The Chicago Blackhawks have had a fairly sound and standard strategy the past two years when it comes to goaltending - use a veteran as your starter and bring along a rookie to groom as the starter.

Both years, the strategy has been out the window by midseason.

Last year, Cristobal Huet lost the starting job to Antti Niemi before the Olympic break, and that worked out pretty well.

This season, Marty Turco signed with the Hawks at a huge pay cut to play behind the Hawks' vaunted defense. However, while he was in net, the Hawks' team defense was hardly vauntworthy. When young Corey Crawford got in net, everything just came together. Whether he was lucky enough to be in net when the Hawks figured out defense (at even strength, anyway), or if the Hawks are more comfortable with him in the cage is a chicken/egg argument.

What we do know is this - Corey Crawford is a vastly improved goalie over what we've seen in the past. In the past, he was a pretty timid goalie, setting deep in the net, not challenging shooters, not showing any semblence of speed in his lateral movement, and not controlling the crease.

This year, he's coming out to challenge shooters more, he's staying on his skates longer, and he has complete ownership of his crease.

Last season, Niemi started the year tending goal like he had a jockstrap full of fire ants, running out of the crease at inopportune times, jumping in the air to chase deflections, playing very erratic. By season's end, he looked like a seasoned veteran.

What is the common denominator? Blackhawks' goaltending coach Stephane Waite.

Waite has over 20 years of mentoring goalies under his belt. Good luck finding any stats on him as a player - he never played in the NHL, and I couldn't even find any numbers on him in major junior - but he's been with the Hawks for 8 years.

The fact that he's been very successful the past two years in Chicago with young goaltenders means he's pretty good at teaching. the fact that young goaltenders are outplaying veterans could very well indicate he has issues with maybe fine-tuning older goalies.

For a while last season, there was some improvement in Huet's technique. After seemingly dropping to butterfly every time the puck reached center ice, Huet was suddenly staying up longer, seeing the puck better, and stopping more pucks. After QStache sat Huet for almost a month, it's as if whatever Waite told him leaked out of his ears. He went back to dropping early, giving up the top half of the net, and essentially became useless.

This season, Marty Turco does occasionally throw a sweet-assed saucer pass. But he's still showing a lot more wanderlust than he needs to, when he's got guys like Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell, and now Nick Leddy wheeling in the defensive zone. He just needs to simplify his game, and we'll see if he and Waite can come to some sort of understanding. I'm pretty sure QStache would love to have two goalies he can start at any time, instead of having to spot Turco and ride Crawford like he's Glenn Hall.

But at least Crawford has been rideable,and a lot of that credit belongs to Waite.