Fantasy Fare: Trying to guess what the Blackhawks will do in goal
Big news of the week is that Corey Crawford’s season appears to be over. The Blackhawks’ all-star goalie had been out since late December with an upper body injury, most recently revealed to be — for the second time in his career — vertigo symptoms. Hence the finger on the shutdown button. So unless (or until?) the Hawks acquire an established veteran before the deadline, the netminding chores fall to young heir apparent Anton Forsberg and Jeff Glass, a 32-year-old rookie but a veteran of six teams in Russia and three more in the AHL. Neither goalie has jumped up and grabbed the reins in Crawford’s absence. Forsberg, predictably, got the first crack, but lost 5-2 to Vancouver on Dec. 28. Enter Glass, who the following night backstopped a 4-3 overtime win over the Oilers. The Hawks stuck with him for the next three games (going 1-2) before returning to Forsberg for three in a row. Despite winning two of the three and allowing just four goals, Forsberg was out and Glass back in for a 2-1 win over the Jets, then a 4-0 loss to the Wings. So to recap: Heading into Saturday’s game, it’s been six starts for Glass (3.18 GAA, .909 save percentage) and four for Forsberg (2.51 and .915), but with little in the way of game-to-game consistency from either. Our guess is the Hawks will make a trade. But should they be forced to sink or swim with these two, we’d have to think Forsberg, younger and with more upside, would have the best chance to break away as the starter.
