Crawford Ousted

Sports Writing the Good: Damien Cox's article titled " Crawford, Leafs Bad Fit " in the Toronto Star April 26,

" Yes, Crawford has a 1996 Stanley Cup ring courtesy of the Colorado Avalanche, something Maurice - nor Quinn, for that matter - has in their jewellery box.
But without Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy, Crawford won nothing, and he failed to do at the Olympics what Quinn did manage to achieve.

As the Vancouver coach since 1999, Crawford's Canuck teams won one - count 'em, one - playoff series. On two occasions, Crawford's teams were poised to move on in the playoffs, but lost Game7 on home ice.

With all kinds of talent this year - more, in fact, than the Leafs - Crawford couldn't cajole enough effort out of his top players to qualify for post-season play.

No matter how badly Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund played, Crawford continued to play them as a No.1 line even though the unit of the Sedin twins and Anson Carter was better all season long.

And yes, let's talk about Bertuzzi.

You could make a case that Crawford, as much as Bertuzzi, was responsible for that horrible incident on March 11, 2004. NHL lawmakers were dying to fine Crawford individually in the wake of the Steve Moore attack, but instead, chose to fine the Canucks as a team.
With the game out of control that night, it was Crawford's responsibility to be clear-headed and concerned for the overall well being of the team, not frothing at the mouth and part of the posse out to get Moore.

The Canucks, as a franchise, have paid dearly for what happened that night in lost revenue and lost public esteem, and Crawford has to share the responsibility for that.

Maybe he could rehabilitate himself with the Leafs, but quite frankly, the slicked-back look and overall Crawford act have worn thin over the years. Once a friendly and affable sort, he has become increasingly aloof and arrogant over the years. "

Sports Commentating the Bad: Kelly Hrudey on CBC, Wednesday April 26,

"I totally disagree with this move," Hrudey said. "I think Marc Crawford is a heck of a coach.
"He is going to go somewhere and, in fact, I think it's in [Toronto]. I'd have laid the blame more so at the player's feet in this case."

Hrudey is right, Crawford is a heck of a coach. But he's had little progress with the Canucks the past two seasons. How does Hrudey validate his opinion ? By blaming the players. Yes the oh-so-typical sports journalist sympathy pull, " Don't fire the coach, make the players accountable ". How, in a business like the NHL do you make the players accountable without trading them? You can't, that's the job of the coach, and well based on what happened it looks as though Crawford wasn't doing a good enough job of that. So the next question is who do we make accountable through a trade, and what can we get for them? Well let's take a look:

- Todd Bertuzzi, the most likely big time deal the Canucks will make in the offseason. Getting rid of Bert's contract is the only possible way the Canucks will have a chance at re-signing Ed Jovanovski. And even then, signing Jovo seems slim, my guess is he'll find a more lucrative contract through the free-agent market. And oh boy the Leafs would dearly part with McCabe for a defensemen of Jovanovski's caliber. Here's the catch with Bert though, who wants him? He's a disgruntled forward who has attitude problems, an inflated ego, a bit of a recluse in the dressing room, and clearly a player not playing anywhere near his potential. I could see Bobby Clarke licking his chops but not many other GM's around the league.

- Brenden Morrison, again underachieved this year, and looks like he could use a change of scenery. The problem - the Canucks, lacking depth on forward, would not get enough in return to make a deal involving Morrison worth while.

- Dan Cloutier, another tough sell because his stock is dropping with recent injury woes, not to mention a resume that includes only one playoff series win in four tries.

Anyone else? Not unless Nonis wants to trade his most valuable duo in Henrik and Daniel Sedin can the Canucks potentially (and I only mean POTENTIALLY and of course immediately) gain with an offseason trade. But really do you want to trade away the future of the club for a current all-star?

The best moves the Canucks can make are in the department of 3rd and 4th liners when Jovo opts not to re-sign with the club. The Canucks have suffered from only being able to roll with 2 lines, and if they want to have success next year the lack of talent up front has to be addressed. With the mid-season acquisitions of Noronen, and Carney (i think we'd all like to forget about Weinrich) Nonis has shown that he can make good deals, or at least logical ones. Acknowledging a teams' needs is actually a lot harder for GM's to do now with the hard cap than you think. And really, Nonis thusfar, done a good job.

Do I agree with his decision to fire Crawford? Of course I do. I think it was time for a change. Marc has done well for himself, and certainly turned around the franchise, it's just that he's lost a lot of respect from people around the league after the Bertuzzi incident, and perhaps even in the dressing room in the wake of the late season playoff push that was terribly unsuccesful.

Let's cross our fingers that Nonis chooses a good heir to the throne. Apparently he's going to take his time in making the decision and he's already compiled a short list of favorite candidates. Hmmm, I'm hoping Darryl Sutter's on that list, don't you?