Hawks' Crawford confident he is right goalie
Corey Crawford sat in the corner of the Blackhawks' locker room, alone with his thoughts and apart from the crowd of reporters after the final game of the season.
His head was up and he stared into the distance, waiting for the questions.
As one reporter approached, he nodded as if to say, “I'm ready.”
Hawks fans are wondering if that's really the case.
So how does Crawford sum up this season, one that began with great expectations after his series against Vancouver a year ago?
“I know that I can play great hockey. I'm sure of that,” Crawford said following Game 6 against Phoenix. “There were a lot of ups and down this year, and I think you learn a lot from that. There's a lot to be gained from that process.”
The 27-year-old Crawford has played 122 NHL games, or about two goaltending seasons. It's not enough to judge a goaltender's career, as they sometimes play their best hockey after 10 years in the league.
But Crawford has displayed some talent as good as any NHL goalie — against the Canucks last spring — and some the antithesis — as he did on the long road trip in February.
“I know I played better than last year at times, and I know I've got some things to work on, some issues to take care of,” Crawford said. “There's some things I have to do better, and I'm disappointed in that.
“But I know what I've got in me and I'll be working hard this summer to get better all the way around. I believe in myself and what I can do at this level.”
Against Phoenix, Crawford was at times brilliant and he was mostly quite good. But fans will remember the 2 soft OT goals, one of which was his fault and one which was a fluke.
But comparing him to Mike Smith is patently unfair, and Crawford is not the reason the Hawks lost the series. They scored 12 goals in six games, including 4 in three home games.
“I can't even dignify that,” Jonathan Toews said of blaming Crawford. “How many times in this series did he save us? That's just … that's just wrong.”
Nevertheless, it will be part of the conversation this summer, and Crawford will come back next season with much to prove.
Power play
Someone is probably going to pay a price for the Hawks' second straight first-round exit, and you wonder if it will be assistant coach Mike Kitchen, who runs the defense and power play.
There have been whispers that Kitchen is not a lot of fun to play for, and the power play under his watch was dreadful all season and in the series 1-for-19. The Hawks lost three games by a goal and were 0-for-10 with the man advantage in those games.
Hard to understand why the Hawks won a Cup with Mike Haviland in charge of the defense and special teams and then switched those responsibilities with Kitchen on board.
Kitchen is a longtime Joel Quenneville guy, and that makes this situation a bit tricky.
No. 2 center
The Hawks began the year desperately in need of a No. 2 center and the need looked no less glaring during the postseason.
Size and grit
The Hawks were outhit 236 to 181 in the series, and the beating took a toll on the Hawks' defense, while the Hawks' forwards — aside from Bryan Bickell — did very little of the same to the Phoenix defense.
There's a need for more sandpaper up front if the Hawks want to make a long playoff run. Many of their current forwards are not interested in hitting or getting to the heavy traffic areas, where the cheap goals are scored.
The defense
Johnny Oduya sure looked like a keeper the last month of the regular season, and he goes a long way toward getting the Hawks' defensemen slotted properly by being a part of the top four. But he took a pounding from Phoenix and didn't look like the same player in the postseason.
The Hawks still need more size on defense and players they can rely on in physical games.
Ice time
Duncan Keith leads the postseason with an average of 30:15 per game, and Brent Seabrook is second with 30:01.
The kid
The good news is Nick Leddy is only 21 and has played just 128 NHL games, but he looked very much in 2011-12 like he's going to be a terrific puck-moving defenseman for a long time on the West Side.
If there were size on the other point, he would not look as small as he often looks.
The blocks
The Hawks outshot Phoenix 241-159, but the Coyotes blocked 128 shots to 67 for the Hawks, and not until the final game did the Hawks make an effort to get pucks behind the Coyotes' defense and use the ice down low to create opportunities.
Patrick Kane
No. 88 had no points the final three games and was invisible for much of the series — when he wasn't trying to go 1-on-5 and stickhandle through an entire team.
The quote
Jonathan Toews: “I think you saw the will and desire. I don't think you saw all our talent. I feel like we had so much more than what we ended up showing, but we gave it everything. It just didn't go our way.”
And finally …
Phoenix coach Dave Tippett, on winning the series in Game 6: “Chicago came out and played a heck of a game in the first two periods. They just dominated, didn't let us touch the puck for 40 minutes. It was all Mike Smith. The hockey gods were probably looking down on us, giving us a chance, and Mike Smith cleaned up the rest.”
brozner@dailyherald.com
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