The NHL trade deadline is coming up next Monday (February 27th 2012) and a lot of names are popping up left and right, and one that I care about is Ray Emery’s name.

It’s no surprise that the Chicago Blackhawks might be looking for some goaltending help to try and make a deep playoff push, and with the recent struggles of both Corey Crawford and Ray Emery, it makes absolute sense.

Obviously Crawford is who the Hawks are banking on for the future so he’s not going anywhere, so that leaves Emery. If the Blackhawks do make a move for a goalie I hope Emery is part of the trade because if he isn’t, he will be the odd man out and will find himself playing in the AHL.

A couple teams that have good veteran goalies to spare are the Colorado Avalanche, Boston Bruins, St-Louis, Minnesota Wild and the Vancouver Canucks.

The most likely goaltender to be moved from those teams that matches what the Blackhawks would want is Jean-Sebastien Giguere, he has been playing well this season and is a seasoned veteran with deep playoff experience, and he’s cheap.

Here are the reasons I dismiss the other teams:

Boston Bruins: If a goalie is to be leaving, it would be Thomas and he has a no trade contract for the rest of this season.

St-Louis Blues: Neither Halak or Elliott have deep playoff experience, and with things going great, I’m not sure the Blues want to risk rocking their goaltending boat.

Minnesota Wild: Backstrom isn’t going anywhere, so it would be Josh Harding who has only one period of NHL playoff hockey experience.

Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo is their captain and at his salary he isn’t an option, Schneider could be, but like Harding his playoff experience is limited, he has 5 games played (with no decisions).

If Ray Emery does end up in Colorado, he may get another chances to fight for top spot, but it would be a similar situation as in Chicago, were they have what they expect to be as their future franchise goalie in Semyon Varlamov.

Either way we will know within the next 7 days where Emery will finish the season, and then it’s free agency all over again!

It’s funny how things work, only a few months ago both Ray Emery and Corey Crawford were playing so well that the Chicago Blackhawks had a goaltending controversy on their hands, well now the tables have turned and both are playing subpar!

Looks like Coach Quenneville is going to go with Ray Emery tonight, so hopefully he get take this opportunity to play good and earn himself another start, and maybe even take the number one spot to finish the season.

It won’t be an easy task since they are playing the Nashville Predators in Nashville were the Blackhawks current losing streak started about 3 weeks ago, a game that Crawford started but got relieved by Emery.

Check out NHL.com for more info on tonights game.

I told you about some changes that are coming to RayEmeryFan.com, well here are some of the ideas I’m thinking of implementing, let me know what you think should or shouldn’t happen and any other ideas.

You can leave comments below, reply on Twitter or email me at info@rayemeryfan.com.

Here are some things I’m sure I want to put on the frontpage:

• RayEmeryFan’s Twitter Feed
• Be able to follow and tweet @RayEmeryFan right from the page
• Current Stats + Career Stats
• Last Game Info (Link to Video Highlights, Boxscore and Recap from NHL.com)
• Next Game Countdown (Link to Game Preview from NHL.com)

Here are some things I’m on the fence about including the reasons I’m not sure

• Replies to @RazorEmery (his old Twitter handle that isn’t active right now) on Twitter or hashtag #RayEmery, I’m not sure I want this because it may display negative tweets from the haters.
• Short introductory biography, I will have a biography page, not sure I need to have some of it on the front page, it may just clutter it up more than anything.
• Pictures and Videos, each will have their own page, but should I put some on the front page also, like the latest ones maybe, or random ones?
• Random Facts, I could create a small section that has random Ray Emery facts, and have it change each day, or each refresh.

Another thing I’m wondering about is the blog part, how many posts should be on the front page, and in what format.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I want to make things easier to upkeep for me, but also give a better user experience for my readers, so please give me your input.

I’m making major changes to my online portfolio in 2012, in was one of my resolutions, and one of the big changes is this website. The focus, design and elements of the website will be changed.

Right now, I spend a lot of time writing posts that I deem useless, like game previews and post game reports, there are so many places that do a better, more consistent job at that than me, namely NHL.com. In the future I want to focus on bringing the most info, news, stats, video and other things specifically about Ray Emery, after all this is a Ray Emery fan website, not a Chicago Blackhawks fan website, which you can tell by the site still using the Flyers colors!

Without going into specific details right now, I can tell you the look will be much closer to a website than a blog, and although the website will still be updated daily in terms of stats and social updates, actual posts will be limited to Ray Emery news. Basically instead of posting 5-7 posts a week, I’ll be looking more at 1-2 a week.

The new website will be constructed behind the scenes in the coming weeks and months, and will be ready and unveiled at the start of the 2012-2013 season in October 2012.

Thanks to all my loyal readers and visitors, and let me assure you I’m not going anywhere, just making the website better and more focused on who it should be, Ray Emery!

Ray Emery got the start in Calgary last night against the Flames, and although it wasn’t as bad as the previous night against the Oilers, the Blackhawks still lost, this time 3-1. Emery stopped 29 of 32 shots.

It was enough to be better than he and Corey Crawford had been against Edmonton, but it wasn’t enough to get the win.

One of the big issues for Chicago were penalties, they took 4 and one of them was a double minor, so they spent 10 minutes short handed and got totally dominated by the Flames power play. They had a total of 17 power play shots, but only converted one of those which was the go ahead and game winning goal by Jay Bouwmeester in the second period.

Take a look at the video highlights from the game, including 12 of Ray Emery’s saves:

The next question, is who gets the start for the next Hawks game, I would imagine Emery didn’t play well enough to earn the next start, but he did play good, so who knows.

Last time Ray Emery got the start in Edmonton in a game that finished 9-2, well this time Corey Crawford got the start, but Emery came in to replace him and the Blackhawks lost 8-4. Chicago isn’t enjoying their visits to Edmonton this year!

The scene above is very reminiscent of the game against the Predators last week before the NHL All-Star game.

Corey Crawford got the start last night, but got pulled early in the third period after letting in two goals in less than two minutes which gave the Oilers a 5-3 lead at the time. Emery came in and didn’t fair any better letting in 3 goals on 13 shots. Its hard to say why they have such a hard time with Edmonton, but maybe it has to do with the incredible speed the young Oilers have, or maybe they just take them too lightly, but after the first blowout you would think it wouldn’t happen again if that was the case.

The real big story of the night was Oilers forward Sam Gagner who scored 4 goals and added 4 assists, which gave him an 8 point night. The first player to have that many points in one night since 1986 when Mario Lemieux did it with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Here are the video “highlights” from last nights disaster:

Tonight the Hawks look to the second game of their Alberta trip when they visit the Calgary Flames. It looks like Ray Emery will get the start for the Blackhawks so hopefully he can play solid and earn himself some more playing time down the stretch. Emery played solid in his last game against the Flames stopping 22 of 24 shots to record his fifth consecutive victory at the time and put the Blackhawks in first place in the league, today they sit in 8th place in the NHL.

You can check out the NHL.com Blackhawks vs Flames game preview.

It’s pretty obvious, well to me anyways since it’s my favorite hockey moment. Funny enough it happened on my birthday, February 22nd 2007, when the Ottawa Senators visited the Buffalo Sabres and the infamous Ray Emery fight night took place.

It all started at the 5:07 mark of the second period after Buffalo took a 3-2 lead on 3 unanswered goals, Chris Neil took it upon himself to get a momentum swing and decided to fight Drew Stafford,  but it didn’t end there! The Sabres took exception to an experience fighter in Neil taking on someone like Stafford so they decided 6 seconds later in the game to start a few more fights.

Not one to shy away from a good old fashion hockey brawl, Ray Emery skated down the ice to take on Sabres goalie Martin Biron, here’s the video of Emery finishing him off:

After disposing of Biron, Emery decided to continue having fun by taking on heavyweight Andrew Peters. You can tell Ray was having fun with the big smile on his face during both fights. Here’s the video of that fight:

Now the game ended in a shootout with Buffalo coming out victorious 6-5, but Emery did not get credited with the loss because the Senators came back after he got tossed (for those keeping stats, he had 2 fightning majors, a 10 minute misconduct and a 2 minute minor for leaving his crease for a total of 22 minutes).

He did however leave that game with the nickname Sugar Ray, which was given to him by the Ottawa media because of the fighting, and Ray Emery’s love of boxing.

The Chicago Blackhawks lost an important game Saturday night against their Central Division rivals, the Nashville Predators. The game finished 5-2 for the Preds, and Ray Emery game into the game with about 4 minutes left in the second period in relief of Corey Crawford.

Like I mentioned before the game, we didn’t expect to see Ray Emery Saturday night, but you never know!

After Crawford let in the fourth Nashville goal of the game on their 17th shot, he got pulled and replaced with Ray Emery who stopped 5 of the 6 shots he faced, and the Hawks were unable to mount a comeback.

The Central Division is one of the best in the NHL, they have four teams with over 60 points, with the Detroit Red Wings leading the way with 67 points, followed by the Blues and Blackhawks at 64 and then the Predators at 62. That could change tonight though as the Hawks are facing off against the Nashville Predators again, this time in the Windy City. Check out the NHL.com Game Preview.

Despite Crawford’s poor play Saturday night, he will get a shot again tonight, which will be the last game for Chicago before the NHL All-Star Game.

Here are the highlights from Saturday night’s game, including only 1 of the 5 saves made by Ray Emery

Ray Emery got a chance to shine at home in Chicago when he got the start last night against the Florida Panthers. He didn’t get a chance to steal the game as he only faced 19 shots, but he stopped 18 of them for the win.

There were some nice saves, and the game helped up Emery’s goal against average and save percentage statistics.

This was probably his final ice time before the NHL All-Star break. Ray Emery had a great first half, except for that famous game against the Edmonton Oilers, being more than a solid back up, but a number 1b goalie as I like to put it. I don’t wish Corey Crawford any bad luck, but should he collapse at any time in the second half, Emery will be ready to step up. He knows, his coach knows it and so do his teammates.

Here are last nights highlights including 14 of Ray Emery’s 18 saves.

The Chicago Blackhawks are in Nashville tonight to take on the Predators, Crawford is expected to start, but you never know what can happen. We may just see Ray Emery again!

Ray Emery will get the start in nets for the Chicago Blackhawks tonight when they host the Florida Panthers. It will be Razor’s first game against the Panthers since winning against them as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers on October 24th 2009.

He had stopped 17 of 18 shots in the game for the win, but times have changed. Emery is on a new team, and the Panthers are a reborn team this season, who are tied in first place of the South East Division with the Washington Capitals.

Florida has been in a slump lately though, only winning 3 of their last 10 games, while the Blackhawks have been a little better but still not what’s expected of them by winning 5 of 10.

Ray will try and pull a solid effort in what will probably be his last start before the NHL All-Star game, which he isn’t a part of, obviously, and unfortunately.

Puck drops at 8:30 PM EST, and you can get more stats at NHL.com on the Florida Panthers vs Chicago Blackhawks game preview.