Blackhawks’ Jaxson Stauber soaking up emergency call-up to NHL
Hawks’ Jaxson Stauber soaking up emergency call-up to NHL originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Blackhawks have been decimated with injuries this season, and perhaps no position has had its depth tested more than the goaltending.
Four goaltenders have appeared in NHL games for the Blackhawks through 26 games this season: Petr Mrazek, Arvid Soderblom, Alex Stalock and Dylan Wells. Jaxson Stauber nearly became the fifth.
On Tuesday in New Jersey, Soderblom got poked in the eye in the third period after Tomar Tatar’s stick literally went inside the eye hole of the mask. Soderblom threw his helmet off and was in immediate pain.
In a matter of seconds, Stauber went and grabbed his goalie mask, put it on and was preparing to enter in relief. Fortunately for Soderblom, he ended up staying in the game after needing a few moments to regather himself, dodging a major bullet.
Stauber has never appeared in an NHL game and he claims his emotions weren’t going crazy at that moment. But they probably would have if he had to actually go into the game.
“Honestly, it happened so fast that you don’t really have any time to think about it,” Stauber said. “It was just like, get yourself ready, get your helmet on and get yourself stretched out a little bit and get ready. So yeah, I wasn’t really feeling anything, but I’m sure once I stepped on that ice it probably would’ve been a little bit of nerves for sure, but it’s a good thing.”
Earlier in the season, Mrazek and Stalock were each out with respective injuries, and at the same time, so was Stauber, who had an eye injury after a shot he faced in a game with Rockford got stuck into his mask and nearly caught his eye. It was so close to being a potentially disastrous situation, similar to Soderblom’s.
“It was honestly, more than anything, just a bit of a shocking situation,” Stauber said. “The puck kind of got lodged inside the mask and caught me a little bit above the eye, but there was just a little bit of swelling. More than…
