Crawford interview
At first he said he wasn't going to do an interview today, that he was going to leave everything to Dean. But we stressed that there were game-related issues like how losing Stuart would affect the team that Dean wouldn't know about, so he obliged in the end. He talks about losing Stuart, how the defensive pairings will look, possible call-ups from Manchester, LaBarbera's health, today's practice and looking forward to the final five weeks of the season.
``I thought Stuey played really well for us. I thought that, especially on our team, it’s not the biggest group of defenseman and he played a big game for us. Like anybody, it takes a while to get adjusted to a new team. I think Brad went through those growing pains early and basically 10-15 games in, from that point on, I thought he contributed extremely well for our team. He played basically half the year with a bad foot as well. He had trouble practicing, couldn’t put his skate on and that sort of thing. I think he’s going to be a nice addition to Detroit. Obviously he goes to a top team and has a chance to win, so I feel happy for him that way.''
On the defensive pairings after the trade: ``It all depends on if Rob is healthy for last game. If Rob is healthy we’ll probably play Rob with Jack, and then we’re left with Lubo and a bunch of right-shot defenseman. If Rob isn’t ready, obviously we’ll have to call somebody up and I’m not sure who that would be right now.
``Peter will have an enormous opportunity to play here now. I’m not sure who their top guy down there right now is, whether it’s a guy like Patrik Hersley or Joe Piskula who played a few games last year or Richard Petiot. Those are the names that are down there. Klemm is another one. We’ll see.''
On today's practice: ``I thought there was some good energy, actually. We wanted a hard working practice, we told them before they went out. So if they were subdued it’s because they knew there would be a lot of skating. I think the quietness was from the burn in the legs because there was a lot of drills.''
On looking forward now that trade deadline has passed: ``We’re playing well so we want to continue to play well and strive to win every game. Down the stretch here we’re going to get the opportunity to see some more young guys come in here and show their wares, so to speak. For the other guys, we’ve got many who are playing for contracts. So there’s always an angle for every player.''
On the goalie situation: ``There’s nothing new on Jason and I don’t expect any news on Jason until end of the week. I’ll play Dan in the next game and that’s all I know for sure.'''
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Another interview with Crow where he doesn't seem to know what the hell is going on. Does this organization communicate with each other at all?
Only positive thing he seems to know is that Stuart had improved a lot and that he's using Clutz in goal for next game.
Matt,
Ask Dean or anyone else who might know... Is there any chance that Jon Bernier finishes his season with Lewitson then joins Manchester or Reading for the remainder of their season and/or playoffs?
holy cr%p what a worthless interview... no offense matt, it's not your doing. Crawford seriously has to figure out who some of these players are in the organization sometime soon. stuff like that is becoming rather embarrassing and it's no wonder the team and certain lines have looked clueless out there half the time. and we heard previous regimes were bad and that's why they cleaned house from the top to the janitor. words like this seems to almost trump everything negative we'd heard before now.
geez if I were him I wouldn't be admitting half of that stuff. I'd just shrug this off, figure some stuff out and say talk with you tomorrow.
I can not agree with you more, brianguy