For the first time since 2016-17, Crawford remained healthy for the entirety of the regular season.
Coming into the 2019-20 regular season, Chicago Blackhawks veteran goaltender Corey Crawford surprisingly had a lot to prove for a two-time Stanley Cup champion. That is because after serving as the Hawks anchor in net from 2011-2017, Crawford suffered a series of concussions that would cost him the majority of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns. The 2003 second-round pick suffered his first concussion back on Dec. 23, 2017, against the New Jersey Devils, but he was originally diagnosed with an “upper-body injury” and was ruled only to be “out for a bit”. Crawford then went on to miss the remainder of the regular season with post-concussion syndrome, and the Blackhawks missed the playoffs for the first time since 2007-08.
After a confusing offseason in which Crawford’s health status remained up in the air, he went on to miss the first couple of weeks of the 2018-19 regular season before returning to the lineup on Oct. 18, 2018, against the Arizona Coyotes. Unfortunately, less than two months after rejoining the team, Crawford suffered his second concussion on Dec. 16, 2018, against the San Jose Sharks after hitting his head on the goalpost in the first period. He was then placed on injured reserve, where he would remain until Feb. 27, 2019, due to lingering concussion-like symptoms. Crawford went on to play in 16 games down the stretch, going 8-4-3 in an attempt to get the Blackhawks back into the postseason.
With the concussion issues costing Crawford a significant chunk of each of the last two years, the Blackhawks went out and signed Robin Lehner to a one-year, $5 million contract in free agency to try and stabilize their goaltender position. As a result, Crawford was no longer the ‘head honcho’ in goal for the first time since winning the job in 2010-11. Sure, some great backup goaltenders pushed Crawford for playing time in the past, but Lehner is no backup goaltender. In 2018-19 with the New York Islanders, he finished third in voting for the Vezina Trophy and won the William M. Jennings Trophy along with Thomas Greiss for the fewest total goals scored against.
Prior to Lehner being dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights at this year’s trade deadline, he and Crawford shared the net for the majority of the first 62 games of the season. Shockingly, the split was dead even with each netminder receiving 31 starts. But Lehner was the better of the two before the trade, and although Crawford was not playing poorly, there were moments throughout the early parts of the year where he just did not look like a true No. 1 goaltender anymore.
Towards the second half of the season though, Crow’s play began to pick up, and he started to get more and more starts from coach Jeremy Colliton. This played a part in Lehner’s trade to Vegas, as the Hawks felt comfortable enough moving forward with Crawford leading the playoff push in goal.
Crawford started in each of the Hawks eight games before the regular season was placed on pause on Mar. 11, and in total, he finished with a 16-20-4 record along with a 2.77 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. Although the record does not show it, Crawford was much better than his 2.77 goals-against average suggests, as the Blackhawks defense was one of the worst in the league this season. Crawford’s save percentage is also quite impressive when you consider the Hawks allowed a league-high 35.1 shots on goal per game.
Looking at some of Crawford’s underlying statistics, and they also suggest that he was much better than he gets credit for. The 13-year NHL veteran posted a .641 quality-start percentage this season, which was the fourth-highest in the NHL for goalies with at least 30 starts. Crawford was also tied for 10th in the league with 8.9 goalie point shares, which estimates the number of points contributed by a player due to his play in goal.
Crawford’s top performance of the 2019-20 regular season was likely his only shutout of the year in the Blackhawks 3-0 victory on Nov. 26, 2019, against the Dallas Stars. The 35-year-old netminder stopped all 32 Stars’ shots he faced, including four while the Hawks were shorthanded. The last shutout Crawford recorded came on Mar. 19, 2019 against his hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens.
All in all, Crawford played pretty well for being 35, and had the Blackhawks defense not been horrendous, then his numbers would have been much better than they showed. The question now is what comes next for the Blackhawks two-time Stanley Cup champ? After all, Crawford is a free agent at the end of the season, and with the Hawks backs up against the wall due to the salary cap yet again, he could be yet another cap casualty during the Stan Bowman era. Crawford proved that he still can be a No. 1 goaltender at the NHL level with his play in the second half, so if he is willing to take a bit of a home-town discount, then there is a chance that he and the Hawks can work something out. There still could be more time for Crawford in the red sweater though, as he certainly will be the team’s every-game starter if the NHL’s potential 24-team postseason does go as planned.
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