Biggest save was his life
Chicago goaltender Darling battled addiction before blocking pucks in NHL
After Blackhawks goaltender Scott Darling started his first NHL playoff game April 19, he and his family gathered for dinner at a downtown steakhouse that overlooks the Chicago River.
At a nearby table sat puckish teammate Andrew Shaw, who was only too happy to out his teammate to fellow diners as the unlikely hero of the Blackhawks’ 4-2 win in Game 3 of their series against the Nashville Predators.
But other than that, Darling kept the dinner low key.
With a chance to celebrate what was the biggest athletic accomplishment of his life, he did not head to a bar or a club — and he certainly didn’t have any alcoholic drinks with his dinner.
There was a time not long ago where alcohol would have been on the menu for Darling — and a lot of it. Drinking was not only a way to party, but for Darling it was also a way to overcome his social anxiety.
But after hitting rock bottom in 2010, Darling went on to make his most important save in 2011.
It was his perseverance in kicking his alcohol addiction that brought him to the Blackhawks. At the same time, it was the drive to get back into hockey that helped Darling kick a problem that nearly derailed a promising career and ruined his life.
“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.”
Now, he has gone from humiliation to hero for the Blackhawks.
It is Darling’s play in net that spurred the Blackhawks to a 3-2 series lead against the Predators entering Game 6 Saturday night. It’s a surreal moment for Darling, who grew up a Blackhawks fan, and his family, who can’t believe Darling finds himself at the pinnacle of hockey success after what he went through just a few years ago.
“As far as making it to the NHL, I never really thought about it that far,” Darling’s mom, Cindy, said. “I just wanted him to be healthy, get his life together, get his life in perspective, which he did.
“And I think that because of all he’s been through, he just appreciates it much more.”
Darling grew up in Lemont, Ill., and went to Lemont High School before playing with five junior hockey clubs in Indiana, Illinois, New York and Iowa, including the Chicago Young Americans.
For Darling, the drinking began when he was in junior hockey and carried over to his early years in college. When Darling arrived at the University of Maine, he didn’t seem atypical of college hockey players who liked to have fun off the ice, but Darling’s drinking habits soon were seen as excessive.
“It was his sophomore year we realized for sure he had some bigger issues and needed help,” Tim Whitehead, Darling’s former coach at Maine, said. “We tried a lot of different angles with his captains and coaches. … We exhausted all the options.”
But nothing got through to Darling.
Cindy Darling said because her son was so talented, people tended to look the other way when it came to his drinking.
And for Darling, drinking was a way to compensate.
“He had a lot of not-fitting in feelings and anxiety,” Cindy said. “Lots of people choose things to make themselves feel calmer or to fit in and that was his choice.”
The problems eventually became too much and Whitehead kicked Darling off the team in 2010. Darling then spent another year wallowing in alcohol as he washed out with the Louisiana Icegators of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“When you bottom out like that in the Southern Professional League and they’re not concerned whether you stay and you end up in the NHL, that’s not an accident,” Whitehead said. “He earned it every step of the way up.”
Cindy remembers the day Scott told her he was making a change — July 1, 2011.
“I realized how far I had fallen in such a short period of time,” Darling said. “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 had to slog through lower-level pro leagues and earn his stripes. It meant losing weight, working out every day — and not drinking.
He made stops in Florida and Wheeling, W.Va., in the East Coast Hockey League. He spent time with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL before he signed with the Predators, who gave him his best chance to prove himself at their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee.
“There were definitely people that helped me along the way,” Darling said. “But in a situation like that, anybody who’s been through it knows it’s up to the person going through it to make the decision and the decision was mine to make.”
From there, he caught the eye of the Blackhawks, who signed him to a contract on July 1, 2014, three years to the day Darling made his commitment to turn around his life. He quickly showed his ability in Rockford before nabbing the backup gig with the Blackhawks, earning a two-year extension through 2017 and ultimately winning the starting job as Corey Crawford struggled in the first two games of the Predators series.
“Scott’s an awesome guy,” Crawford said. “He’s gone through a lot to get here and he’s been playing awesome. How can you not feel good for him?”