It had to start behind the bench. It's the start of doing some things to the team to make it better. |
It wasn't because the message wasn't correct. It was in some cases that certain players weren't listening to that message. |
It's definitely not true. The decision was mine, it was unpopular, but I had to do it. I don't have to ask for permission, not that I wouldn't consult them so that the owners know what's going on. |
It's easy to point the finger at one guy and I don't think that's fair. At the end of the day, we've got a pretty good hockey team and it's up to the players to perform. They're the ones who go on the ice, not Marc. |
It's not about Marc being a bad coach. If I'm in another market today and I'm looking for a head coach, his phone is already ringing. That's what I think of him, but it doesn't mean we didn't need to make a change. We did. |
Koltsov, he's back in Russia. His mother is very ill and he wanted to stay back and be with her. He maintains that he that he wants to come back to North America and if he does we look forward to having him. You know, he's a dynamic player. He can create a scoring chance both for you and against you. He does have some great ability, and he was coming along when he went back (to Russia). |
Marc is a great coach, a great friend. But we felt our team needed a kick-start. We didn't play with the fire we've known in the past. At some point, you need a new direction. |
Marc was good. He was very thankful for the time he has had here. He would have liked to have had another year to get back at it. But he's been around this game a long time and handled it very well. Probably better than I did. |
Matt has developed into a solid two-way player with our hockey club and we look forward to his continued growth as a player for our club. |
Our club has enjoyed a lot of growth and success under Marc. I feel very privileged to have worked with Marc and believe strongly that our organization took tremendous strides under his leadership behind the bench. |
Picking out one or two players isn't helpful to anybody. With that said, your best players have to be your best players throughout the course of the year if you want to have some success. |
That is another issue that I think we need to get off the table right now. Ownership has been very supportive of what we need to do . . .There is no selling to do, there is no people we have to clear things with. There's nothing. At the end of the day the responsibility of how well we do or poorly we do lies right here. |
The best long term decision for Eddie and our hockey club was to have the surgery immediately. |
The decision [to fire Crawford] was made by the hockey operations department. |
The goal was to shore up our D and see if we could improve in net. On the back end, we're going to get some bodies back but the timing is uncertain. We felt we needed some character and strength on the back end. |