After a particularly brutal loss midway through the Blackhawks’ season, members of the media crowded around goalie Corey Crawford, seated at his locker. Few noticed among the pack, but from across the room backup goalie Ray Emery approached warily. He bent over a little, and peered through the bodies to see if Crawford was all right, as if he were checking on some cornered animal trying to survive an attack of wild beasts. Satisfied that Crawford was handling it as well as he could, Emery sidled back to his own locker. After all, it was something all goalies have to deal with at some point or other.
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The Blackhawks’ locker room is organized like an upside-down horseshoe. A TV and dry-erase boards are at the open end, with the Blackhawks’ logo (never to be stepped on) in the middle of the carpeted floor. At the end on both sides are the lockers of the goalies, Emery to the left and Crawford to the right, generally with defensemen to their sides and forwards toward the center at the far end. The goalies thus are the only ones without teammates to both sides, and there’s something symbolic in that. The goalie is always of the team and apart from the team, expected to make the routine stops while also atoning for any defensive lapses. When a puck gets in the back of the net, no matter the underlying causes, it’s the goalie who gets blamed. It’s a lonely position, even for those who excel at it, something I was reminded of recently when the Hawks honored Ed Belfour, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year; the career photo montage the Hawks showed was peppered with shots of that familiar, haunted expression from behind the grill of his “Eddie the Eagle” mask—as if he was forever anticipating the worst. It’s a look all but the steeliest goalies wear from time to time.
Emery, a veteran who has had his own hot streaks, carrying the Ottawa Senators to the Cup finals five years ago, survived a potentially career-ending hip injury last year to serve the Hawks well as a backup. He is exceptionally humble, and has never questioned his role and done nothing but support Crawford and the team. “Ray’s been a good influence,” Quenneville said. He was the perfect complement to the younger Crawford, who, at 27, is capable of brilliance, but only in his second full NHL season.
