Chicago Blackhawks lose Darling to injury
Scott Darling is enjoying the best season of his professional career, but the Blackhawks' goalie suffered an upper-body injury Friday morning and will miss about three weeks.
Asked if he was hit by a shot, coach Joel Quenneville said: "Could have been."
Jeff Glass was called up from Rockford on Friday afternoon, and Quenneville said that Glass will serve as Corey Crawford's backup.
Darling's .931 save percentage is second in the NHL, behind only Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk and his 2.13 goals-against average ranks third. Darling (16-5-2) has also allowed only 5 goals in his last four starts, all of which were victories.
The Hawks are at Nashville on Saturday, then after four days off will finish the regular season with 17 games in 31 days.
"With injuries I don't think there's any good timing," Quenneville said after the Hawks' 2-1 shootout victory over the Islanders. "That's all part of our game, and the last couple of days have been a little uncertain as far as our health (and) our lineup."
Artem Anisimov and Nick Schmaltz both missed Friday's game, but both could return Saturday. Quenneville credited his team for "staying focused" over the trade deadline and during a hard-fought win over New York in which "the lines of the course of the game were a little bit all over the place."
He's lovin' it:
The impressive play of Nick Schmaltz, Ryan Hartman and Tanner Kero meant Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman didn't have to go out and trade for a big-name forward at the trade deadline. Bowman said he knew some time ago that this group is good enough to compete for a title.
"It's really been building over the last two months," Bowman said. "(Schmaltz has been) playing at a whole different level than where he was earlier. Hartman's been pretty much at that level since the beginning of the year, and I think Tanner as well has really solidified his role. He originally came up when Marcus (Kruger) was injured and he's been able to push to become a regular on our team.
"That helped, knowing that there's a comfort level with their progression, and the coaching staff obviously feels that they're in a good place right now too."
Slap shots:
Patrick Kane's shooting percentage in the four games is 46.7. He is 7-for-15, with 1 goal coming into an empty net. … Duncan Keith, who assisted on Artemi Panarin's game-tying shot against New York on Friday, has 8 assists in the last 14 games. ... Jonathan Toews took 28 of the Hawks' 51 faceoffs Friday, winning 13. ... Brent Seabrook took 5 shots on goal, the most he's taken since Game 15 when he took 6. ... The Blackhawks' now have the average oldest age in the NHL at 29.4.
He said it:
"It's tough to lose some teammates in the off-season, especially after winning the Stanley Cup. So it's really nice to have a guy like him back in the room."
Jonathan Toews on Johnny Oduya's return