Blackhawks invite 'beer league' goalie back to morning skates
Scott Foster is back.
Just don't expect the Oak Park accountant to actually get into another NHL game.
Foster, the emergency goalie who provided perhaps the most memorable moment last season when he made 7 saves against the Winnipeg Jets at the United Center March 29, has been invited by the Blackhawks to partake in optional morning skates.
"I think he likes the idea," coach Joel Quenneville said. "It beats the beer league."
That's where the 36-year-old Foster does most of his goaltending, in a league at Johnny's IceHouse. Last March, though, he got the opportunity of a lifetime when Anton Forsberg was injured during pregame and Colin Delia cramped up in the third period of a 6-2 victory over Winnipeg.
From our game story that night: Foster made a pad save on a shot by Tyler Myers 61 seconds after entering and also made impressive stops on Dustin Byfuglien and Paul Stastny with 5:39 and 4:38 remaining. The crowd was chanting "Foster! Foster! Foster!" down the stretch and absolutely erupted when he was named the No. 1 star of the game.
"That's something you'll never forget," he said. "You understand what's happening and they're going to have a lot of fun with it, so you might as well, too."
Now he gets to have a bit of fun helping the Hawks prep for games this season.
"It's pretty cool to see him go through what he did last year and the story that he was," Jonathan Toews said. "Obviously we can rely upon him to show up for practice once in a while. He's good out there. He definitely makes you work on your shot."
Mr. Consistent:
Brent Seabrook played in his 1,014th game for the Blackhawks Thursday, passing Eric Nesterenko for third on the team's all-time list. He's now just 23 games from passing Bobby Hull for second.
"You just know what you're going to get out of him every single night," said captain Jonathan Toews. "He prepares the same way, he's got the same routine, he's got the same habits. Obviously there's a reason to why he's doing all that, and he's made it this far in his career and he's still playing well.
"Nice to see him tally up all those games. I didn't get to play in his big 1,000th game last year, so it'll be nice to be out there with him tonight."
Seabrook is 380 games behind Stan Mikita's franchise-leading 1,394.
Nice assist:
Corey Crawford recorded just the sixth assist of his career on Jonathan Toews' first-period goal against the Rangers on Thursday. The Hawks took a 1-0 lead on the play and went on to beat the Rangers 4-1.
Tom Barrasso's 48 assists are the NHL record for a goalie. Barrasso played for six different teams (mostly with the Penguins and Sabres) from 1983-2003.
Told he was 42 away from the record, a smiling Crawford quipped: "Forty-two? Man. I'm going to start making dumb plays, then. I got lucky on that one. I don't even remember what the play was. It's always nice to steal that from one of our guys, though."
Slap shots:
Corey Crawford has allowed just 6 goals in his four starts this season. He also boasts a .963 save percentage in his last three games. ... Alex DeBrincat (goal, assist vs. New York on Thursday) has a point in nine of 10 games. He has 8 goals and 6 assists on the season. ... Brent Seabrook took 5 shots on goal, the most he's taken since Feb. 15 when he had 10 against Anaheim. ... The Rangers did not score a power-play goal for the first time in five games. ...