There were a lot of questions regarding Ray Emery entering this season, whether it was if he could handle the burden if Crawford struggled, or if his hips would be able to hold up in the condensed season, or if his play would be better and have more of a chance to win games for the Hawks as opposed to not lose them.
So far, Razor has shut down all of his doubters, including me. I wasn’t sure about our goaltendning tandem going into the season and while I’m not ready to eat crow regarding those two, yet, they have been phenomenal this season.
I have always been worried about Razor stepping in mid-game to take over because of his normally long pre-game warm-ups. I was also worried his side to side movement would be something easily exploited by opponents.
And while at times, I still seem to notice that Ray isn’t the quickest from post to post he has been everything the Hawks could want from a back-up and more.
He is the first goalie in the history of the NHL to start a season 10-0-0.
Now, some will poo-poo this record as he is not the “starter” for the Hawks and had more time in between starts, this doesn’t take into account Crawford being injured for 10 days or the fact that they are playing in a condensed season with less off time between games, so really Emery’s streak is probably more amazing. Not to mention he will be turning 31 this year.
Ray has stolen games for the Hawks and provided a lot of confidence for the men skating in front of him, it takes pressure of the d which allows them to help the forwards a bit more which makes their lives easier. The Hawks really are winning as a team right now which makes it so much fun to pick a 4th star, cause I can pick a different player almost every night to highlight.
Let’s keep it going tomorrow night in Colorado. Go Hawks!