The Chicago Blackhawks are a terrific young hockey team.  From the front lines which feature solid young talent like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews,  Dustin Byfuglien and Patrick Sharp; all-world veteran forward Marian Hossa to the back line which includes veterans Brian Campbell and Brent Sopel and aggressive youngsters Keith Duncan and Brent Seabrook, this is a solid hockey team.

You may have to go back to the great Hull, Mikita, Pappin, Stapleton, Martin,White, Maki, Nesterenko, Magnuson, Pinder, Korral,teams of the early seventies to find a talent base like the Hawks have today.  In fact, this particular club, if they stay healthy, has the opportunity to do what the Hawks of that era couldn't do: Win a Stanley Cup.

The biggest difference between the Hawks of that era and Mike Keenan's teams of the early nineties is at one position.  The Hawks of the early seventies had Tony Esposito in net while the Hawks of the nineties had the temperamental but effective Eddie "The Eagle" Belfour.  The Hawks of the aughts have but Cristobal Huet. 

Huet isn't awful (certainly he's better than say Murray Bannerman, Jimmy Waite or Steve Passmore) but he's not the elite goalie you want to bank your cup hopes on.  Huet is best described as a poor man's Chris Osgood, a serviceable goalie playing in front of an elite defense who is known to give up soft goals.  A "soft goal" for those of you just jumping on the bandwagon is basically a goal that should be stopped, like a dump in shot from the center line or pucks that dribble through a goalie's pads that shouldn't. 

Lately, Huet has been a soft goal machine.  He looked shell shocked against San Jose and even worse last night against Dallas where he was finally yanked by Hawks coach Joel Quenneville. Hockey coaches hate yanking goalies because goalies, like closers in baseball, have fragile egos.  Yanking a goalie during a game may mess the goalie's head up for weeks.  Goalies, like closers, need to be confident every time they take the ice that they have it.  If they aren't they give up a lot of easy goals because they are over thinking.  Huet may be at this point right now.

The Hawks have a decent backup in Antti Nemmi, who has a goals against average of 1.80 and four shutouts in twelve games.  But experts (not me) caution that the backup goalie is like the backup quarterback: You shouldn't fall in love with the backup quarterback because if he were that good, he'd be the starter.

I disagree.

You ride the hot goalie, into the ground if you have to.  If Huet is a deer in the headlights right now, it's time to get on Nemmi and ride him like a horse during a chase scene John Wayne movie. 

You may think I'm overreacting, but one of the things that helps you win a Stanley Cup is home ice advantage in the playoffs.  The Hawks play well at the UC and having the most points at the end of the season will help them as they face Detroit and San Jose in the west and possibly an Eastern Conference team in the finals like Pittsburgh, New Jersey or Buffalo. 

Great defense makes great goalies.  The Hawks play great defense.  They collapse to the net well.  They don't allow a whole lot of second shots.  They make it easy for a goalie.  Now, the goalies have to do their job.  And if Huet can't, give Nemmi a shot.  It could be the difference between winning the Stanley Cup and watching someone else carry it off the ice.