Chicago Blackhawks’ goaltender Corey Crawford has probably been the most interesting player to watch thus far in an incredibly interesting postseason in the National Hockey League.
It started off in Game 1 of the first round against the Nashville Predators who were the favorites as the three seed. Crawford was pulled for Scott Darling after giving up three early goals. Crawford came back for Game 2, but once again was pulled after giving up six goals, and Darling played the next four games. Nobody knew whether or not the Blackhawks would be long for the playoffs because of how inconsistent their goaltending situation was. Late in the Nashville series, Crawford was back in net and the “She loves me, she loves me not” saga was still being floated around. Chicago was able to get away with it in the first round, but generally, you can not win once you get deeper in the NHL playoffs if you don’t have a solidified goaltending situation. Goaltender-by-committee is never a good situation to be stuck with.
Not only did Corey Crawford put those talks to bed in the series’ against the Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks, but he’s a huge reason that his team is now going to a Game 7 to play for the Western Conference Title and a potential trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. As the top seed, the Ducks have been highly regarded as the favorite to win this series, but the Chicago Blackhawks just continue to hang in there. In the first game they won, Game 2 in Anaheim, a game in which had gone almost 6 full periods, Crawford made a staggering 60 saves and outplayed Frederick Andersen. There have been a few times in which he’s outdueled his counterpart in this series, and last night was another example of that, making another 30 saves to lead Chicago to a 3-2 victory in Game 6.
It isn’t often you see a goaltender who is so shaky and is pulled multiple times in round 1, shaky to the point where he doesn’t even play for the majority of the series, and makes a complete 180 degree turn to take his team to a possible Stanley Cup Finals birth. In my opinion it is being overlooked but I definitely remember how poorly he played and he deserves all the credit in the world to even be able to put himself and his team in this position.
Going into Game 7 in Anaheim, if I had to take a guess, I would go with the home team with the more balanced, physical team and that this story will come to an end, but I have been impressed with this run that this team and this goaltender has gone on. There is nothing that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime that is more unpredictable than a Game 7 in the National Hockey League, and both the Eastern Conference Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Rangers and Western Conference Finals are going that far. All I know is that Friday and Saturday night’s games will not disappoint.
This is what the Postseason in the NHL is all about.
