Is It The Goalie Or The D?

Supposedly Joel Quenneville is a good coach but isn't coaching all about getting the right matchups? So explain to me how after a very average first round vs. the Lames that Coach Q has stuck with Nikolai Khabibulin through the first three games of this series.

Not that Roberto Luongo's one good game out of three excuses him but the Blackhawks have a perfectly good backup in Cristobal Huet who has a 3W 0L record, .914 save pct in '08/09 vs. the Canucks. All Joel had to do was look at Khabibulin's '08/09 record vs. the Nux 0W 2L, .800 save pct. to realize starting Khabibulin was the wrong move.

The Chicago D has certainly done its job limiting the Nux to an average of close to 23 shots a game so, if you want to change the course of this series, Huet better be in goal for your team come Thursday.

Speaking of D, there is a lot of hype over Anaheim's D. Any team that has given up an average of 39 shots per 60 minutes of play is not good. I'm sorry but anyone who saw the non-goal (thanks to a brutal refereeing mistake with a premature whistle) last night that Detroit "didn't" score would have noticed the much ballyhooed Scott Niedermayer giving the puck away behind the Ducks net.

Yes, Niedermayer and Chris Pronger both contribute offensively and are probably two of the better defensemen in the league, but this Cup run the Ducks are currently on is due to one man alone not being a piece of Swiss cheese. Jonas Hiller, take a bow.