Kris Versteeg Shines In Blackhawks' Loss to Sharks

When the Blackhawks fell to the Sharks last night in a 6-5 slugfest at the United Center, I was afflicted with many conflicting emotions.

The first thing I thought to myself was "you know, if Cristobal Huet was worth the paper he signed his contract on, we would have won this game." Various other obscenities flew through my mind while I was pondering this, and then another thought popped into my head: was it really just him, or did our defense have something to do with it?

Then I began thinking about the game on a more positive note. Kris Versteeg once again displayed the form that has many in Chicago thinking he has a chance to go back-to-back with Patrick Kane in the Calder Trophy winners' pantheon. Also, we held our own against a Sharks team widely regarded as one of the best in the league, and that in itself can be seen as an accomplishment considering where this team was a year or so ago.

At long last, I was finally able to compile my thoughts after i came to grips with what to think about this game, and it basically came down to one mantra: "We need to win at least three games on this road trip." The Hawks are going to be starting a game against the Coyotes later tonight, and it will be the start of a six game road trip that takes the team all over the country and even out of the US.

Here are some stories that I feel need to be mentioned when talking about this team, and their chances for having a successful road trip:

Will the real Cristobal Huet please stand up?

I'm by no means suggesting that I could possibly withstand an onslaught by any NHL caliber team, but when I see Huet on the ice, I get queasy.

I never know what to expect from him night in and night out, and I'm sure many fans feel the same way. Are we going to see the guy who gave up three goals on 18 shots in Minnesota, or the guy who stopped nearly 50 shots from the Blue Jackets?

We saw the bad Huet last night. In a town where we are accustomed to seeing the "Good Rex, Bad Rex" argument, we might as well start columns and websites dedicated to "Bon ou Mauvais Huet?"

He had a good season last year. A goals against of around 2.55 and a save percentage of .916 are definitely good for a goalie in this league, but I haven't seen enough of that guy to justify him continuing to get ice time at the expense of a guy like Nikolai Khabibulin—who can be very good (the Boston game) or, when he's not so good, at least keep the team in it (the St. Louis game).

Huet last night was neither good nor acceptable. He gave up a quick goal in the first minute of the game, which is never a good thing for a team to overcome. After the Blackhawks tied it, he gave up a goal 24 seconds later. Then, when the Blackhawks took the lead with two minutes left in the second period, Huet coughed up that lead just a minute into the third period.

Overall, the Blackhawks were 2-for-6 on the penalty kill last night, which is obviously not a good number. If the old adage in hockey goes "your most important penalty killer is your goalie", then Huet obviously failed that challenge last night. Joel Quenneville obviously did not feel any compassion toward his goaltender.

“We should be upset,” he said. “I’m not happy at all about the way this ended. They’re a good team, [but] we had them where we wanted them and let them off the hook. You’ve got to play a complete game against good teams.”

This game was there for the taking, and I just cannot understand what kind of mental block Huet had last night, but whatever it was, it needs to stop. We cannot have a goalie that can't win a game where his team scores 5 goals against a top-5 NHL club.

Formal Request to Investigate the Disappearance of Patrick Sharp

On Nov. 3, Patrick Sharp had his best game of the season; scoring two goals and an assist in the team's win over Colorado.

Since then, he has disappeared from the map. He has zero points over his last four games, with a -2 rating and only nine shots on goal (he had seven in the Colorado game). He has looked lost at times on the ice, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why.

If he's going to break out of this slump, Phoenix could be a good place to start. In 13 career games against the Coyotes, he has four goals and three assists, with 12 penalty minutes and a +3. Earlier this season, he had a goal and four penalty minutes against the Coyotes at the United Center.

Kris Versteeg: Another Calder Winner for Chicago?

When Kris Versteeg was announced to be on the Hawks roster full-time this season, I'm sure that there were a lot of fans who were like "who?"

When I picked him as my "player to watch" against the Red Wings on Oct. 25, I had no idea of the run that he was about to go on.

Five goals and 10 assists later, I am a believer. He has a +9 this season, and a respectable 17.2 percent success rate on his shots. He also has three multi-point games this season, which has been extremely helpful while Jonathan Toews has tried to find his goal-scoring form.

There is a legitimate shot that if these numbers continue, Versteeg will win the Calder Trophy—and I for one would not be opposed to that notion.

All-Star Votes Taking on a Red and Canadian Tone

I was surfing around the webernets today, and I happened to drop by nhl.com. I was stunned to see that in the Eastern Conference balloting, the Montreal Canadiens are absolutely lapping the field, sporting nearly 100,000 vote leads in every single position.

Now, I realize they are the home team, but I really cannot understand how guys like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin aren't even within shouting distance of these guys.

The news isn't much better on the Western front, with most of the positions being currently held by Red Wings players. This notion especially does not sit well with me, and I intend to do something about it.

As I have reported previously, I am going to attempt to vote 1,000 times for the All-Star game in a single day, but unfortunately, that event will not occur today. A death in my family obviously has precedence over NHL voting, but I will re-schedule the voting for another time when it is more appropriate.

That being said, I would encourage all of you to vote for the Blackhawks that can be found on your friendly neighborhood All-Star ballot, which include Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Brian Campbell. I would also encourage you to include a write-in vote for Patrick Sharp, who should have been included on the ballot in my humble opinion. 

Player to Watch against Phoenix

I'm going to go ahead and go with the aforementioned Sharp. If you had told me he could possibly go five games without a point, I would have called you crazy. I will continue to think that this notion was crazy, and I'm banking on Sharpie to continue his seven points in 13 games run against Phoenix. The Hawks need a good start on the road, and hopefully Sharp can make it happen for them.

The game will begin at 8:30pm, and can been seen in the Chicago area on CLTV or your CSN+ affiliate.