Chicago’s Corey Crawford, nearly a lock to be a Vezina finalist this season, may be dealing with a head injury, according to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Crawford has been out of the lineup since a March 14 game against the Los Angeles Kings. The team has termed him day-to-day, but there hasn’t been much in terms of updates since he first went out.
While the team says he has an upper-body injury, Lazerus’s report makes the ailment sound more severe than just being a little dinged up. “A source said that Crawford is dealing with a head injury,” Lazerus writes, “and possibly something similar to the vertigo symptoms that Bryan Bickell was dealing with last spring.”
That sounds like bad news for the Blackhawks who aren’t sure when Crawford will return. Coach Joel Quenneville told media previously that he was hopeful Crawford would be back by the postseason, but he wasn’t able to give any kind of timeline.
Since Crawford went out, Scott Darling has taken the reins, posting a .928 all-situation save percentage in six contests.
Artem Anisimov is also out of the lineup and expected to miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury when Chicago faces Minnesota on Tuesday.
Dustin Nelson is the News Editor for The Hockey Writers. He’s a contributor to Hockey Prospectus, Hockey Wilderness, and writes a column for Rotowire. He’s also written for Gone Puck Wild, Wild Xtra, InDigest, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Tiny Mix Tapes, Prefix Magazine & other publications. Have a tip? Email him at dlukenelson[at]gmail[dot]com.
