Crawford poised for a shot at history for Blackhawks
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Corey Crawford has waited patiently for this opportunity and he's making the most of it.
For five years he paid his dues in the minors waiting behind first Nikolai Khabibulin and then Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi.
Even this season Crawford was expected to be Marty Turco's backup, but as the wins have piled up he has earned the confidence of coach Joel Quenneville and more and more playing time.
Crawford has won his last seven games and can tie Denis DeJordy's 46-year-old franchise record for a rookie goalie with an eighth straight victory Saturday night against the Sharks at HP Pavilion.
“So far it's been a lot of fun, but I've got to keep that mentality of doing things right,” Crawford said. “The big thing is to keep working hard and stay focused. I'm taking it shot by shot, that's my thought process right now.”
Crawford is only 2 more wins away from equaling Hall of Famer Glenn Hall's team record of 9 straight wins by a goalie.
The 6-foot-2 Crawford has a lot going for him. He's big in the net, quick and technically sound.
“He's always been that type of goalie, he's always been together, kind of square,” Quenneville said. “He has developed each and every year. All he needed was an opportunity. I'm sure it was tough not getting a chance last year, but you've got to commend him for being patient, and he did what he had to do to keep improving.”
Crawford's fundamentals are impressive.
“I try to be square (to the shooter), stay big and react,” Crawford said. “I think if I get in position and have time to react, I have a lot better chance to stop the puck.”
Last season Crawford not only lost the job as backup to Niemi in training camp, he watched the Finn have a terrific regular season, take over the starting job from Huet and ultimately lead the Hawks to the Stanley Cup.
Quenneville sees a lot of the same things in Crawford that he saw in Niemi a year ago.
“There are a lot of similarities,” Quenneville said. “I remember last year when they were fighting for that position at the start they were comparable in a lot of ways in their development.”
Crawford has bailed the Hawks out of some tough spots in the last few weeks in the third period of games when they were on the verge of blowing big leads against St. Louis and Dallas.
Giving away leads has been a problem for the Hawks since the start of the season.
“We've found ways to protect 1-goal leads, but at the same time we don't want to keep putting ourselves in that spot,” Jonathan Toews said.
“It seems like it's a trend that we have that's been going on here for a least a year or two,” Quenneville said. “We get up by 3 or 4 and it seems we lose our concentration about what got us successful or put us in a good spot. All of a sudden we all think we want to score and we get ahead of ourselves and we don't do things that earn us pucks and we give up stuff.”