Zawaski's Shorties: Crawford Steals A Win For Hawks
By Jay Zawaski-
(CBS) Over the tenure of Corey Crawford's Blackhawks career, he's had his share of doubters. "He's not an elite goalie." "He's overpaid!" "The Hawks will never win a Cup with him in goal!" Well, those doubters had no choice but to sit in silence Thursday night. Crawford was outstanding in the Blackhawks' 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.
On Wednesday, Minnesota coach Mike Yeo threw a temper tamtrum on the ice during the Wild's practice. The usually calm and measured Yeo went off. F-bombs went flying. Sticks were being slammed. He wasn't happy. He challenged his team's commitment and effort.
The Wild responded and dominated most of the play during Thursday's game. The Wild outshot the Blackhawks, 44-20, and dominated the possession game with a 70-30 advantage in 5-on-5 Corsi. Crawford stopped all but two Wild shots and flat out stole the game with 42 saves.
Patrick Sharp (ninth goal), Patrick Kane (20th goal) and Bryan Bickell (seventh and eighth goals) scored for the Hawks.
Now, on to a few more observations.
Ranking Corey: During the game, I found myself arguing Crawford's merits on Twitter (again). That got me thinking. How many NHL teams have goalies who are clearly better than Crawford? Here's what I came up with, keeping in mind I'm being quite generous with a few of these guys, just for the sake or argument.
Definitely Better – Nashville's Pekka Rinne, Montreal's Carey Price, Colorado's Semyon Varlamov
Arguably Better – Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky, Tampa's Ben Bishop, Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick.
Comparable – Ottawa's Craig Anderson, New Jersey's Corey Schneider, Boston's Tukka Rask, Detroit's Jimmy Howard (a stretch).
Crawford is one of the top seven or eight goalies in the league. Yes, his $6 million cap hit is probably $1 million too much, but to say Crawford is a problem or a reason the Hawks won't succeed is foolish. He's one of the top starters in the league. The Minnesota Wild would kill for a goalie as competent as Crawford. If they had one, Yeo wouldn't be tossing lumber all over the ice.
Yeo, stop yelling, yo!: Here's my issue with Yeo's little tirade. Acting that way is a last resort. It means he's out of answers and had to do something totally out of character. So, what happens if the Wild lose three or four in a row now? What does he do then? I asked long-time Chicago Bear/first-year Score host Patrick Mannelly about this method of coaching. Mannelly believed that Yeo was in danger of losing the team, and when an underachieving team tunes out their coach, it's the coach who gets canned. The Wild are a much better team than they are showing. If they don't turn it around quickly, Yeo will be the first to go.
Praising Kane: Another three-point night for Patrick Kane. Yawn. The Hawks' leading scorer picked up his 20th goal of the season, becoming only the second player in franchise history to score 20 goals in each of his first eight seasons. The other was Denis Savard. Kane also tied Eric Daze for fifth in 20-goal seasons with the Hawks. Stan Mikita (14), Bobby Hull (13) and Steve Larmer (11) and Savard (10) are ahead of Kane and Daze on the list.
Teuvo timeout: On Thursday night, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville opted for Daniel Carcillo over rookie Teuvo Teravainen. After the game, Quenneville was short in his explanation and didn't elaborate on why the rookie was benched. On the other hand, Carcillo played a team-low eight minutes and registered one hit. I saw him trip over the blue line two or three times as well. I'm not sure how Quenneville justifies Carcillo in the lineup Friday in Edmonton, but you never know what the Quenneville line blender will shoot out. If Teravainen is on the roster, he needs to be in the lineup. It helps no one to have him in the press box.
Pickle head: Yes, that is what Quenneville calls Bryan Bickell, who had two goals, played on a line with Kane and Brad Richards and even had power-play time. I've said this about Bickell for a long time, and I continue to believe he's a quality player. No, he can't be the top offensive threat on his line. Yes, he's significantly overpaid for how the Blackhawks use him. But if Bickell played in a top-six role all the time, I feel like he'd put up the numbers to justify that contract. We all know that won't happen, as the Hawks have myriad top-six wingers better than Bickell.
The Hawks need to clear a substantial amount of cap space this summer. I think Bickell is a prime candidate to be traded. When he is, I have little doubt that he will thrive with a lesser team, just as Troy Brouwer is in Washington.
Shameless plug time. I have a couple of events coming up with Hawks players. On Monday, I will be at Double Play Saloon (13011 S. Western Ave, Blue Island) with Ben Smith. Next Wednesday, I will be at the Neutral Zone (1115 Fairview Ave, Westmont) with Antti Raanta. If you've never attended a Bud Light "On the Glass" event before, they're a lot of fun. The events always begin at 7 p.m. with a Q&A. We take questions for 30-40 minutes. After that, we open it up for autographs until 8:30. We always do our best to ensure that everyone in the building gets an autograph. Both Ben and Antti are great guys and love seeing big crowds at these events. Come on out and say hello.
