Which Niemi will show up?

From the season opener in October through the season finale Sunday, the Blackhawks' goaltending has been a work in progress and sometimes regress.

CRISTOBAL HUET started out all caps essentially by default, morphed into Cristobal Huet and then into cristobal huet.

His backup was antti niemi, who morphed into Antti Niemi and finally into ANTTI NIEMI essentially by default.

So as the playoffs are about to commence, here the Hawks are with their goaltending as puzzling as six months ago.

The only difference is that Huet was more a concern than a mystery and Niemi is as much a mystery as a concern.

Niemi met the media in front of his locker after the Hawks lost 3-2 to the Red Wings in overtime on Sunday.

The questions were obvious: Is Niemi ready for the playoffs? How improved is he since the season started? What does he think about rookie goaltenders rarely winning the Stanley Cup?

Niemi, a native of Finland, wasn't wearing his goalie mask but his bare face still was difficult to read. Maybe it projected confidence, maybe apprehension, maybe excitement, maybe confusion, maybe all of the above, heck, maybe none of the above.

Seriously, who could tell?

"He's professional, quiet, laid-backish," Hawks' head coach Joel Quenneville said.

The question now is whether Niemi won the starting job or Huet managed to lose it.

Quenneville said, "I liked (Niemi's) quickness, anticipation and size."

All those are tangible attributes for an NHL netminder. But what about Niemi's intangibles that lurk behind the mask he wears off the ice?

"He took charge," Quenneville said, possibly trying to convince himself.

Anyway, the Hawks are entering the playoffs with an unknown quantity, perhaps even to themselves, at the most important position.

The Hawks match up well against any other team in the NHL, but the issue all season has been whether that includes in goal. If Niemi knows, well, he isn't exactly saying. He doesn't talk much and when he does the volume is barely audible.

"I feel I'm (as ready) as I can be," I think Niemi said.

The Hawks feel they're ready, too, even though the loss to Detroit cost them first place in the NHL West. After skating all the way to the conference finals last year they're an experienced club now ... at every position but goalie.

So what about the fact that rookie goaltenders don't often win the Cup?

"I'm not thinking about that," is a good guess at what Niemi said so quietly. "I'm just concentrating on playing."

Complicating the Hawks' goaltending are the injuries that have forced them into a makeshift defensive corps.

"It's tough going through injuries but we still have a good defense," Hawks' defenseman Brent Seabrook said.

Any team, healthy or otherwise, still needs the occasional big save from its goaltender at a big time in a big game.

The mystery entering the playoffs is whether the Hawks will get that from their goalie.

In other words, will he turn out to be ANTTI NIEMI, Antti Niemi or antti niemi?