For whatever reason, whether it’s the high expectations, early season fatigue, or the sudden realization that he has Niklas Hjalmarsson playing defense in front of him, Corey Crawford hasn’t been the same guy between the pipes that we saw last season.
Now, no one expected him to carry that brilliance he flashed against Vancouver through an entire season. But even in wins this year, Crawford hasn’t exactly demonstrated the confidence you want from your starting goaltender. He’s been shaky. Not that his defense has helped him out as much as one would like, but he hasn’t done himself any favors either.
As a rookie last season, Crawford kept the Blackhawks in the game when they started or finished a game slow, which was a common theme of the 2010-2011 Chicago Blackhawks. That obviously shouldn’t be expected of a goaltender on every single night, but the elite ones make a habit of it, and Crawford simply hasn’t done that this year when he’s had to.
So far this season, Crawford has a save percentage of just .898 and a GAA of 2.86. Overall, that puts him well into the bottom half of the league’s netminders. Those stats are mostly impacted by a very poor November, where Craw posted a save percentage of just .886.
It’s not like the team in front of him has played any defense worth a damn. Hjalmarsson’s been miserable, and the Hawks’ two summer additions to the blue line, Sean O’Donnell and Sami Lepisto, have contributed virtually nothing on the defensive (or offensive) side of things.
That lack of defense can also be attributed to the forwards, who, for the most part, have done a pretty poor job of helping on defense, as well.
I’m not saying that Crawford is awful or that the Blackhawks should seek out a new starting goaltender, as many would like to try and point out that that is the message I’m trying to get across. It’s not.
I’m simply suggesting that, for whatever reason, Crawford doesn’t have the same confidence in net that he had last season. He’s allowing soft goals on a regular basis, as we saw against Calgary, Edmonton, and Phoenix recently, and is appearing to have a harder time locating the puck and moving around down in the crease.
Luckily for Crawford, there’s still plenty of time to get back on track and build that confidence back up. A good chunk of the issues fall on the guys in front of him, but it’s time for Corey to start shouldering a bit of the responsibility, and for others to realize he’s been average in these first two months of the season.
As unpopular of an opinion as it might be, maybe the Hawks should consider throwing Ray Emery out there on a more regular basis. The purpose of that is to not to create any sort of goalie controversy or hint that Emery is a better goaltender, but maybe Craw just needs a bit of a rest to get his mind right.
Odds are, Crawford will break out of this slump before long. But the Hawks better hope it’s soon, as teams continue to creep up on them in the Western Conference, with games in hand, and the Blackhawks’ defense seems to be getting worse on a nightly basis.
That starts with Crawford.
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