Goaltender Corey Crawford is the weakest link for the Blackhawks
By Brandon Moy
The Chicago Blackhawks find themselves up against the ropes in the Western Conference Finals against the Anaheim Ducks. The shorthanded Blackhawks’ team trails 3-2 in the series and will have to play some of their best hockey of the season in order to come back and win the series. Despite technically only playing four and a half defensemen, the Hawks have, for the most part, played well against a currently much stronger Anaheim team.
Most of the blame for the team's downfall in the current series have been put on the shoulders of the defensemen who continue to get beat-up every single game. But there is another factor that many aren’t taking into consideration, and that is the play of goaltender Corey Crawford. It may be time to consider making a switch to backup goaltender Scott Darling. In spite of the fact that he has not played since Game 6 of the first round against the Nashville Predators, Darling may be the key to the Blackhawks coming back in this series.
In this year’s playoffs, the Blackhawks have tallied seven periods where they have allowed the opponent to score three goals. To put that in perspective, the New York Rangers scored just one more goal than that in their first 11 games of the playoffs. While I admit that the defensive effort has not been there in every single game for the Blackhawks, giving up 21 goals in seven periods is downright awful. Five of the seven games in which these goals have been scored were in games in which Corey Crawford was the goaltender for the Blackhawks. Now, while I’m not putting all of the blame on Crawford, it comes to a point, in the playoffs especially, that the goaltender must be able to perform at the best of his ability for the team to even have a chance in the game. Of all of the goaltenders remaining in the playoffs currently, Crawford has faced the lowest number of shot attempts. To be put in that situation is every goaltenders dream; yet Crawford just isn’t able to get the job done for the Blackhawks. To go along with that, Crawford has the highest goals against average at 2.57 when stacked up against the remaining goaltenders, as well.
Corey Crawford looked very shaky in the opening round against the Nashville Predators, where he was replaced by Scott Darling for a few games. He then followed that up by playing fairly well against the Minnesota Wild. Many thought he had broken out of his funk and was ready to lead the Hawks to the Stanley Cup. Now, in this third round series, we have seen the ups and downs that I have come to expect out of Crawford.
In Game 1, he gave up three goals on 27 shots, which was not enough to keep the Blackhawks in the game. During that same game, Frederik Andersen, who is playing in his first full playoff year as the starting goaltender, only let in one goal on 33 shots. Crawford followed that up by playing rather well, helping his team to a three-overtime victory while stopping 60 of the 62 shots thrown at him. In game 3, the Blackhawks were badly outplayed; while the Ducks only mustered up 27 shots on goal despite dominating in possession, Crawford couldn’t seem to reach the level that it would have taken to get the Hawks the win letting in two goals. When it comes to Game 4, Crawford played fairly well until he allowed three goals in a span of 37 seconds. This shaky performance almost blew the game for the Blackhawks; however, they were able to come back and get the win in double overtime. And finally, in the first period of Game 5, the Blackhawks were once again badly outplayed. Yet, Crawford couldn’t help out his team by keeping the margin reasonable, as he allowed three goals on 11 shots in the first period.
It has been proven that the typical goaltender of a Stanley Cup winning team usually has about a .920 save percentage. While Corey Crawford currently stands at .917, that number is skewed to an extent. He was able to muster up an above average performance against the Minnesota Wild throughout Round 2 and a couple of amazing performances by his standards scattered throughout the rest of the playoffs. This current series against the Anaheim Ducks reminds me so much of last years’ series against the Los Angeles Kings. Crawford just can’t seem to find a way to keep the puck out of his net.
This brings me to why Crawford is struggling so much. Let’s face it, Corey Crawford has a ton of flaws in his game and the Anaheim Ducks are exploiting every single one of them. To start, Crawford is very prone to giving up soft goals. We have seen this numerous times throughout this series, and this will likely continue throughout his career. Second, Crawford can’t stop a single puck that is above his shoulders on either his blocker side or his glove side. In fact, unless the puck hits him square in the mask, it is most likely going in. This has been a problem in the past as his glove side has been exposed badly in the past; however, his blocker side is also proving to be very weak. Finally, Crawford has horrible rebound control. When he is at the very top of his game, like he was against Minnesota in Round 2, Crawford won’t give up many rebounds. The only problem is that he can’t sustain that level of play for more than a couple of games at best. If the Ducks continue to place their shots where they have, Crawford will continue to give up juicy rebounds in the middle of the slot, which may or may not lead to additional scoring opportunities for the Ducks, depending on the situation.
While I spent most of my time critiquing Crawford’s game, the whole point was to prove that Scott Darling may be the key to the Blackhawks coming back in the series. While Darling is still very inexperienced, he does have some attributes that play to his advantage against the Ducks. First and foremost, Darling is a huge guy. Standing at 6 feet 6 inches, Darling is significantly bigger than Crawford. Not only does this mean Darling takes up more of the net; he is also able to see over the big bodies that the Ducks have screening the goalie on every possession. Crawford has struggled with this as he is forced to see around or through the screens, often putting him out of position to make the saves. Darling also has a great ability to control the rebounds he gives up. Having watched a lot of Scott Darling, I have noticed that when he does give up a rebound, the puck is left in a spot that wouldn’t be considered a high scoring opportunity. In fact, many of Darling’s rebounds are in spots where his teammates usually have the advantage in getting to the puck first. This cuts down on the amount of time the opposition spends in our zone and even allows the Hawks some good transition opportunities.
All in all, head coach Joel Quenneville is unlikely to make a goaltending switch at this point in the series. Having said that, it might be in his best interest to consider a switch if at any time the Blackhawks surrender an early lead. The current Blackhawks team is notorious for having slow times in the game when they almost seem not to care. At these points in the game, it is crucial for the goaltender to step up and keep his team from completely blowing the game. So far in this series, Corey Crawford has not been able to do that for the Blackhawks. At some times, he could even be considered the guy who starts this drought in the game. This down time costs the Blackhawks as it changes the momentum in a game, and, as we have seen, it could change up the story on the scoreboard in a hurry. I am not saying that Scott Darling will perform spectacularly and lead the Hawks to the Stanley Cup if he were to be inserted into the game; however, I am saying that at this point in time and with all things considered, Scott Darling in goal may be the best option for the Blackhawks if they want any chance to come back in the series and win the Stanley Cup.
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