From Benched to Shutout King: Corey Crawford's Twisting Journey to Stanley Cup

He got nothing but love from the Knights of the Keyboard after his shutout performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. It carried something of a "Never a doubt in our minds, Corey Crawford!" vibe to it.

But here is a sampling of the kinds of things the local and national media were saying about Crawford after Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinal between his Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators:

In praise of backup Scott Darling, who replaced Crawford after a tough first two games, Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune said:

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It's early and this could all blow up, but for now, Darling looks like he found the Ken Dryden starter kit. Again, I don't know if it's too early to talk about a permanent change of residence for Crawford, but this is a franchise that can act totally without emotion the way smart teams do. This is especially true when it comes to goalies. It might not seem fair, but fair doesn't matter. Stopping pucks matters.

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After Game 2 of the Nashville series, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Morrissey all but read the last rites on Crawford as a Blackhawks goalie:

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It's time for a change, but more importantly, it's time for a spark. Crawford is not the Blackhawks' biggest problem in their first-round series with the Predators, but it's very possible that rookie goalie Scott Darling is the biggest solution. That's a difficult thing to write. It reeks of complete panic, and that's not what the Hawks are about. This a team that hits bumps, shrugs and bounces back. We've seen it over and over again. And Crawford helped keep the Hawks on track while they struggled during the regular season. Did I mention he has also won a Stanley Cup?

But there's something missing in this series, even if it's only two games old. That's not Crawford's fault, though he wasn't at all sharp Friday in a 6-2 loss to the Predators. The defense has been awful in front of him. But in four periods of work, he has given up nine goals on 47 shots. Those numbers speak the truth.

This is a sport of feel and hunches and momentum, and none of it is in the Hawks' favor in a series that is tied 1-1. It's time.

"

If Twitter's archives were plumbed, one at times might have thought Crawford was the worst player ever to put on an NHL uniform. Such is life in the age of social media and 24-hour-feed-the-beast, kneejerk-reaction Internet press culture.

Crawford, 30, has won Stanley Cups in two of the last three springs, with a 29-13 combined record and .928 saves percentage. He went 11-8 in the 2014 playoffs and was blamed when the Blackhawks lost 5-4 at home in overtime of the seventh game of the Western Conference Final against Los Angeles.

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Something needs to change in the modern culture of goaltender evaluation. If any playoff goalie allows more than three goals a game now, he immediately is subject to "Maybe he should be replaced" headlines. It's gotten ridiculous. Remember NBC's Mike Milbury saying—tongue-in-cheek, yes, but...—Crawford was "going to hell" for a "condemnable" goal to Tyler Johnson in Game 2 of the Final?

Crawford stayed classy throughout, being the first to shake Darling's hand after he beat Nashville in Game 3 of the first round. He admitted to being "frustrated" by the benching, as noted by Comcast CSN's Tracey Myers, but stayed ready and played great after Darling faltered.

In his first game back, April 25 in Game 6 against Nashville, Crawford relieved Darling and stopped all 13 shots he saw in a 4-3 Chicago win that clinched the series. He led Chicago to a sweep of Minnesota in the second round, allowing only seven goals in the four games.

In the Western Final against Anaheim, Crawford again faced some criticism after a Game 1 loss in Anaheim, allowing three goals on 26 shots. Then came Game 2, when he stopped 60—Sixty—shots in a 3-2 triple-overtime win. That was a team record for the Original Six franchise.

Still, it was back to the same old second-guessing routine from the armchair critics after Game 2 against Tampa Bay. Crawford accepted blame, saying those kinds of goals to Johnson "can't happen," but that's the moment he could have been forgiven for saying something like "Geez, people, I won a Cup two years ago and played the good soldier after my own coach benched me for a nobody in the first round and stopped 60 shots a few nights ago on enemy ice, and now you want to start this garbage again?"

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Crawford was pretty much a wall after that, allowing two goals in the final three games, including the 25-save shutout in Game 6. And yet, Joel Quenneville did not say one word about Crawford in the postgame press conference at the podium. Of course, none of the assembled media asked him anything about Crawford.

You can bet that had Crawford allowed three or four goals in a loss, one of the first questions would have been something like, "How'd you think Crow played? Any concern about him going into Game 7?"

Some day, Crawford will surely get his due.