There have been a few hard lessons for Collin Delia in his rookie season, but none were as harsh as Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton benching him after eight sloppy minutes Monday.
Delia made critical errors while giving up three goals on 10 shots, and even for someone so seemingly steadfast, the rest of the night was miserable. The only redeeming aspect was that Cam Ward did a passable job in his place and the Hawks salvaged an 8-7 win over the Senators.
Delia jumped on the film after the game — “Just wanted some closure,” he said — and was at the facility early Tuesday to do drills before practice.
“You just want to get back to work,” he said. “Anytime you feel bad like that, you just want to stay at the rink and take as many shots [as possible] or get in the gym, do something constructive, do something positive to keep your mind off that.
“We all fail at times. It’s just a matter of how you respond. Are you going to get back to work, or are you going to sulk?”
The Hawks plan on Delia being their goalie of the future, evidenced by a three-year, $3 million contract extension last week, but he might not be their goalie of the present.
When asked if it was imperative to get Delia back in net as soon as possible, Colliton declined to name a starter for the game Wednesday at Detroit. Regardless of when Delia plays next, Colliton is confident he will get over his debacle.
“If you don’t, then you’re going to have a tough time staying in the league,” he said. “He has it in him. He’s got that maturity and mental toughness, and there’s going to be bumps in the road here. But we believe in him.”
Ward is overdue for rest, but the Hawks are desperate amid a tight wild-card race. They were one point behind the Wild for the last spot going into the Tuesday night games.
In his last seven appearances, Ward put up a .921 save percentage and 2.86 goal against average. The Hawks went 6-1 in those games.
Delia played well two weeks ago to beat the Canucks, but let in a season-high six goals at Boston the day after signing his contract extension and was a wreck against the Senators.
It was no consolation that both sides kept pounding the nets for the NHL’s highest-scoring game this season. The Senators pulled goalie Anders Nilsson a few minutes after Delia’s exit, and both relievers gave up four goals.
“You just feel like the catalyst that led to that,” Delia said. “Maybe stop those shots and hopefully it’s a more controlled game. Not to put that much on me, but that definitely sets the tone.”
The upside for Delia, especially at 24 years old and a mere 16 games into his career, is that he sees everything as part of his development process. He studied what wrong on all three goals and came away with an overall assessment that he was inattentive.
“A lapse in preparation for me,” he said. “Just felt like a little bit nonchalant out there and that’s not the case. You have to be on every night and you have to be sharp. I’ll be better next time.”
