ANALYSIS: Hometown Hero Delia Backstops Chicago to LA Win

For the second straight night, the Blackhawks bent but didn't break in Southern California, holding off the LA Kings on Thursday for a 4-3 shootout victory at Crypto.com Arena.
Chicago held three leads on the night, all erased by a tying goal from the Kings, but held on in the skills competition for the second point -- the second straight win to kick off a three-game trip.
"I thought it was a tough game," said Alex DeBrincat, who scored a goal in regulation and then converted the deciding shootout attempt. "They play pretty well structurally and I thought we did a good job of responding when they scored and not giving them too much. Deals (Collin Delia) stopped it when he needed to and lucky we came out with the win."

POSTGAME LINKS
GAMECENTER: CHI at LA
RECAP: Blackhawks Down Kings in Shootout, 4-3
VERDICT: A Conversation with GM Kyle Davidson
HIGHLIGHTS: Blackhawks at Kings
GALLERY: Blackhawks at Kings
INSIDER: GM Kyle Davidson Breaks Down Deadline Dealing
"Guys competed. We stuck to it," interim head coach Derek King added. "Had no doubt in the game, no 'Oh, here we go again' feeling. They just kept grinding away. That's what we want."
DeBrincat and Patrick Kane led the offense with a goal and an assist each on the evening, while Sam Lafferty netted his fourth as a Blackhawk. Taylor Raddysh had an assist to push his point streak to a career-long three games (2G, 2A) in four skates since joining Chicago.

HOMETOWN HERO

In Collin Delia's 26 career NHL games before Thursday night, the Southern California kid had never even faced one of his hometown teams -- LA or Anaheim -- much less started a game in his home state. He was the star of the show in Chicago's win, stopping 43 shots on 46 shots and denying all three shootout attempts he faced for the win in his second start of the year.
"It's hard to put into words," a visibly-moved Delia said after the game. "It's just really cool to be from this area, grow up watching Kings, Ducks, especially Jonathan Quick and get to compete with some really good company and come out victorious. Definitely a memorable experience."
"I was so thrilled for Deals. Awesome. Good for him," King said. "He's gone through a lot and it's just nice for him -- California boy winning in California in front of his family. Awesome. Happy for the guy. I think you could see his smile."

Delia's smile was magnified by the fact that the last two season's haven't been easygoing for the netminder.
He came into last season seemingly poised for an elevated role as the Blackhawks entered the year with a three-man rotation in net. He started the second and third games of the season before Kevin Lankinen emerged as the team's go-to guy in net. It was three and a half months before Delia saw game action again, finishing the year with four solid performances over the season's final nine days.
This season, he was pushed down the depth chart into a three-man rotation for much of the year in Rockford after Marc-Andre Fleury was acquired in the offseason. He earned his lone NHL start in January with both Fleury and Lankinen in COVID-19 protocol, but allowed three goals on seven shots in the first period of a lopsided loss in Nashville before getting pulled. He played another seven-plus minutes of action late in a lopsided loss against Minnesota in February, but has otherwise toiled in the minors until being called to backstop Lankinen for the rest of the year after the trade deadline.
"I've just been focusing on my process, keeping my game sharp for whatever opportunity comes my way," he said.
"It's NHL games, it's NHL experience. It's really important to me," Delia added of the opportunity down the stretch. "I want to make sure I handle myself professionally and I want to win for this team. We may be statistically out of it, but it doesn't meant that we're not going to compete every game and we want to win. This is our job and we take pride in that."

"Obviously Lanks is our guy, but he fills in when the right time is for him and he puts in a performance like that. It's pretty solid," King added.
The home state has been kind to Delia, now a perfect 3-0 in starts in California. Back in his rookie season, Delia backstopped the Rockford IceHogs to a 5-2 win over the Kings' affiliate in Ontario, a town over from where he grew up in just his seventh pro game. He was in net for a 4-2 win in San Jose Barracuda two nights later.