It's looking like Crawford will be ready to go vs. Oilers

No final decision has been made - publicly at least - as to who will start in net for the Blackhawks when they take on Edmonton in Game 1 of their best-of-five series Saturday.

But it sure does sound like it will be Corey Crawford.

"Felt good in practice today," Crawford said during a Zoom interview Thursday, "so I should be ready to go unless something crazy happens last minute. I should be all right."

Crawford, who missed almost all of training camp as he recovered from the coronavirus, stopped 11 shots Wednesday in the Hawks' 4-0 exhibition victory over St. Louis. He didn't see many high-danger shots but was happy the Blues got a couple of power-play chances so he could get a better feel of tracking pucks through traffic.

"Those situations are a little bit tougher (to get used to again)," Crawford said. "You don't get as much of that in practice, so those ones maybe take longer. Hopefully I catch up right away and get good feelings with it right away. But we'll see."

Crawford is 48-37 in the postseason with a .919 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average. He is 3-8 with a .905 save percentage and 2.65 GAA since the Hawks won the Stanley Cup in 2015.

Malcolm Subban, who played the second half of the win over the Blues, will likely be the Hawks' other goalie Saturday.

Edmonton coach Dave Tippett would not disclose who his goaltender will be. The Oilers platooned Mike Smith (19-12-6, .902, 2.95) and Mikko Koskinen (18-13-3, .917, 2.75 GAA) this season.