The sample size remains extremely small, but the Blackhawks’ “relatively open” goaltending competition — as coach Jeremy Colliton describes it — has worked out poorly in two ways so far.
Both main competitors, Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban, have been bad.
Both have also been exactly equal.
So while the Hawks lose games in part due to poor goaltending — the most consequential of countless reasons for the team’s 0-3 record and 15-5 goal differential — they also make no progress toward determining a winner.
“Both of them stood in there and obviously you give up some goals, [but also] we gave up some chances,” Colliton said Monday, trying to spin it as positively as possible. “They both made some saves and that is bouncing back. Both of them responded well to when things didn’t go their way.”
Subban started the first game, allowed five goals and finished with an .848 save percentage. Delia started the next two games, allowed five more goals in each and now stands with an identical .848 save percentage. By comparison, the league average so far is .904.
In terms of advanced stats, they both again grade out abysmally. Subban has allowed 84% more goals than expected, based on locations and shot-takers; Delia has allowed 134% more than expected.
“We’re still taking it day-to-day, with the overriding thing being we want to give all three an opportunity,” Colliton added, still trying to spin. “But if someone steps up and shows they deserve a little more, then that’s there for them, too.”
This battle will wager on for weeks and months to come, and there are still 53 games for one of them to assert dominance. Current third-stringer Kevin Lankinen will get his opportunities to leapfrog them, too — potentially very soon.
But it looks increasingly plausible the winner of this battle could be the least bad goalie rather than the best goalie.
If one of them ends up at .900, one at .890 and one at .880 at season’s end, for example, will the Hawks have really determined anything meaningful? Probably not.
Plus, distributing the playing time roughly evenly could also prevent any one of them from settling into a steady routine of starts and potentially improving his performance that way. Take it from Delia after his Friday loss to the Lightning:
“[It’s] definitely huge to play a string of games,” he said. “You get in a rhythm. You get all those moments [and] muscle memory back... We’ll see what the plan is here moving forward. It’s just day-by-day right now. I’ll practice hard and hopefully you get the net for the game.”
The less-than-encouraging goaltending conundrum is just one of many problems the Hawks must work through moving forward, though.
Adam Boqvist is falling swiftly into a sophomore slump. Dominik Kubalik is barely seeing the ice. The Hawks have conceded the first goal in every game. The list of woes on this Florida road trip stretches longer than I-75 from Tampa to Sunrise.
“Around our net is a big part of it,” defenseman Connor Murphy said postgame Sunday. “I don’t think right now we have the right intensity that we need. That’s definitely including all of us ‘D,’ and it can go as far as forwards winning battles, too.
“And then I think just some puck play and some breakdowns. You can have a breakdown, but you’ve got to know how to manage that chance or that play. We don’t seem to be doing a very good job of that as a team.”
The silver lining is the Hawks haven’t been completely caved in: over the three games, five-on-five shot attempts actually rest in their favor (112-111) and scoring chances are dead even (62-62).
With better goaltending, the Hawks’ current situation may not look so bleak.
But better goaltending may not arrive anytime soon.
