Crawford interview from after practice …

Click below to read the transcript. He talks about the need to get off to a good start on the road trip, last night’s game, Matt Moulson and the pairing of Moulson with Teddy Purcell.

On the coming eight-game road trip: “It is going to be a long one. Weve got our work cut out for us. With anything, when youre looking at a long period, the start is everything. We want to get off to a good start and then youre not looking at regrouping. Our start to the trip will be of ultimate importance. If we can get off to a great start in Philadelphia, then the rest of the trip just falls into place. We dont have to travel a great deal. We get to have the Eastern Conference travel schedule where we’re in the Eastern time zone for seven of the eight games. Thats really beneficial. By the time we get on that Eastern time, its always easier to go there. We do want to get off to a great start in Philadelphia, which is a tough place to play. Their team has stumbled a bit lately but we have to expect they will be at their best against us.

“I think we’re playing pretty good. Even last night’s game, we asked the guys to play tight, we asked them to be really conscientious and they were. We did limit a very good team to limited scoring chances. We made two big mistakes in the game and they capitilized on both of them. I shoud probably say three big mist because I thought the goalie made a big mistake in overplaying the third goal and not being in the net. They were very opportunistic last night, but good teams are. They buckled down and played a very tight game against us. They didnt give us very much. I thought we had a great start. I guess the point I’m trying to make is we kind of got what we asked for last night but we have to take the next step, which is not to give up easy chances and to continue to try to generate. I thought our net presence needed to be a little bit better than it was last night. We’re looking for guys like calder especially, Armstrong is very good around the net, the new guys that we brought in got to get their noses dirty in and around net. O’Sullivan is a guy for me who needs to be stronger around the net than he was last night. We need those types of goals that come on tip ins and battles and all the confrontations that happen in and around the net. I think if we can get improved play there and continue to get the good puck movement, then well continue to see some success.

On Moulson: “He played well last time. They made the decision here to go with the people weve got. All anybody can do is go out there and not worry about things ou

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