Tuesday’s Three Stars: Duncan Keith Has a Competition In Him

Jim Neveau, PIB Co-conspirator

Mark this under the “well, you better have won that game” column.

The Chicago Blackhawks visited the worst team in the Western Conference, the Edmonton Oilers, and essentially put the game in the bag in the early going, scoring four unanswered goals and coasting to a 4-2 victory.

Patrick Kane notched his 200th career point in the contest, and the goals went to Jonathan Toews, Troy Brouwer, Dustin Byfuglien, and Marian Hossa. Fernando Pisani and Ryan Potulny scored goals for Edmonton in the defeat, which stretches their record to an abysmal 0-9-2 in their last 11 games.

The biggest takeaway from this game was that the Hawks came in ticked off after an embarrassing loss to the Canucks on Saturday night, and they stomped the life out of the Oilers early. After they went up 4-0, they called off the dogs, presumably to rest up for their big showdown on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks.

Once again, Cristobal Huet had a serviceable game in net. Both Edmonton goals came on poor defensive plays by the Blackhawks, but Huet exacerbated the mistake on the second tally when he essentially bowed to Potulny and allowed him to flip the puck over his shoulder for an easy goal.

Whether it’s over at Blackhawks Confidential or at Blackhawk Up, the debate over Cristobal Huet vs. Antti Niemi is reaching a fever pitch, and tonight’s game is a perfect example of why the debate is so intense. Sure, Huet made 22 saves, including a diving save in the waning seconds to help preserve the victory, but with the cheap second goal that he gave up, it gave plenty of ammunition to the Huet Haters (or as the French would call them, Haineux de Huet).

Even if Huet had shut out the Oilers tonight, the Haineux would have been out in full force, saying “let’s see him do that against a real team” or something to that effect. There is a large contingent of Blackhawks Nation that will never be satisfied with Huet, and will continue to undermine and knock him down no matter what he tries to do.

Look, there is nothing suggesting that Huet has what it takes to be the top goaltender in the NHL. That’s not what the Blackhawks need him to be anyway. The Blackhawks need someone in net who can stop shots when he needs to, and on most nights, either Cristobal or Antti can handle that responsibility.This is a team built on a solid blue line and an aggressive offense, and the goaltending merely needs to be there for mop-up duty on most nights.

Hell, if an offense can only score one goal like they did against the Senators last Tuesday, Huet would have had to pitch a shutout in order for them to win anyway, and expecting that kind of performance every time your offense goes dormant is a foolish notion. Period.

Alright, while I go light up a cigar to relax after that soapbox moment, here are tonight’s Three Stars:

Third Star: Patrick Kane

Congratulations are in order for Mr. Kane: he is once again embroiled in controversy over his extracurricular activities. This time, he apparently stumbled into some type of fun-fest with some ladies in Vancouver over the weekend, and there are now shirtless pictures of him floating around the internet.

Wait….that wasn’t why we picked him for Third Star……

Oh yeah, it was the fact that his assist on Jonathan Toews’ goal in the first period gave him 200 career points, making him the youngest Blackhawks player ever to reach that plateau.

His two assists give him 38 on the season, and when you factor in his 21 goals, he is leading the team by a mile with 59 points.  His +14 this season through 53 games certainly has been helpful as well.

Second Star: Troy Brouwer

Is there anybody on this Blackhawks team whose immense contributions have been overlooked more so than Troy Brouwer?

He has 15 goals in what is his second full season in the NHL, and he has been a mainstay on a line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane this season. Their chemistry has enabled Toews and Kane to play up to their offensive capabilities, and also has led Brouwer to a type of epiphany of his own.

Seven of Brouwer’s 15 goals have come on power plays, which is tied for the team lead with Toews. He also has four game winning tallies, second on the team only to Kane.

Brouwer has been the type of player that the Hawks desperately needed to play with the two young stars: a guy who can move the puck effectively, take advantage when one of them is double teamed, and get physical and chippy when necessary. He demonstrated his worth again tonight, and his consistency this season has been a thing of beauty.

First Star: Duncan Keith

With all of this talk of the Norris Trophy and him finally emerging as an elite defenseman in the NHL, it would be easy to assume that Keith’s performance would begin to slack off under the weight of all of the new pressures facing him.

Somebody forgot to mention this to Mr. Keith. He has continued to play at a high level, continuing to chase down Mike Green of the Capitals in the race for the scoring title amongst defensemen, and this pursuit has led him to be second on the team in points.

Keith also set a career high for assists with his helpers tonight, giving him 37 on the season. He has a +21 to boot, and he is still averaging nearly 18 hours of ice time per game.

Exaggerations aside, Keith is earning every penny of his lengthy contract with the Blackhawks, and if he continues to perform like this, the Norris Trophy might not be the only piece of hardware finding its way into his trophy case this season.

Tags: Cristobal Huet, Duncan Keith, Dustin Byfuglien, John Madden, Jonathan Toews, marian hossa, Patrick Kane, Troy Brouwer