The 2019-20 NHL hockey regular season came to a screeching halt when the Corona Virus shut down every sport in i’s tracks. The Chicago Blackhawks were mathematically still alive to make a post season spot at that time. However the team had to jump over a few teams with not that many games left in the regular season. The Blackhawks were sellers at the trade deadline as they traded goal tender Robin Lehner to the Vegas Golden Knights when they only just signed him as a free agent on a one year deal in the off season. Blackhawks were left with Cory Crawford who started the last 8 games before operations were shut down. Did the Blackhawks make the right choice in net minders? Now Blackhawks find themselves alive. The team will play the Edmonton Oilers in  a short series in a qualifying round. Winner advances to the Stanley Cup playoffs. In a short series, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Cory Crawford, anything could happen. The core with the experience and they have a ticket back to the post season; it sounds too good to be true. Blackhawks announce Cory Crawford unfit to play.

In off season the reason why the Blackhawks went out and signed a Robin Lehner, was because of Crawford unable to take on the full load in regular season. Cory Crawford has been dealing with concussions and has missed more ice time in the last few years resulting in Blackhawks missing the playoffs. With Crawford and Lehner teaming up, the Blackhawks had the best goalie tandem in the league. Robin Lehner is no slouch in the 2018-19 season. He won the Masterton award for his goalie play with the Islanders. Lehner helped his team get 103 points in the standings for the Islanders which they have not done since the early 1980’s. Lehner and Thomas Greiss together in the net allowed the fewest goals in the regular season for the Islanders that season.  Too many injuries occurred this year for the Blackhawks and for this goalie tandem able to save this team and break their post season drought just did not happen. Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman shipped Robin Lehner to Vegas got a back goalie as part of the deal as Malcom Subban now wears the Indian head. Robin Lehner did want to stay in Chicago and wanted a contract extension. Two goalies paying big money was not in the cards for a GM Stan Bowman. This deal will come back to haunt the GM who is on the bubble of himself being trounced out of the windy city and being replaced.

Cory Crawford you can say is one of the best goalies in Blackhawks history. Crawford has helped this franchise capture two Stanley Cups with his brilliant play. In 2019-20 it seemed the duel banjos of Lehner and himself was helping him stay the course of the season health wise. The 35 year old Cory Crawford finished the regular season with a record of 16-20-3 with a 2.77 GAA and 9.17 save percentage. These are good numbers. These are numbers the Blackhawks need in a five game series with the Oilers. During phase 3 and 4 of the Covid plan to get  back to normal, Crawford did not participate in voluntary workouts. The Blackhawks have not givien a clear response why Crawford is unfit to play. Speculation is he’s dealing with concussions once again. Perhaps he’s just out of shape after this lay off. Some will whisper he likes to drink a bit too much. You can even throw in the Virus still lurking making him not want to play.

In a short game series with Crawford playing without issues, I thought this was a great chance for the Blackhawks to skate back in the postseason. Thought they could get by the Oilers and move on to the first round of the actual post season. If Malcom Subban gets the starting job in net, his stats this season was a 9-7 record with a 3.17 GAA  and 8.90 save percentage. Blackhawks also have Collin Delia who has only 18 career games on his resume in the NHL. Without Crawford the goalie stats do not look good versus the Edmonton Oilers. In the NHL playoffs a hot goalie could be the Ace in the deck of any series. Even if Cory Crawford played it is not a automatic series win because he could be horrible from the lay off as most players will have to knock off the rust very quickly.

Now some news has Cory Crawford may travel with the team versus Edmonton. Crawford has not got the green light to play in the series. I still think the Blackhawks should have extended Robin Lehner and cut their ties with a Cory Crawford. The Blackhawks need to remove some of the core that are aging. I can see building still around Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, but they are aging and we are wasting time with hopes of a Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith playing like they used to. We are wasting time thinking a Cory Crawford could bring superior net presence for an entire regular season and post season on a regular basis. It is a shame that Crawford can’t play because he has a great history versus Canada teams like the Edmonton Oilers. I sense if Crawford played and played well we would never be able to get rid of him. Then more concussions will come and more games Crawford would miss and we back to the same drawing board. The Blackhawks find themselves scratching their heads every year. They continue not to see the obvious and that leads their brain trust still making the wrong moves each season.