Corey Crawford stepped in front of the media for, what I'm sure felt longer than 6 minutes and 20 seconds for the 33-year old goaltender. This was the first time he has spoken to the media since he went down in December of 2017 with an undisclosed injury.
The Blackhawks Fan Convention should have been renamed "What's wrong with Corey?" Convention as his health was the centre of attention as of Friday.
It's been a well-documented mystery ever since Crawford went down in December of last year. At this time, it appeared to be minor and that he would be back.
Uncertainty over his injury became apparent as the Hawks continued to play into 2018 and little had been reported. Both Joel Quenneville and Stan Bowman were very vague about Corey's status.
The team on the ice struggled to find consistency, not just between the pipes, but as a team. It was becoming evident that the season was unraveling in front of their eyes.
Without Crawford, the odds dramatically went down that the Hawks could turn their season around, although even with #50 in there, it would have been a stretch.
It was announced in May 2018 that after Corey attempted to get back on the ice, there has been a setback and that there was a chance he would miss the entire season. Vertigo was cited as the suspected issue although that didn't stop the rumours from flying around at warp speed.
So, where are we now after 7 months that the Hawks #1 goalie has been on the mend?
"It's very possible" was Corey's response when asked if he will be 100% ready for training camp.
If you haven't watched the video of his 6-minute interview yet, head over to my Twitter feed (1st story) to see it (courtesy of NBC Chicago):
Corey Crawford speaks
There are a lot of elements to break down. Corey has always been a slower talker and you can tell he thinks through answers when talking to the media even after a practice, so I'm not reading much into that.
It was his mannerisms and that brief emotional spike at the end of his interview with reporters that stuck out to me the most.
He's not 100%. We now all know that.
The point of this blog is not to dive into what's wrong with Corey. Honestly, it doesn't take a psychiatrist to see that he's battling an injury/issue that has affected him at an emotional level.
Ask any professional athlete, being held off of the ice that long is frustrating and emotional taxing for any of them. So, it could just be frustrating from that, or there could be a more personal problem that he is working on.
You can complain that the Chicago Blackhawks did you wrong by not coming out and telling you his problem, "He's in the public eye, he's our goalie… we deserve to know what's going on with him. If you don't tell me I'm not going to renew my tickets" you may be saying.
Well, if that's the case, there's a lot of "me, me, me" talk in there and I think that's extremely selfish.
Corey Crawford is obviously trying to get better working with trainers and doctors as he stated in his interview. He's trying to get back to the elite level he knows he's capable of being as a professional athlete in the most competitive hockey league in the world.
The thing is, the Hawks have every right to protect his privacy and let's all keep in mind, Corey is a part of a union that is structured to do the same.
Take this scenario to your day-to-day life. If "Rick" at work was having personal issues and should there be a company-wide email that details of what Rick is going through? I don't think you would want that if you were Rick, would you?
All I would ask of my company at that time is that they provide me with the tools and additional personnel needed to get the job done.
Taking that back to the Hawks, that additional personnel that has been brought in is Cam Ward.
I would say that Hawks have been trying to be optimistic about Corey's health for months now but obviously needed a contingency plan, so they convinced veteran, Cam Ward, to come to Chicago for a 1-year deal @ $3M.
There has been a lot of debate whether he was the right guy to sign, but when looking around the free agents that have a track record of 50 games(ish) per season that would be willing to sign for 1-year, I think Ward would have been near the top of the list.
After this weekend, it does look like Corey may need the better part of this calendar year to get better, although it looks very up-in-the-air and his injury appears to be a slow-moving recovery.
My only ask of the Hawks, regardless if the goaltending tandem was Crow/Ward or Ward/Forsberg, I was really hoping for Stan to solidify the defence a little better. I will continue to wait to reserve judgment until training camp begins because I feel like Stan will make at least 1 more move before October.
Until then, let's respect Corey's privacy and hope the dude gets better.
Crawford has been an amazing Blackhawk and really invested a lot of his effort and time in this organization until he got his break (thanks to the terrible play of Marty Turco).
He's helped this franchise win 2 Stanley Cups! And at the end of the day, he's a human being… he's our human being.
Get well soon Corey and hope to see you on the ice soon.
JL
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Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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