How Corey Crawford's Sharp Start Eases the Pressure on the Blackhawks Goalie

The Chicago Blackhawks have been a strong puck-possession team for several seasons.

Due to the high skill level of players like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Brandon Saad, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, head coach Joel Quenneville knows his team is going to control the puck and get the majority of the scoring chances in most games.

That means play will often remain in the opposition's end for long stretches and Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford will often go several minutes between forays into Chicago's zone.

That may sound like an advantage for any goalie because no opponent can score when the Blackhawks are controlling the puck in the offensive zone, but it also creates issues. A goalie who is not facing shots can lose his focus and concentration.

Crawford knows that it's a situation that he is going to see on a regular basis this season.

"It's going to happen again," Crawford told Mike Spellman of the Daily Herald. "We have really good puck possession a lot of the time, so there's going to be times again where I go 10 minutes without a shot.

"I just have to be ready."

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Crawford has been distracted in the past, and while he is a Stanley Cup-winning goalie, he has had issues with regular-season consistency. That does not appear to be a problem in the early part of the 2014-15 season.

He is playing sharp, attentive hockey and producing solid numbers.

Through the first four games of the season, Crawford has a 3-0-1 record, 1.66 goals-against average and .926 save percentage. According to Quenneville, Crawford is not scheduled to play Tuesday night after reporting an upper-body ailment.

While the sample size is still small, that's quite a bit better than Crawford's numbers in the 2013-14 regular season. Crawford had a 32-16-10 regular-season record, 2.26 GAA and .917 save percentage, and he seemed to give up at least one stoppable goal per game last season.

Fans let Crawford know their displeasure with his performance, and Quenneville did on occasion as well.

Crawford understands that last year's performance was disappointing and wants to play more consistently this season.

"You always want to get better," Crawford told Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune (subscription required). "Last year it wasn't good enough. Not winning a Cup, it's a loss for us so I want to definitely keep reaching for higher expectations and better performances."

There have been no major complaints with Crawford's overall game. They would not have won the Stanley Cup in 2013 if Crawford had not been as sharp as he was in the playoffs.

However, the Blackhawks clearly want to see more consistency from their No. 1 goalie over the course of an 82-game season.

When speaking with Kuc, Quenneville assessed Crawford's development:

"

He has been excellent for us for major stretches every year he has been here. That consistency of putting it all together game in and game out, if he can improve off the levels ... he'll be as good as any goalie in the game. He has had a real good start to his career and goalies get better with age. We like the trend he's at and where he's at with his game.

"

Crawford's start is vital to the Blackhawks from a peace-of-mind perspective. While they know they are good enough to outscore most opponents throughout the season, they want to look at Crawford and know that he is going to make all the expected saves and some of the unexpected ones.

They don't want to look at Crawford and think that he's going to make mistakes on some of the stoppable shots that he's facing.

A goalie who does that with frequency creates unnecessary pressure for his teammates and wears them down slowly. By preventing those leaky goals, Crawford's teammates are gaining even more confidence in him and, most importantly, he doesn't have to deal with self-doubt.

Crawford's approach early in the season has been to keep his focus on playing one game at a time and not looking at the season as a whole.

"You can't get ahead of yourself in this league," Crawford said. "You can get yourself in trouble doing that. You just try to keep improving each day."

One reason for Crawford's start appears to be the presence of first-year goalie coach Jimmy Waite. Stephane Waite, Jimmy's brother, had been the Blackhawks' goalie coach through the 2012-13 season.

However, when he left after the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup to take a similar position with the Montreal Canadiens, the Blackhawks brought in Steve Weeks to advise Crawford and backup Antti Raanta. Weeks was dismissed by Quenneville after one season.

Jimmy Waite serves as Crawford's confidant and offers small suggestions. He is not trying to change the goalie's overall game.

So far, so good for Crawford. If he can remain at the top of his game, his performance should make an already-powerful team that much better.