Oh boy oh fucking boy. Just what we needed - the meatballs have been warming up in their driveways, now they're ready to hit the streets.

After Marty Turco goaltended the Hawks to an overtime loss in Colorado, followed by a regulation loss to Detroit in the Home Opener, Corey Crawford recovered from 3 abysmal minutes of goaltending to help the Hawks to 2 points in Buffalo. Joel Quenneville today announced Crawford gets the start tonight against the Nashville Predators.

Under normal curcumstances, this wouldn't be a big deal at all. In fact, on the surface, it's a pretty good idea. Crawford was solid the last 57 minutes on Monday, and the Hawks have 3 games in 4 nights this weekend - if he flips Crawford and Turco for the next few weeks (they have Friday/Saturday back-to-backs, one home and one away,  the next 3 weeks) before Turco really takes over the reins in November, we can all move on, this isn't a game changer at all.

But, unfortunately, that's not how things operate around here. After Turco let a trickler in during the overtime period againve the Avs last week, the "DEY GOTTA START CRAWFORD" trumpets were running their scales. If Crawford wins tonight, the overture begins in earnest. And a win isn't that big a deal, as the Preds aren't playing starting goalie Pekka Rinne, nor is Hawk-killer Marty Erat dressing.

Now, I personally have been on record as saying I'm not the world's biggest Marty Turco fan, so this shouldn't bother me, right? The thing is, he's a better goaltender than Crawford (I'm sure an entire season will prove this out - if not, I'll eat both crow and humble pie), and he also requires work. Anyone paying attention over the past couple games can see that not only is Turco not in sync with the defensemen when it comes to moving the puck, but he's also not really in his rhythm in net yet either.

And, as I stated, there's always the meatballs. I don't know what they did back in the 60s when Glenn Hall played every game, since there wasn't a backup goalie to deify. But the young backup goalie will always be a folk hero to those who roll through the United Center with their half-white/half-red Hawks sweaters. I've said before, it's the same thing we see with the Bears backup quarterback, the white Cub who stands under 5'10, and the Sox player who makes diving catches. Why can't the Meatballs complain over some other imaginary thing, like Patrick Kane should really be back with Jonathan Toews or something?

Now, of course, this could all just wind up being a straw man. The Meatballs might wind up taking a minute, taking a deep breath, and figure that QStache is just spelling Turco now when they're not facing high scoring teams. They might even look at the schedule and see a tandem rotation from now until Halloween will be to the team's benefit, so when November (and the Circus Trip) come along, Turco will have time to get into his rhythm and Crawford will have some starts under his belt before settling into a 25 start year.

Is that how it will go, though? Let's see how it plays out.