Robin Lehner shows he could still be Blackhawks’ X-factor this season

Robin Lehner stopped 30 of 33 shots in his Blackhawks debut Saturday. | AP Photos

Fittingly, Robin Lehner turned left out of the tunnel Saturday.

The Blackhawks’ typical route from their locker room onto the ice, to clarify, involves turning right when the tunnel reaches the bench, because the door in the boards on that side is slightly closer. But Lehner, making his first-ever Hawks start, turned left — probably because he didn’t know otherwise, but also because that was the more direct route to the goal.

Lehner is mere weeks into his Chicago tenure, but it’s already become clear he’s not a traditional goaltender, as the left turn exemplified.

He spoke to the media after the morning skate Saturday, something most goalies never do. He’s mentioned several times he’s “not a huge routine guy,” an equally odd attribute for the position. And even his netminding style is often unconventional, such as when he executed a double-pad stack to rob Jets star Mark Scheifele late in the second period.

In the end, Lehner’s eccentricity added up to a solid .909 save percentage, saving 30 of 33 shots in the Hawks’ 3-2 overtime loss.

He was spectacular at times, stopping seven of Winnipeg’s eight high-danger shots, and largely carried the Hawks to overtime after their first-period push faded.

“I felt good,” he said. “I felt like I saw the puck well, I thought rebound control was good.”

“The third goal, it just dove on me. He missed his shot. It’s unfortunate. But I thought I made some good saves and felt comfortable.”

Crooked tie or not, Lehner has been a welcomed addition to this Hawks team.

Entering the season, Lehner’s addition to the Hawks — providing not just injury insurance for Corey Crawford but also a true starter-quality presence in goal, even if he’s not a Vezina Trophy finalist again — was arguably the biggest reason for postseason optimism.

The playoffs seem a galaxy away after this sloppy 0-2-1 start, but there’s no reason Lehner can’t still be the X-factor that significantly alters the team’s fate, in spite of their aging core and loose defense. He certainly lived up to expectations Saturday.

“[He] made some big saves for us,” Jeremy Colliton said. “He’s a big presence back there. Covers a lot of the net. He was good.”

Monday’s game against the Oilers will be the first time the starting goaltender role is actually meaningful. Crawford’s history with the franchise made it inevitable he’d start the season opener and home opener, and it was thus logical that Lehner would start the first game after those two.

But now the scripting is over. The Hawks’ goalie battle — for starts both this year and beyond, considering both have expiring contracts next summer — should a meritocracy from now on. (If it isn’t, Colliton will have some serious questions to answer.)

Crawford hasn’t been explicitly bad in his two starts, as his .877 save percentage is more a product of poor play in front of him (along with a couple regrettable goals), but Lehner’s outing Saturday was clearly better than either of Crawford’s games so far.

The 28-year-old Swede, whose bulky 6-foot-4, 240-pound frame fills much of the net even while stationary, has earned the right to start Monday, if the decision is truly performance-based.

With clearly so much about the Hawks in need of immediate repair, giving Lehner the opportunity to run with the “1A” goalie role and carry the team out of the NHL’s early-season cellar might be the easiest potential fix of all.

Even if he does turn left out of the tunnel.