Here are Marc Crawford’s thoughts following Tuesday night’s loss to Detroit:
“They were pretty efficient tonight. They were missing a big one tonight in Zetterberg but their really good players were their best players. Lidstrom is what most people expected from him. He controls the game. Datsyuk made a great play to get them the lead after we had such a good first period. ”
“Thats a team you really need to get the lead on if youre a team like ours. We didn’t. When trying to play catch-up against a very good team like theirs, it becomes more difficult. We made one mistake in the second period. They end up scoring on us and, down two goals, they really locked it up and checked us fairly effectively the last half of the game.”
“Hopefully we learned we can play with those teams if we’re all on. I thought we were all on for the first period and maybe a little bit of the rest of the game, but we need to be on the entire game against these guys. They just won’t allow you to win unless you get a great game from your team. I thought we had six forwards who worked hard tonight. I thought most of the defense contributed and LaBarbera had his moments in net, made some saves especially in the second period to keep it close. But, as I said, they dont allow you to win by just playing all right. Well have to play better to beat that club.”
“It’s something to learn from that if skating and really being authoritative with them and concenetrating on how you have to play, then you can be very successful. I thought the first period we did it but we didn’t have enough to stay with it the entire three periods. I think the goals they got kind of got us out of sync and we have to work on that.”
On Purcell and Moulson: “I thought they played very good. Moulson has very good hands and showed them in around the net. Teddy is a good playmaker and one of the forwards who definitely worked tonight. Playing against NHL defensemen of the caliber they were playing against was probably more demanding on them than it is on the American League level, but they played very well.”
“Purcell has got to get stronger and he will get stronger. He’s a very young guy just realizing how strong NHL defenders are and it’s always been my experience that when a young forward and he’s got a good frame realizes he needs to get stronger then they go about making adjustments in the offseason. For the rest of this year, Teddy needs to continue to battle, keep his balance on the ice, keep his feet moving and do things with his lower body strength — which I think is very good. But his upper body strength needs to pick up and that will make a huge difference for him in getting away shots in traffic and getting away shots with people draped all over you. He’s the type of player who protects the puck well, a little like Frolov and maybe a little bit slicker. Frolov has that good strength so he can fend off the opposition’s defenders. So we’re looking for that type of improvement in Ted and I’m sure he’ll get that as he gets older and more mature and definitely stronger.”
On playing Ducks Thursday: “We’ll get the chance to watch them tomorrow night. It will be a tough game for them and I’m sure they got their focus now on Detroit and that big matchup. It should be a very good game and then hopefully Detroit takes a ton out of them and well be able to mop them up.”
