Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford experienced a taste of every NHL goalie’s nightmare Tuesday night.
He took a blistering Shea Weber slap shot right to the face mask.
It was a potentially scary moment that ended up being not much at all as Crawford got back up and remained in the game. There was some question why he wasn’t taken out of the game to go through the league’s concussion protocol (something coach Joel Quenneville didn’t comment on after the game), but according to Blackhawks beat reporter Mark Lazerus, team athletic trainer Mike Gapski deemed the goalie good to go after looking him over in the crease.
Crawford was asked about the booming shot that knocked him off his feet after the game…he said it was a hard one.
“It was a hard shot. Slow pass and I just tried to go out and take the angle away, and it’s too bad he smoked me there.”
Weber is a three-time reigning champion of the NHL’s Hardest Shot competition at the All-Star Game, winning this year’s with a 102.8 mil per hour blast. His previous two wins went above 108.
The all-time record in the hardest shot is still held by Zdeno Chara at 108.8, but the difference between the two is negligible at that point.
Thank goodness for goalie masks. Johnny Bower would have had a hard time hanging in there.
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