Rozner: Darling saves Blackhawks, might get net again

Patrick Kane was not the question heading into the Blackhawks' playoff opener.

Turns out, he was part of the answer anyway.

Kane had a pair of assists, but the bigger story was the Hawks being unprepared to start the game again and only Scott Darling's relief appearance saved the day.

Darling was so good that he appears in line to get another chance in Game 2.

Nashville came out soaring and the Hawks slept through the first period as the Preds took a 3-0 lead, starting goaltender Corey Crawford the victim of the Hawks' brutal start.

The Hawks came back and played a terrific second period as they tied the score and then Nashville dominated the third period and only Darling's great goaltending got them to overtime.

In the first extra period, Nashville carried the play but Darling was strong again and the teams went to double overtime tied at 3-3, before Duncan Keith fired from the blueline through a Jonathan Toews screen to beat Pekka Rinne and the Hawks escaped with a 4-3 victory in Game 1 at Bridgestone Arena.

Conventional wisdom is you don't bench a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender who has carried you all season, especially when the early deficit was not his doing.

"We really hung Corey out to dry," said Patrick Sharp. "We could have done a lot of things better."

But Darling saved 42 shots without being beaten and Joel Quenneville the hunch player will be tempted on this one, regardless of anything he says between now and Friday night.

Darling was not tested much in his first 30 minutes but in the final 10 of the third he made at least three brilliant saves to keep the Hawks alive until overtime, when he was just as good.

If Quenneville's intention was to wake his team up by yanking his top goalie and force them to be smarter defensively, it certainly worked for the middle period, but there's no way you can blame the first period on Crawford and if the Hawks had played the next two periods as they played the first, they would have been blown out of the rink in regulation.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking, but you always have to be ready to go," Darling said of his first postseason NHL game. "All my life, I've been the guy watching from the couch. I know how tough it is to watch overtime."

Game 1 was very tough to watch for everyone involved with the Hawks, as some serious issues have arisen already.

Another terrible start, the No. 1 goalie pulled, awful at the faceoff dot and very heavy minutes for the top four defensemen because Kimmo Timonen and Michal Rozsival have no business playing in a postseason game.

On top of that, they sat Antoine Vermette, a center who's been playing wing, Andrew Shaw is a wing playing center and Teuvo Teravainen is a center playing wing - though the kid was very good Wednesday and set up the first goal that began the comeback.

What's astounding is the Hawks have slumbered for months while the NHL played on without them, and they should have understood they needed to be ready for Game 1 or fall behind in the series quickly.

They absolutely knew they had to answer the bell, but it rang and they hit the snooze button.

"I didn't like the first period and I didn't like the goals," Quenneville said, placing blame on the team and the goalie. "It was both."

They abandoned Crawford and now the backup quarterback, er, rather, the backup goaltender will be the most popular man in Chicago and a decent argument could be made for Darling getting the next start.

"The decision will be easy," Quenneville said. "We'll talk about it tonight and tomorrow we'll let you know.

"Certainly, (Darling) was spectacular. He probably made three 10-bellers in the third period and some big saves in OT. Great performance by him and great comeback by us.

"We needed the goalie there to make some big saves in the third period and he did."

Quenneville is usually pretty vague about such things, but he didn't seem to leave much doubt early Thursday morning about what he wants to do Friday night.

It sounds like the coach has a new darling in net.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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