Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Hawks commit to Niemi for the postseason

Good thing the Blackhawks have Antti Niemi. Perish the thought of actually using the goaltender the Hawks are paying nearly $6 million a season for the next three years, in the playoffs of a season which may be their best shot at a Stanley Cup.

It’s a very slippery slope. With Cristobal Huet floundering, and not anywhere close to instilling any confidence in his team that he can succeed in net for them. And with Niemi starting the last five games -- and playing well -- it seems the Hawks have found their goaltender of the future. From Tim Sassone of the Daily Herald:

“I think he has a lot of confidence in the net,” Quenneville said. “Guys get a little confidence when they get the net in consecutive games.

“The thing that you like about Antti is he doesn’t get disturbed or disrupted. His approach is the same, very quiet, low key. I think this experience along the way is making him comfortable in the net.”

Niemi will certainly be on a leash in the playoffs, but it was important for the Hawks to make some sort of commitment heading into the postseason. I have to admit that I really wanted to see Hawks fans and their response after Huet allowed another goal right off a bounce off the boards, in game five of a playoff series. Would have been epic.