PRAGUE — No official decision has been made yet on the Blackhawks’ opening day starter.
That decision will be discussed between head coach Jeremy Colliton, goaltending coach Jimmy Waite and the rest of the staff over the next few days in Prague, the Hawks’ real European destination. This is a regular season game week — now, things are real.
“They’re both going to play [this season],” an intentionally vague Colliton said Sunday. “So we’ll see what happens.”
But based on the deployment during the preseason, Corey Crawford will likely be in net when the Hawks and Flyers drop the puck on their 2019-20 seasons Friday.
Crawford’s franchise legacy and long-term track record are holding strong over Lehner’s recent stardom and immediate results, for now.
“I’m doing fine,” Crawford said after the Hawks’ 3-1 win over Eisbaren Berlin, proving far more eager to talk about Berlin netminder Sebastian Dahm’s heroics than his own.
“Just trying to see the puck every day and just build off that.”
Crawford finished the preseason with 151 minutes to Lehner’s 121. That’s not a huge difference, but more notably, he started three of the four games — versus the Red Wings, Capitals and Eisbaren — in which the Hawks used their “A” team.
Lehner’s minor hip injury may have played into that somewhat, although the former Islanders and Sabres goalie is healthy again now and insisted Monday that he’d “been fine the whole time.”
One way or another, Lehner’s statistics were better than Crawford, for whatever preseason statistics are worth.
Lehner saved 65 of 70 shots in the preseason (a .929 save percentage); Crawford saved 59 of 66 (.894). And excluding the Berlin game, for which advanced stats were not available, Lehner saved 15 of 17 high-danger shots (.882) while Crawford saved just seven of 11 high-danger shots (.636).
That is a tiny sample size, sure, but those results are not altogether contrasting to last year’s full-season numbers, when Lehner posted a .930 save percentage and Crawford a .908 (of course, there’s a caveat for that two, considering the two defenses they played behind).
Regardless of the comparisons between the two, September did nothing to disprove the Hawks’ belief they now boast one of the best goalie tandems in the league, right up there with Boston’s Tuukka Rask-Jaroslav Halak duo and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne-Juuse Saros combo.
And, as has been known all along, Colliton will ride the hot hand as the season goes along. There’s meaning in who starts game No. 1, and Crawford’s history with the organization amplifies that meaning, but Friday indicates little about which goalie will finish the season in command.
Crawford and Lehner seem to recognize that and were reverent, if not chummy, throughout training camp.
“It’s like in any team, you’re teammates and you have respect for each other,” Lehner said Monday. “Obviously he’s a very established, good goaltender. It’s been good so far.”
Transaction notes
- The Hawks placed defenseman Carl Dahlstrom on waivers Monday.
- NHL teams are required to cut their rosters to 23 players by Tuesday afternoon, although the Hawks will unofficially keep tomorrow’s cut players in Europe with rest of the group.
- The Dahlstrom news means either Slater Koekkoek or Dennis Gilbert, or both if one of Connor Murphy or Calvin de Haan can’t go Friday, have made the team.
