Antti Niemi has been the main man in goal for the Hawks, starting four in a row. With those four starts came four wins by the Blackhawks.This is the first time that Quennville has started Niemi more than twice in a row and Niemi is now 5-1 in shootouts for the season.
“He’s playing well,” coach Joel Quenneville told the Hawks’ team Web site after the game. “He’s coming off three straight wins. It’s an easy decision. We’re off for a long time. Playing back-to-back. Give him a chance to keep going.” (ESPN.com).
With Niemi on the hot streak and now the Hawks number one man in goal, could we possibly be smelling a trade?
Cristobal Huet has quite a large contract, $5.6 million a year. It doesn't make any sense to keep $5.6 million on the bench as the back up goalie. But we would need to find a team willing to buy out his large contract.
Speaking of riding the bench, Quennville showed little love for Kris Versteeg yesterday, as he only played 4:54 minutes, his season low.
“I didn’t like the way he was playing,” Quenneville said.
Let's hope he can get out of his slump and back on to the ice. Versteeg went 14 games without seeing a goal until his shootout goal that brought the Hawks to victory over the Stars.
A man who's been racking up the points for the Hawks has been Mr. Troy Brouwer. Headlines everywhere are saying "Brouwer Power" or some pun like that.
Brouwer scored the winning goal in last night's shoot out, his second time saving the Hawks in overtime. The shinning sophomore now has 19 goals on the season.
The Hawks went in to the Olympic break with four wins in a row, let's hope they can keep this momentum up when they return. We will miss them over the next two weeks, but at least we have six Olympians that can keep us entertained.
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