Lankinen's tough season gets tougher; Hawks lose 2-0 in Colorado
Kevin Lankinen's hand injury is a big bummer for the Blackhawks.
And, of course, for him.
The Hawks' backup goalie was put on injured reserve Sunday, less than 24 hours after a sensational performance in which he stopped 40 shots during the Hawks' 4-3 OT loss in Minnesota.
"He didn't really complain about it," interim coach Derek King told reporters before the Hawks lost 2-0 to Colorado on Monday. "It was something he just dealt with and fought through it.
"Then after the game I was talking to him and congratulating him, and all of a sudden the doc comes in and tells me he's out for ... 2-3 weeks."
After an impressive rookie campaign, Lankinen's had a tough sophomore season - both statistically and from the standpoint of getting steady playing time. Former general manager Stan Bowman's decision to trade for Marc-Andre Fleury in the offseason instantly meant Lankinen would move into a backup role.
Plenty of us believed the additions of Fleury, Seth Jones, Tyler Johnson and Jake McCabe - along with the return of Jonathan Toews - meant the Hawks would be playoff contenders this season.
Instead, they lost 11 of their first 12 games, fired Jeremy Colliton, and suffered immense collateral damage after the Jenner & Block report made public the sordid details of a sexual abuse scandal from 2010.
There is much work to be done to turn the Hawks into contenders again - so much that one has to wonder if it's even possible in the next 4-5 years.
One thing they should be doing, however, is getting guys like Lankinen as much playing time as possible.
A goalie improves by playing. Not only do they learn teams' and players' tendencies, but they get better at stopping breakaways and odd-man rushes. They improve on the penalty kill, track pucks through traffic better and play pucks behind the net with more ease and fluidity.
So when Lankinen returns it would behoove the Hawks to play him more. After going 17-14-5 with a .909 save percentage and 3.01 goals against average in 2020-21, Lankinen has regressed by going 2-5-4 with a .889 save percentage and 3.41 GAA.
It's hardly all his fault, and those numbers should improve if he's given more of a chance.
Fleury was back in net against the Avs, who have the best points percentage in the league at .763 and extended their home winning streak to 16. Fleury made 27 saves - many on high-quality shots - and yielded only a power-play goal by Nazem Kadri midway through the second period and a third-period tally by Mikko Rantanen.
King pulled Fleury with 3½ minutes remaining and it nearly paid off, but Avs goalie Pavel Francouz robbed Alex Debrincat on a one-timer off a pass from Dylan Strome with 2:43 left.
The Hawks (15-20-7) have lost four straight, with the last three coming against Minnesota (25-10-3) and Colorado (29-8-3).
"It was a pretty even game overall," Patrick Kane told reporters in Denver. "We knew we had to come in and try to grind against a team like this and try not to give them much. They have a lot of good players and they're gonna create. I thought we played a pretty even game with them."
The Hawks had some chances, but Calvin de Haan, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Carpenter and Philipp Kurashev couldn't finish from point-blank range. Kurashev's was the toughest to swallow, with the forward completely missing the net from 15 feet away.
The Hawks took just 24 shots on goal, with DeBrincat, de Haan and Connor Murphy leading the way with 3 each. Seth Jones, who played 32:05 against Minnesota on Sunday, had 5 hits and blocked 3 shots in 29:50.
Toews had a rare off night in the faceoff dot, winning just 6 of 18 draws.