Corey Crawford... no pub

[fullmetalninja]

Can anyone that gets to regularly watch this kid tell me why he doesn't have more hype than some of the other 'tenders in the QMJHL.

His numbers all year have been great, and in the playoffs- wow:

PLAYOFF STATS
Games 13
Record 10-3
Save % .946(436/461)
GAA 1.91


Is Moncton just stacked or what? It seems like he faces a ton of shots(35/game on average)... are they that good defensively, or is he standing on his head?

-fullmetalninja

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[Cariboux]

I've seen him in game 1 in Rimouski and he was great. He has been better in the 2nd and 3rd game. This guy has incredible skills

 

[Barnabyboy]

I've seen him in game 1 in Rimouski and he was great. He has been better in the 2nd and 3rd game. This guy has incredible skills

I live in Moncton, and i did stats for the Wildcats a dozen or so times, i've seen him play alot. Moncton does have a deep team, and i don't want to bash the kid, but he has never impressed me. He looks big in the net, but he's really slow. His positioning seems good, but he is real slow. If there's a scramble for the puck in front of the net, he's in trouble. His strenghth is by far positioning, he's always square on the shooter, and rarely lets in a slapper, most goals he lets in are one-timers or like i said earlier, scrambles in front of the net. Not sure how good of a goalie he'd be on a weaker team. He lets in lots of soft goals. I hope he succeeds, and i want Moncton to win the memorial cup, but you can see a HUGE drop off in talent between Fleury and Crawford. If he could get some quickness, then he'd be alright. He reminds me a lot of Kirk McCLean, former goalie for the Canucks.

 

[Daniel_Tkaczuk]

I live in Moncton, and i did stats for the Wildcats a dozen or so times, i've seen him play alot. Moncton does have a deep team, and i don't want to bash the kid, but he has never impressed me. He looks big in the net, but he's really slow. His positioning seems good, but he is real slow. If there's a scramble for the puck in front of the net, he's in trouble. His strenghth is by far positioning, he's always square on the shooter, and rarely lets in a slapper, most goals he lets in are one-timers or like i said earlier, scrambles in front of the net. Not sure how good of a goalie he'd be on a weaker team. He lets in lots of soft goals. I hope he succeeds, and i want Moncton to win the memorial cup, but you can see a HUGE drop off in talent between Fleury and Crawford. If he could get some quickness, then he'd be alright. He reminds me a lot of Kirk McCLean, former goalie for the Canucks.

Yep. He's not flashy either.

 

[hawksfan50]

Quickness is nothing if you technically are not in position leaving gaping holes for the shooters and have to rely on athletic agility to recover (why athletic goalies like Fleury and T-bo may never be as good as the great position square to the shooter goalies) ...... give me great technique over straight quickness...it'd be grat to have both of course......

 

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Quickness is nothing if you technically are not in position leaving gaping holes for the shooters and have to rely on athletic agility to recover (why athletic goalies like Fleury and T-bo may never be as good as the great position square to the shooter goalies) ...... give me great technique over straight quickness...it'd be grat to have both of course......

Well one could argue that you can't really teach a goalie to become a lot quicker. However you can teach positioning.

I'd say the reason T-Bo probably won't be on the top few goalies would be more due to his size. He just can't be as good as someone who is bigger and has the same reflexes and positioning.

Goalies with size and reflexes will go high because you can develop them with a good goalie coach.

 

[Askel]

I live in Moncton, and i did stats for the Wildcats a dozen or so times, i've seen him play alot. Moncton does have a deep team, and i don't want to bash the kid, but he has never impressed me. He looks big in the net, but he's really slow. His positioning seems good, but he is real slow. If there's a scramble for the puck in front of the net, he's in trouble. His strenghth is by far positioning, he's always square on the shooter, and rarely lets in a slapper, most goals he lets in are one-timers or like i said earlier, scrambles in front of the net. Not sure how good of a goalie he'd be on a weaker team. He lets in lots of soft goals. I hope he succeeds, and i want Moncton to win the memorial cup, but you can see a HUGE drop off in talent between Fleury and Crawford. If he could get some quickness, then he'd be alright. He reminds me a lot of Kirk McCLean, former goalie for the Canucks.

Well Kirk Mclean was a vezina finalist in his prime (i think he might have won it to) an¨d led the CAnucks to Stanley Cup finals in 94 If he anything like Kirk Mclean he should be a first rounder...

 

[Barnabyboy]

Well Kirk Mclean was a vezina finalist in his prime (i think he might have won it to) an¨d led the CAnucks to Stanley Cup finals in 94 If he anything like Kirk Mclean he should be a first rounder...

I didn't say that he wasn't any good, he could very well end up being a good goalie in the NHL, but i think with him, its a good NHL starter or nothing at all. Positioning is good, and yes that will help him, but for anyone who hasn't seen him play, he is the slowest goalie i have ever seen. I'm not trying to bash the kid, i want him to succeed, but im not sure what his ceiling is...............but i'm no scout either.

If he can work on his reflexes, which may develop over time, he could be a good one, but he lets in a lot of soft goals. It also seems like when there's a scramble, and he's down on his knees and searching for the puck, the other team always scores. And the only comparison to Kirk Maclean is that he LOOKS like him in the net.....Big, and completely a positional goalie.

He's definitely not a writoff though, and with a good goaltending coach and some maturing, he'll probably make it.

 

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Well Kirk Mclean was a vezina finalist in his prime (i think he might have won it to) an¨d led the CAnucks to Stanley Cup finals in 94 If he anything like Kirk Mclean he should be a first rounder...

Unfortunately goaltending in the league has improved considerably over the past decade. I'm not sure a guy like McLean would be an impact goaltender in the NHL right now even if he was in his prime. That's how much I think it's improved, even since 94.

 

[fullmetalninja]

Thanks for the input... its hard here in chicago to know. I saw him in rookie camp and thought he looked good, but no better than Mike Brodeur.

But still facing 35+ shots a night, and having a GAA under 2...

He can't be that slow can he?

Does Moncton trap? Or have a defense where all the shots are gimmie's or what?

Thanks

-fullmetalninja

 

[Barnabyboy]

Thanks for the input... its hard here in chicago to know. I saw him in rookie camp and thought he looked good, but no better than Mike Brodeur.


Moncton does not use the trap really, i think their strength is they almost always have 3 guys back, I in fact did Odd man rush stats for the Cats, and i remember most games there were only 1 or 2 against Moncton. That forces the other team to take most of their shots from the circle, and like i said, he's square to the shooter and stops most shots. Most goals i've seen against him were scrambles, like the last game of the season against Cape Breton, he was holding the shutout until a 1 min 30 sec left, there was a scramble, and Tim Ramholts of the Eagles snuck in fron the point and just poked it in.

Moncton also has good puck movers to get the puck out (Sanford, Caron) and some big bodies in front of the net (Douville, Saunders)

But im not a scout, and the scouts see a lot in him, i guess we'll wait and see how he progresses............





But still facing 35+ shots a night, and having a GAA under 2...

He can't be that slow can he?

Does Moncton trap? Or have a defense where all the shots are gimmie's or what?

Thanks

-fullmetalninja

 

[Askel]

Its always unfair to compare player from diffrent times. And I realize that you probably is comparing their playingstyles not their mental game..

Kirk Mclean was a guy that took a pretty bad team to cup finals . The Canucks basicly had one line that could score, a pretty bad defense and a spectacular goaltender. If the Kid is anything like Kirk Mclean hes a keeper IMO..AND thats because Kirk Maclean was a guy that almost could win games by himself.

Yes the goaltender are better now than in 94 but not that much.A Kirk Mclean in his prime would still be nr1 on 20 of the 30 teams in this league. ..Dont critisize Captain Kirk please hes one of my alltime favorite players..

 

[fullmetalninja]

Well again...

Last night he stopped 55 of 56 shots, and was the #1 star. In four games in the series, he's been named the #1 star 3 times.

His save % is over .950....


He beat Fleury's team, and now he's beating Crosby's(and its hard to say how in 56 shots at least 7-8 had to be real good scoring chances).

That's pretty impressive, no?


-fullmetalninja

 

[X-SHARKIE]

I've been impressed with Crawford.....Moncton is a stacked team and lately in the playoffs I hear they've been putting there best guns...Bernier and Gagne out against Crosby when ever possible...But Crawford is a very sound goalie who seems to be well coached...He doesnt seem to ever become elite. but he's smart and battles. I like him.

 

[Cariboux]

His stats are incredible :

Player TM GPI GP W L T MINS GA ENG SO AVG SAV SHOTS SAV% SGA

Crawford, Corey Mon 14 14 11 3 0 844.36 26 0 0 1.85 491 517 0.950 36.7

 

[Bluenote13]

Unfortunately goaltending in the league has improved considerably over the past decade. I'm not sure a guy like McLean would be an impact goaltender in the NHL right now even if he was in his prime. That's how much I think it's improved, even since 94.

I second that.

 

[pei fan]

I watched Crawford last night in Moncton-It was my 4th time seeing him.
He played great-textbook and makes it look easy.He may not look as acrobatic
as some goalies but he's always in good position and doesn't give anything away.
He's also pretty fortunate to have good and big defencemen but the combo
is tough to beat.

 

[Loki_46]

i wish i kept the article and who wrote the article on the prospect of all the goalies that the hawks have, bottom line is that the goalies the hawks have are backup goalies at best. none are the sure fire #1 stud goalie. so unless the hawk address this now, it is going to be a long while before we get somebody in there.

 

[fullmetalninja]

-fullmetalninja

 

[Teemu]

His stats are incredible :

Player TM GPI GP W L T MINS GA ENG SO AVG SAV SHOTS SAV% SGA

Crawford, Corey Mon 14 14 11 3 0 844.36 26 0 0 1.85 491 517 0.950 36.7

He led the league in save percentage during the regular season

 

[Loki_46]

-fullmetalninja

so i assume this was in ref to me, that is ok, like the way you explain how you are right and i am wrong,

the article i was ref to is the team org report on the blackhawks.

 

[Barnabyboy]

Moncton does have a stacked team this year, last year they were OK, and Crawford was nothing spectacular. He led the league in save % this year, and Moncton set their franchise record for points, but i think most, not all, credit goes to Moncton's defense.

Then again, i haven't seen any playoff games this year, and he has been dominant apparently, our local newspaper recently did a big article on him, and if Moncton wins the QMJHL title and go on to the memorial cup, Crawford is by far the favorite for the playoff MVP.

That being said, i guess he does have some upside. I've watched Luongo, Biron, Marc Denis, Fleury, JS Aubin, Leclaire and other's play, and compared to them, he's solid, just slow, not sure how that will affect him in the future. The other goalie's are way faster by a country mile.

Just curious if anyone else from Moncton, PEI or Halifax that seen him play a bunch of times, what they think of him

 

[Loki_46]

Moncton does have a stacked team this year, last year they were OK, and Crawford was nothing spectacular. He led the league in save % this year, and Moncton set their franchise record for points, but i think most, not all, credit goes to Moncton's defense.

Then again, i haven't seen any playoff games this year, and he has been dominant apparently, our local newspaper recently did a big article on him, and if Moncton wins the QMJHL title and go on to the memorial cup, Crawford is by far the favorite for the playoff MVP.

That being said, i guess he does have some upside. I've watched Luongo, Biron, Marc Denis, Fleury, JS Aubin, Leclaire and other's play, and compared to them, he's solid, just slow, not sure how that will affect him in the future. The other goalie's are way faster by a country mile.

Just curious if anyone else from Moncton, PEI or Halifax that seen him play a bunch of times, what they think of him

so from someone who have watch quality goalies, would you be leery of crawford being mention at this moment as the nhl level #1 goalie and some has envision him to be.

 

[Barnabyboy]

so from someone who have watch quality goalies, would you be leery of crawford being mention at this moment as the nhl level #1 goalie and some has envision him to be.

Well, i think if he has great defencemen in front of him, then maybe he'll be great........I'm not a pro scout, i don't know if his speed will hurt him. I've only seen a couple of NHL games, and can't really get a feel for the speed of an AHL goalie.

#1 starter? He's dominating the QMJHL playoffs, but Neil Hodge, the reporter for the Moncton Wildcats, said that a lot of credit goes to the Wildcats defense for letting him see the shots, Crawford also said his defense is helping him make it look easy, because he's seeing all the shots. He recently stopped 55 shots vs Rimouski, but Moncton's grit is driving Crosby and Roussin crazy, Crosby is actually getting a reputation of a star player who is chippy and uses dirty stickwork (not a knock against Crosby, just news from the newspaper)

If he develops speed, then yes i think he could be a #1. But i question how good he is behind a weaker team. Even with a strong Moncton team, we got shelled 7-9+ goals more than once last year. His weak games are HARDCORE weak.

Being a Penguins fan, i went to see JS Aubin play a lot, and he was a way faster goalie, but not as sound positionally. Crawford, i never seen him out of place of scramble alot. Aubin was our flashiest goalie in Wildcats franchise history, made a lot nice saves, Crawford isn't flashy in the least, but gets the job done.

I guess its a wait and see...........................other opinions of Crawford?

 

[Barnabyboy]

when i said AHL goalie, i mean't NHL............................................

One more thing about Crawford....He stops QMJHL slap shots when he see's them, but will he be able to do it as easily against the likes of Sakic, Kovalchuk, Hull, etc. Also in the QMJHL, there's not even half as many quick one timer slap shots, or "Bang Bang" plays, and with Crawford looking kinda slow, will he react fast enough or slide across his crease to stop one-timer goals? Can he survive in the crash and bang style in the NHL? I'm not sure.