ChicagoDawg1991
Guest
What can I say? Sophomore Slump. Why is he starting now? Because we had the likes of Nikolai Khabibulin or Cristobal Huet when they were in their primes yet turned out to be the ones who put us over the cap limit? We thought we'd be winning in no time...............yea right
Blackhawk fans are calling for his head on Bowman's desk but the reality is that Corey Crawford is going NOWHERE. What would a new goalie do with the way our defencemen play in front of the net? Absolutely NOTHING but the same or higher numbers than what Crow put this year.
But there was some positives for him this year. The 27-year old native from the small Montreal suburbs of Châteauguay, Quebec has completed 2 seasons as the #1 goalie with both seasons resulting in 30+ wins. The last Hawk to win 30 games prior to his official rookie season was another Montreal Native by the name of Jocelyn Thibault(pronounced Tee-BOW) in 2001-02 with 33 wins which was the identical # of wins Crow won in 2010-11.
I'm going to be honest, I really thought Marty Turco was gonna help us out and that Crawford was gonna wait a year at least and most times I wanted Crawford pulled in favor of Turco when a team scored 2 quick goals most notably against Vancouver in that dramatic 7 game series but I learned that the goaltending will only do so much.
The last goalie to win 35+ was the great Eddie Belfour with 37 in the year 1993-94. Now time to compare them both(yes you read that correctly) on a couple of things. They both struggled in their sophomore seasons and here is some proof-The Eagle went 21-18-10 in the 1991-92 season while having an Goals Against Average of 2.70 and a .894 Save % with 5 shutouts and was pulled 4 times while Crawford didn't shutout anyone(came close a lot though) recording a record of 30-17-7 with a 2.72 Goals Against Average and a Save % of .903 while being pulled in 6 games.
Both of em were not only pulled but they both allowed some pretty soft goals but their defencemen were either in the penalty box or being lazy around the net. Some of the blame can be put on Crawford for allowing Red and Blue line goals but ain't nothing you can do if the puck is bouncing like a ball and it gets past ya, trust me its happened to the best of em!
The similarities and differences are not by much except the shutouts and wins but both of them got hot down the stretch in time for the playoffs. Now this is where I get mad at the comparisons because the Eagle had something called a DEFENCE in Dave Manson, Chris Chelios, Bryan Marchment, Steve Smith and all of em wouldn't take shit from ANYONE! Jocelyn Lemieux, Mike Peluso, Stu Grimson, Jeremy Roenick and Dirk Graham at Forward which would no doubt about it make the other team tremble with fear!!
Who does Crawford have? Brandon Bollig, Daniel Carcillo and Steve Montador. That is NOT ENOUGH toughness! Mayers won't be back, O'Donnell for sure won't be back, and that we traded John Scott which wasnt much help but he was an enforcer. If Bowman makes some moves to acquire such Tough Guys then Crawford can breathe a little easier!
Question is who should we go after?? What would fit in our abysmal salary cap?? What if we trade for a top D Man?? Well all of these questions should be asked to Stan Bowman who even said "Goaltending wasnt our strength, it has to be better" but at the same time we can't ENTIRELY blame him for the series loss to Phoenix. YES i'am aware of those two softies but without Crawford, we don't get those two end of regulation goal chances or better yet a chance to win it in OT.
I was really hoping that Q would fire Stephan Waite, the brother of former Hawks goalie Jimmy Waite(who was HORRIFIC his entire career) and go hire a goalie coach that actually was a winning goalie. Jocelyn Thibault? Eddie Belfour? Tony O? But no we fired our assistant coach instead!
For Crawford to have a season identical to what he did in 2010-11, he needs to have more confidence in himself. The whole team does but they better play like they do and not clear pucks when hes trying to freeze em *coughs* Hjalmarsson! and for guys to box out forwards who screen him *coughs* Leddy and Seabrook!
In all seriousness, Leddy was a rookie and that was expected but he never elevated his game when he needed too, Hjalmarsson was a waste this year and I've completely lost faith in him despite having a +9 Rating. Seabrook and Keith both had very good + Ratings but never helped much in the postseason. Oduya was a good pick up but he was even coughing up the pucks in our end which killed Crow.
What can we do to fix it? Add AGGRESSIVE DEFENDERS and Gritty Forwards. Guys that will do their assignments for cheap pay and not giving a damn about who is on the other team. Unless you want Olsen, Shaw and Hayes up soon.
Nevertheless, for Crawford to have a really good 2012-13 campaign we need to address the needs at 2nd scoring center, top tier defence and most importantly TOUGHNESS! A new goalie would just make things worse because of being barely under the Salary Cap.
To recap this, Corey Crawford WILL be our goalie the next 2 years guaranteed! He just needs a little help from his friends in front of him and needs to improve on A LOT of things. I certainly believe we can go far with him in the net but this summer will certainly have a lot of questions and some will be answered and the others will be ignored
Whatever Bowman is planning, one thing for sure is that the Blackhawks and Corey Crawford will have unfinished business. Why i'm I so confident in Crow? Well when you witness 5 difficult years(2002-2007) with a team not winning any games and a goalie that is struggling, you have to count your blessings since the 08-09 season and look at the stats, they are definitely better
Just have a little bit of faith in all of them Hawk fans, and you will be rewarded greatly. Just be positive regardless of who's out there and in the net and instead of placing the blame on the goalie, blame the whole team. There is no I in team just so you know otherwise hockey would be boring with 1 on 1s.
Blackhawk fans are calling for his head on Bowman's desk but the reality is that Corey Crawford is going NOWHERE. What would a new goalie do with the way our defencemen play in front of the net? Absolutely NOTHING but the same or higher numbers than what Crow put this year.
But there was some positives for him this year. The 27-year old native from the small Montreal suburbs of Châteauguay, Quebec has completed 2 seasons as the #1 goalie with both seasons resulting in 30+ wins. The last Hawk to win 30 games prior to his official rookie season was another Montreal Native by the name of Jocelyn Thibault(pronounced Tee-BOW) in 2001-02 with 33 wins which was the identical # of wins Crow won in 2010-11.
I'm going to be honest, I really thought Marty Turco was gonna help us out and that Crawford was gonna wait a year at least and most times I wanted Crawford pulled in favor of Turco when a team scored 2 quick goals most notably against Vancouver in that dramatic 7 game series but I learned that the goaltending will only do so much.
The last goalie to win 35+ was the great Eddie Belfour with 37 in the year 1993-94. Now time to compare them both(yes you read that correctly) on a couple of things. They both struggled in their sophomore seasons and here is some proof-The Eagle went 21-18-10 in the 1991-92 season while having an Goals Against Average of 2.70 and a .894 Save % with 5 shutouts and was pulled 4 times while Crawford didn't shutout anyone(came close a lot though) recording a record of 30-17-7 with a 2.72 Goals Against Average and a Save % of .903 while being pulled in 6 games.
Both of em were not only pulled but they both allowed some pretty soft goals but their defencemen were either in the penalty box or being lazy around the net. Some of the blame can be put on Crawford for allowing Red and Blue line goals but ain't nothing you can do if the puck is bouncing like a ball and it gets past ya, trust me its happened to the best of em!
The similarities and differences are not by much except the shutouts and wins but both of them got hot down the stretch in time for the playoffs. Now this is where I get mad at the comparisons because the Eagle had something called a DEFENCE in Dave Manson, Chris Chelios, Bryan Marchment, Steve Smith and all of em wouldn't take shit from ANYONE! Jocelyn Lemieux, Mike Peluso, Stu Grimson, Jeremy Roenick and Dirk Graham at Forward which would no doubt about it make the other team tremble with fear!!
Who does Crawford have? Brandon Bollig, Daniel Carcillo and Steve Montador. That is NOT ENOUGH toughness! Mayers won't be back, O'Donnell for sure won't be back, and that we traded John Scott which wasnt much help but he was an enforcer. If Bowman makes some moves to acquire such Tough Guys then Crawford can breathe a little easier!
Question is who should we go after?? What would fit in our abysmal salary cap?? What if we trade for a top D Man?? Well all of these questions should be asked to Stan Bowman who even said "Goaltending wasnt our strength, it has to be better" but at the same time we can't ENTIRELY blame him for the series loss to Phoenix. YES i'am aware of those two softies but without Crawford, we don't get those two end of regulation goal chances or better yet a chance to win it in OT.
I was really hoping that Q would fire Stephan Waite, the brother of former Hawks goalie Jimmy Waite(who was HORRIFIC his entire career) and go hire a goalie coach that actually was a winning goalie. Jocelyn Thibault? Eddie Belfour? Tony O? But no we fired our assistant coach instead!
For Crawford to have a season identical to what he did in 2010-11, he needs to have more confidence in himself. The whole team does but they better play like they do and not clear pucks when hes trying to freeze em *coughs* Hjalmarsson! and for guys to box out forwards who screen him *coughs* Leddy and Seabrook!
In all seriousness, Leddy was a rookie and that was expected but he never elevated his game when he needed too, Hjalmarsson was a waste this year and I've completely lost faith in him despite having a +9 Rating. Seabrook and Keith both had very good + Ratings but never helped much in the postseason. Oduya was a good pick up but he was even coughing up the pucks in our end which killed Crow.
What can we do to fix it? Add AGGRESSIVE DEFENDERS and Gritty Forwards. Guys that will do their assignments for cheap pay and not giving a damn about who is on the other team. Unless you want Olsen, Shaw and Hayes up soon.
Nevertheless, for Crawford to have a really good 2012-13 campaign we need to address the needs at 2nd scoring center, top tier defence and most importantly TOUGHNESS! A new goalie would just make things worse because of being barely under the Salary Cap.
To recap this, Corey Crawford WILL be our goalie the next 2 years guaranteed! He just needs a little help from his friends in front of him and needs to improve on A LOT of things. I certainly believe we can go far with him in the net but this summer will certainly have a lot of questions and some will be answered and the others will be ignored
Whatever Bowman is planning, one thing for sure is that the Blackhawks and Corey Crawford will have unfinished business. Why i'm I so confident in Crow? Well when you witness 5 difficult years(2002-2007) with a team not winning any games and a goalie that is struggling, you have to count your blessings since the 08-09 season and look at the stats, they are definitely better
Just have a little bit of faith in all of them Hawk fans, and you will be rewarded greatly. Just be positive regardless of who's out there and in the net and instead of placing the blame on the goalie, blame the whole team. There is no I in team just so you know otherwise hockey would be boring with 1 on 1s.
