left in the first period Sunday.
I like literally every other aspect of the Hawks team. I think they have a great group of forwards. The defensive unit could use one more experienced veteran, but I like the core group. I like Joel Quenneville as a coach, silly tirade about Sunday's officiating notwithstanding. But I worry this team is going to be denied a Stanley Cup in the next few years for the sole reason that Cristobal Huet is not the right guy in net.
We'll see what the Hawks do about their goaltending - if they do anything - this offseason.
UPDATE: Neither Khabibulin nor Martin Havlat practiced Tuesday, but both will travel to Detroit for Wednesday night's Game 5.
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