Marc Crawford

[FanOfFlyers75]

Why did Marc Crawford quit as Avalanche coach?

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[Chet Donnelly]

From Wikipedia:

In 1994–95, Crawford broke into the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques and as a result of the Nordiques' improved play, he won the NHL's Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. He is the youngest NHL coach and first rookie coach in history to win the Jack Adams. The next season, the Nordiques franchise was relocated to Colorado as the Avalanche, and Crawford won his first and only Stanley Cup as a coach in 1996, defeating the Florida Panthers in four games in the finals.

Crawford continued to post successful regular seasons with the Avalanche in the next two seasons, but after an early first-round exit in the 1998 playoffs, he resigned on May 27, 1998. Despite reportedly being offered a one-year contract extension by general manager Pierre Lacroix, Crawford decided to "move on and accept a new challenge".

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Because this guy was clearly destined to coach the Canucks:

Why delay the inevitable? That helmet can't even contain the size of his brain.

 

[Voight]

From Wikipedia:

Surprised Lacroix only wanted to do a 1 year extension given Crawfords track record at that point. That could be seen as somewhat insulting.

 

[JackSlater]

Surprised Lacroix only wanted to do a 1 year extension given Crawfords track record at that point. That could be seen as somewhat insulting.

It was intentionally insulting. Lacroix and Crawford didn't get along. Sniping at each other in the media, egos fighting for credit for team success, the awkwardness of Lacroix's son being a marginal player on the team.

 

[Crosby2010]

I always thought he had just gotten fired - by my memory - after 1998. The first round exit and the upsets in 1998 made for a lot of coaches getting tossed in 1998. I honestly think we have a better view of Crawford had Canada won in the 1998 Olympics. But his unpreparedness with things like the shootout and such was not a good look and he got a lot of blame. Perhaps rightly so. I just never thought he was a great coach overall. Sort of stumbled on the Avs' success.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

there was the perception that the crawford was holding the avs back and that they won in 1996 despite, not because, of him

then he showed in vancouver that the people werre right

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

there was the perception that the crawford was holding the avs back and that they won in 1996 despite, not because, of him

then he showed in vancouver that the people werre right

Wait, what?
He was a part of taking us from being appalling to being an upper echelon team for several years.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Marc Crawford: playoff slumps don't last long.

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

This may be dumb but I feel like Marc Crawford's physical appearance or demeanour somehow makes him seem like less of a legit coach and contributes to feeling he got lucky coaching stacked Avs team. He just seems like someone who should be a talking head instead. I'm not even sure if he was on TSN as much as I remember since he's kept coaching this whole time instead of going full media career but I think it felt right times he was.

 

[Hasbro]

I always thought he had just gotten fired - by my memory - after 1998. The first round exit and the upsets in 1998 made for a lot of coaches getting tossed in 1998. I honestly think we have a better view of Crawford had Canada won in the 1998 Olympics. But his unpreparedness with things like the shootout and such was not a good look and he got a lot of blame. Perhaps rightly so. I just never thought he was a great coach overall. Sort of stumbled on the Avs' success.

It was pretty much “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

And since he did that Lacroix got compensation from the Canucks when they hired Crow. Which pissed Crawford off even worse.

 

[Crosby2010]

It was pretty much “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

And since he did that Lacroix got compensation from the Canucks when they hired Crow. Which pissed Crawford off even worse.

I remember thinking in 1998 that he probably shouldn't be fired. It was not a good loss in 1998, but Cujo was hot and he had just recently won the Cup too.

But to this day I can't think about Crawford without thinking about the 1998 shootout selection. Bourque and Shanahan I just can't understand. Never mind the Gretzky possibility, but a defenseman and a power forward not known for breakaways is picked? And to top it off Shanahan was the last shooter!

This may be dumb but I feel like Marc Crawford's physical appearance or demeanour somehow makes him seem like less of a legit coach and contributes to feeling he got lucky coaching stacked Avs team. He just seems like someone who should be a talking head instead. I'm not even sure if he was on TSN as much as I remember since he's kept coaching this whole time instead of going full media career but I think it felt right times he was.

I can see what you mean. Crawford had a voice where it seemed like he had to clear his throat a lot. And his voice cracked like a teenage boy with every sentence. Yes you are right, his demeanour didn't fit his profession.

 

[Hasbro]

I remember thinking in 1998 that he probably shouldn't be fired. It was not a good loss in 1998, but Cujo was hot and he had just recently won the Cup too.

But to this day I can't think about Crawford without thinking about the 1998 shootout selection. Bourque and Shanahan I just can't understand. Never mind the Gretzky possibility, but a defenseman and a power forward not known for breakaways is picked? And to top it off Shanahan was the last shooter!



I can see what you mean. Crawford had a voice where it seemed like he had to clear his throat a lot. And his voice cracked like a teenage boy with every sentence. Yes you are right, his demeanour didn't fit his profession.

I really think he had lost the room at the point.

When Pierre Lacroix passed I noticed how many players spoke highly of him. Ray Bourque for instance came out for his banner raising. I haven’t heard many Avs compliment Crow, but it’s also hard to gauge since the Bertuzzi Incident burnt just about any bridges he had left here.

He was hard on Chris Simon during the playoffs. During the Chicago series he berated Simon at practice to the point he was in tears huddled behind the net. Simon rebounded scoring a goal and taking on Probert.

After Lemieux hit Draper an Avs player widely assumed to be Simon checked a Drapers health during the game, which Crawford was livid about. It tracks since Simon and Draper were Junior teammates, he didn’t dress for Game 6 of the WCF, didn’t dress at all for the finals and got traded in the off season.

An assist on that playoff loss in 98 goes to Brian Burke with his ridiculous spite suspension of Joe Sakic for Game 1.

 

[JianYang]

As a side note, many people attribute Patrick Roy as the pioneer to the early goalie pulls in non traditional situations, but I clearly remember Crawford doing that in the 90s with the avs.

Roy was on those teams so I've always assume that he got that idea from crow.

I'll say that Roy probably precipitated a league wide shift where 1.5- 2 minutes became the normal goalie pull time rather than the 1 minute mark, but he wasn't the first to tinker with the traditional mentality with respect to goalie pulls.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

He was hard on Chris Simon during the playoffs. During the Chicago series he berated Simon at practice to the point he was in tears huddled behind the net. Simon rebounded scoring a goal and taking on Probert.

After Lemieux hit Draper an Avs player widely assumed to be Simon checked a Drapers health during the game, which Crawford was livid about. It tracks since Simon and Draper were Junior teammates, he didn’t dress for Game 6 of the WCF, didn’t dress at all for the finals and got traded in the off season.

RIP chris simon. always rooted for that guy.

Wait, what?
He was a part of taking us from being appalling to being an upper echelon team for several years.

really? my memory is just baffling decisions constantly. successively playing cloutier over essensa, hedberg, skudra, and auld, then never playing noronen; his usage of the sedins; not having any defensive system whatsoever...

but it was fun to watch, running and gunning like that, and it led to a lot of gaudy pt totals for naslund and bertuzzi.

and i always took the bump from 2000 to 2001, which was crow’s second full season, third overall, as more just the natural maturation of the group plus messier leaving.

 

[MS]

Wait, what?
He was a part of taking us from being appalling to being an upper echelon team for several years.

I have more negative memories of him than positive from his time here.

Horrible handling of the Sedins, horrible handling of goaltending and loyalty to the hapless Cloutier, poor team discipline, poor treatment of players, poor evaluations of which players were actually effective.

He was a decent screamer/motivator who got the team to work hard generally but I think a better coach would have got more yet out of that team, especially in the playoffs.

 

[Crosby2010]

As a side note, many people attribute Patrick Roy as the pioneer to the early goalie pulls in non traditional situations, but I clearly remember Crawford doing that in the 90s with the avs.

Roy was on those teams so I've always assume that he got that idea from crow.

I'll say that Roy probably precipitated a league wide shift where 1.5- 2 minutes became the normal goalie pull time rather than the 1 minute mark, but he wasn't the first to tinker with the traditional mentality with respect to goalie pulls.

Roy definitely popularized the 3 minute goalie pull that we often see today, although it is more often happening with a two goal deficit. I am trying to remember when Crawford did it in Colorado. Maybe he did, I just can't remember it being pronounced at the time at least. Maybe it didn't work that well and that's why it isn't remembered?

I really think he had lost the room at the point.

When Pierre Lacroix passed I noticed how many players spoke highly of him. Ray Bourque for instance came out for his banner raising. I haven’t heard many Avs compliment Crow, but it’s also hard to gauge since the Bertuzzi Incident burnt just about any bridges he had left here.

He was hard on Chris Simon during the playoffs. During the Chicago series he berated Simon at practice to the point he was in tears huddled behind the net. Simon rebounded scoring a goal and taking on Probert.

After Lemieux hit Draper an Avs player widely assumed to be Simon checked a Drapers health during the game, which Crawford was livid about. It tracks since Simon and Draper were Junior teammates, he didn’t dress for Game 6 of the WCF, didn’t dress at all for the finals and got traded in the off season.

An assist on that playoff loss in 98 goes to Brian Burke with his ridiculous spite suspension of Joe Sakic for Game 1.

I had forgotten that Sakic got a game suspension in 1998 for kneeing Draper. It was unintentional but it still kept him out of Game 1 of the Oilers series. I guess it all worked out though, Sakic came back and despite losing in Game 1 they won with him the next three games. The Avs had a 3-1 series lead and then blew it. I am not sure we can lay the blame on Brian Burke here although I'd like to. That was a choke job for Colorado.

I often wonder what would happen if Chris Simon had been on a line with Sakic or Forsberg. We saw the brief time he was on a line with Oates in Washington that he thrived with 29 goals. I know the idea is that he didn't have the skill to be on that line but he seemed to do well with Oates and he'd have given Sakic a lot of room.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I often wonder what would happen if Chris Simon had been on a line with Sakic or Forsberg. We saw the brief time he was on a line with Oates in Washington that he thrived with 29 goals. I know the idea is that he didn't have the skill to be on that line but he seemed to do well with Oates and he'd have given Sakic a lot of room.

i wonder how the late 90s goes if simon had still been on the avs in the ’97 season when the epic brawls happened

 

[Crosby2010]

i wonder how the late 90s goes if simon had still been on the avs in the ’97 season when the epic brawls happened

Very butterfly-like thought process. You have to think, Mike Keane was sitting on the bench when the brawl happened in 1997. So they were smart enough to not do it when he was on the ice. However, there was still a pretty tough customer in Foote on the ice when it happened. Not quite Simon though. A big enforcer who was able to securely be a 3rd or 4th liner legitimately, you keep that guy. Simon was a player who took a regular shift. That's on Crawford for booting him out.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

It was intentionally insulting. Lacroix and Crawford didn't get along. Sniping at each other in the media, egos fighting for credit for team success, the awkwardness of Lacroix's son being a marginal player on the team.

I checked Blood Feud, Dater for specifics on this, Eric-Lacroix-gate seems to have come to a head 4 games into 1998-99 the season after Crawford was fired for Hartley

They mention earlier that some of the Avs veterans felt Crawford was giving the kid gloves treatment to Eric on account of family connections, and Hartley basically shilled directly for Lacroix senior until the team leadership forced the issue.

Its possible Crawford may have been planning to put an end to that inconsistency with Lacroix but is there direct evidence for that?

 

[ShelbyZ]

I often wonder what would happen if Chris Simon had been on a line with Sakic or Forsberg. We saw the brief time he was on a line with Oates in Washington that he thrived with 29 goals. I know the idea is that he didn't have the skill to be on that line but he seemed to do well with Oates and he'd have given Sakic a lot of room.

I'm pretty sure Simon spent a lot of time on Sakic's wing in '96, at least during the regular season. Hockey-ref seems to back it up with them connecting for 22 of Simon's 34 points that year.

That was part of the reason why he held out for the bigger salary that Lacroix and co. didn't want to give him.

Very butterfly-like thought process. You have to think, Mike Keane was sitting on the bench when the brawl happened in 1997. So they were smart enough to not do it when he was on the ice. However, there was still a pretty tough customer in Foote on the ice when it happened. Not quite Simon though. A big enforcer who was able to securely be a 3rd or 4th liner legitimately, you keep that guy. Simon was a player who took a regular shift. That's on Crawford for booting him out.

Mike Keane? Maybe my memory is going but my recollection of Keane was that he was a gritty hard working 3rd line winger that maybe got in one or two middleweight scraps every year (including against Tomas Holmstrom in the '97 brawl game), but wasn't exactly going to strike fear in the opposition. I would've had him ranked behind not only Foote, but guys like Deadmarsh and obviously the Avs dedicated enforcer that season, Brent Severyn, who was in the line up that night.

Also would have to think that if the Avs had someone like Simon around, Bowman probably would've dressed Joe Kocur instead of giving him the night off.

 

[Hasbro]

i wonder how the late 90s goes if simon had still been on the avs in the ’97 season when the epic brawls happened

That was the line of thought at the time. Conventional wisdom was the Avalanche lacked a deterrent. Led to the drafting of Kevin Grimes and Scott Parker with 1st round picks.

 

[Hasbro]

Mike Keane? Maybe my memory is going but my recollection of Keane was that he was a gritty hard working 3rd line winger that maybe got in one or two middleweight scraps every year (including against Tomas Holmstrom in the '97 brawl game), but wasn't exactly going to strike fear in the opposition. I would've had him ranked behind not only Foote, but guys like Deadmarsh and obviously the Avs dedicated enforcer that season, Brent Severyn, who was in the line up that night.

Also would have to think that if the Avs had someone like Simon around, Bowman probably would've dressed Joe Kocur instead of giving him the night off.

Yeah Keane could scrap, but he was in no way an enforcer.

 

[Crosby2010]

I'm pretty sure Simon spent a lot of time on Sakic's wing in '96, at least during the regular season. Hockey-ref seems to back it up with them connecting for 22 of Simon's 34 points that year.

That was part of the reason why he held out for the bigger salary that Lacroix and co. didn't want to give him.



Mike Keane? Maybe my memory is going but my recollection of Keane was that he was a gritty hard working 3rd line winger that maybe got in one or two middleweight scraps every year (including against Tomas Holmstrom in the '97 brawl game), but wasn't exactly going to strike fear in the opposition. I would've had him ranked behind not only Foote, but guys like Deadmarsh and obviously the Avs dedicated enforcer that season, Brent Severyn, who was in the line up that night.

Also would have to think that if the Avs had someone like Simon around, Bowman probably would've dressed Joe Kocur instead of giving him the night off.

Keane was more role player - the kind you want on your team to win - more than he was enforcer I agree. But he certainly could drop the mitts. Check this fight out from 1994 with him against Bill Guerin. Excellent fight. One of those ones where they both do well, but maybe you give the edge to the smaller Keane here. Also, Keane was livid after the brawl game in 1997. He said that the Wings didn't have the "balls" to do that in Colorado. To be fair, they had played in Colorado and hadn't done that. I am just thinking of an Av that might have struck fear into the opposition physically.

 

[EpochLink]

really? my memory is just baffling decisions constantly. successively playing cloutier over essensa, hedberg, skudra, and auld, then never playing noronen; his usage of the sedins; not having any defensive system whatsoever...

but it was fun to watch, running and gunning like that, and it led to a lot of gaudy pt totals for naslund and bertuzzi.

and i always took the bump from 2000 to 2001, which was crow’s second full season, third overall, as more just the natural maturation of the group plus messier leaving.

Crawford rode Cloutier to the ground, there should’ve been a better defensive system in front of him but it was all run and gun fun. His refusal to play anyone in net beside him always drove us nuts cause Cloutier would just let a stinker in and the team would just deflate.

By the 05/06 season came and went , it was time to go as his system was completely useless for the personnel we had.