Netting Crow (Blackhawks Fan-Fiction)

Chapter 6

Off-season 2014

During the months following that heartbreaking loss of Game 7 at the Western Conference Final, I began scouring every place I could for information regarding Corey Crawford.  I read articles about him as a goalie, I read blog pages that talked about him personally, and I joined every social media outlet that had something devoted to the Blackhawks or Corey, himself.  Every one of his "haters" was calling for his trade.  I was worried that he would get traded.  I was just starting to enjoy hockey, and if Corey was traded I don't think I would continue to be as interested.

I learned a lot that summer about Corey.  Some of it was pretty disheartening.  I read about his engagement that ended after he won the Stanley Cup in 2013.  It ended due to his cheating, which wasn't the person I had envisioned.  I read about his supposed current "relationship" with some girl from Studio Paris or the Underground.  He never came out and said that he had a girlfriend, people on different blogs just mentioned that they were seeing each other.  People on these blogs are not nice, especially to people that probably have never even met in real life.

I also learned that he gave a lot to his community.  He co-sponsored, with one of his other hockey friends, a training center for kids.  He helped out Bryan Bickell and Duncan Keith with their charities by participating in different functions.  I learned that he was shy in situations with fans, but also kind and willing to sign autographs.  Many people commented about his lack of true friends outside of the hockey rink, which I found sad.  He spent the off-season in Montreal working on his car or boating.

All in all everything I learned that off-season didn't change how I felt about the Corey Crawford I saw wearing a Blackhawks jersey.  I didn't know the circumstances behind his actions, and it wasn't my place to fill in details with assumptions.  However, I did remain interested and continued to seek out information about him.

The more I read the more I began to rationalize everything. I couldn't make judgments I wasn't there. He wasn't my boyfriend and never would be, so what he did in his personal life didn't affect me.  Little did I know that pretty soon, his decisions would affect me.