Chicago Blackhawks: Corey Crawford’s convention comments spark intrigue

Corey Crawford spoke at this year’s Chicago Blackhawks convention and may have created some questions.

The annual Chicago Blackhawks Convention was held this past weekend in Chicago. Going into the convention there was one main focus on every fan’s mind: Is Corey Crawford alive and healthy?

Crawford had not spoken to the media since mid-February when it was basically confirmed that he would not be suiting up for another game this past season. Ever since, Blackhawks fans have been kept in total darkness about Crawford’s health and status for the upcoming season.

Naturally, as Crawford stepped to the mic, all of the questions from the surrounding media personnel were centered around his health and availability for training camp. Crawford’s responses, however, answered very little questions and may have created a few more.

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I want to focus in on one particular segment of the full interview, depicted in the video above.

"“I’m not 100 percent yet, but I’m feeling pretty good right now. I’ve come a long way in the past couple of months. I worked really hard to do whatever I can to get better.”"

To some this may sound like a rerun of what happened in February, when the Blackhawks front office dodged every question about Crawford and his health. However, this time it is different because it is coming straight from Crawford.

Crawford was very clear in saying he was not 100 percent and that him being ready for training camp was still in question as well. Being a Blackhawks fan myself, that is not something I want to hear.

To me, Crawford sounded like a player who was scared to tell the media what was really going on. Throughout the whole interview, you can see how Crawford has to carefully think about what he is going to say before he answers each question, almost like he doesn’t want to give away too much information.

He also seemed like he had no intentions of setting a time table for his possible return. It is impossible to know if he was told by the front office to do this or if the answers were coming straight from Crawford.

One thing is for sure, if the Blackhawks have any aspirations of climbing back into the playoffs and becoming contenders again, they will need Crawford back to full health and playing like he has the past few years. It was easy to see how valuable Crawford was to the team once we saw how bad the team played without him.

If I am Stan Bowman or coach Joel Quennville, my number one priority is to make sure Crawford is healthy for the upcoming season. If he is not, it could be the last season for all three of them in Chicago.