The Stanley Cup Playoffs are rife with storylines every year. It provides one of the greatest battlegrounds in sports, with its fierce conflict. Take any storytelling or film class and on Day 1, you will learn of the importance of conflict. It has to be someone or something versus someone or something else to make a truly good story. There has to be something to overcome.
All NHL players are familiar with conflict. They make their living off of it. One such player has become familiar with conflict of a different kind, though.
Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Scott Darling has become the toast of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after navigating a long, winding road to the NHL and suddenly has been thrust into a position as the starting goaltender for a Stanley Cup contender.
That he’s here at all is amazing, but one doesn’t travel the road Darling has to reach the NHL without overcoming a lot. He started his pro hockey career in the Southern Professional Hockey League with a team called the Louisiana IceGators and he barely made it through a season with the team.
The SPHL is close to the bottom rung of professional hockey. But if you’re curious about how Darling could have possibly made it to the highest level of the sport, it helps to know that he really started from below the bottom rung.
Darling has not shied away from speaking about his past and he was quite candid in an excellent profile by Chris Hine in the Chicago Tribune about the low points in his life that he had to come back from.
The now 26-year-old goaltender became an alcoholic at a young age. It cost him his spot on the University of Maine’s hockey team after just two seasons and sent him on a path that couldn’t really begin until he helped himself.
According to the Tribune that social anxiety fueled Darling's alcoholism. After hitting rock bottom in 2010, he decided to make a change:
"Fortunately for me, I was able to just make a decision (that) enough was enough," Darling said. "I just wanted better out of my life and that's what I did."
"I realized how far I had fallen in such a short period of time. I went from a top college prospect to jobless, no degree, didn't make anything out of my college career and no bright spots in the near future. I just had a moment of 'That's it.' I've been trying to build my way back up ever since."
Darling vowed to give up alcohol on July 1, 2011, according to his mother Cindy.
Since then, he has been on a remarkable path up the professional ranks, playing for 10 different teams over five years and finally ending up with the Blackhawks, the team he grew up cheering for as a kid living in nearby Lemont, Illinois.
#Blackhawks goalie Scott Darling: From humiliation to hero http://t.co/aGfvH004VS pic.twitter.com/CHpinszRwq
— Tribune Graphics (@ChiTribGraphics) April 23, 2015
Darling’s last stop before landing with the Chicago Blackhawks was within the Nashville Predators’ organization. He spent last season playing for the Milwaukee Admirals in the American Hockey League before his hometown team came calling ahead of the 2014-15 season.
Darling is keenly aware of where he came from and what he has had to overcome to get to this point. On the Chicago-themed goalie mask he had designed by Head Strong Grafx, the backplate includes the Latin slogan "Lucto et Emergo" which essentially translates to "I struggle and emerge."
Photo via Head Strong Grafx, InGoalMag.com:
And emerged, he has. The 6-foot-6 goaltender started the year with the AHL's Rockford Ice Hogs before getting called up in late October. He made 32 saves in his NHL debut, a 2-1 Blackhawks win over the Ottawa Senators. He bounced between the Ice Hogs and Blackhawks a few more times throughout the year before being called up in a more permanent manner in late Feburary.
Darling was a little cheaper than Chicago's established backup Antti Raanta and performed well enough in his stints with the Blackhawks that he was worth keeping to help both the salary cap and Chicago’s cause in spelling Corey Crawford when needed.
Who could have guessed that Darling would be in the position he is come playoff time, though?
He came on in relief of Crawford in Game 1 against the Predators and stopped 42 of 42 shots as the Blackhawks earned a double-overtime victory after coming back from a 3-0 deficit. It was a moment of arrival for Darling.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews awarded him with their player of the game award, which is a WWE-style championship belt.
Every team does this sort of thing, but you could tell that it meant something a little more to Darling. He subtly nodded in approval to his teammates and before placing the belt in his locker stall, he kissed it.
In a situation no one expected Darling to be in, he delivered and he had earned his teammates' approval and respect with his play, though he probably already had it.
The playoffs have been a special time for Darling's family as well. His sister Sarah shared her feelings about her brother's success in an interview with DNAinfo Chicago:
"I can't even put into words how special this is for him," Sarah Darling wrote in an email to DNAinfo Chicago Wednesday afternoon. "This is what he worked so hard for; now he's here and I know he will work hard to stay."
"The best part of the playoff run so far for me is seeing his genuine excitement as the final buzzer sounds," said Darling, who lives in southwest suburban Lemont. "He has this movement with his arm and stick thing he does. It always bring a smile to my face."
When Crawford faltered again in Game 2, the Blackhawks turned to Darling as the Game 3 starter.
He stopped 35 of 37 shots in Game 3 as the Blackhawks earned a 4-2 win. Then he made 50 saves in the triple-overtime win in Game 4.
Even Crawford, whose job was taken by Darling, can't help but feel good for his teammate after all he has been through to get here.
“He’s gone through a lot to get here and he’s been playing awesome. How can you not feel good for him?” Crawford told CSNChicago.com. “I have to encourage him, keep pushing him to be his best.”
After the games, Crawford has often been one of the first players to congratulate Darling. When all of the Blackhawks mobbed Brent Seabrook after his goal ended the triple-overtime thriller, Crawford went to Darling first. It shows the level of respect that the players have for what Darling has done to create this opportunity for himself.
With just 14 games of NHL experience prior to the playoffs, Darling has gone 3-0, while posting a .969 save percentage and 1.05 goals-against average in his first three postseason appearances.
These playoffs will continue to give us plenty of great stories, born out of great conflict, but the best of them all may be Darling's "emergence."
