Crawford interview

On Nagy: ``It doesn’t look real positive with him. We’ll see. He’s got neck problems. I think he’s going to see another doctor tomorrow and they’re going to decide if he needs to do something more radical or continue what he’s doing. He still has limited mobility and movement, and the procedures he’s done have not had the desired effect. We’re not looking to him being available to us unless some procedure works for him. None of the injections they’ve given him have worked, so I think they’re looking at other options now. If surgery becomes an option for him than, yeah, he will be lost for the season.''

On Blake's status: ``Rob is a professional guy and knows his body better than anyone else. He has to be the guy to decide when he’s ready to come back and help this club. We’re confident he’ll be back soon. If it’s the next game, it’s great. If not, we’ll take him when he comes back.''

On if the team will call up another forward after sending Purcell down: ``Not at the present time. We’re going to go with the 12 forwards we’ve got, and I haven’t heard otherwise.''

Other injury updates: ``Armstrong is not coming on the road trip. He tried today and there’s still too much pain for him to even be an option. They’re thinking it will be at least another week until he skates again.

``LaBarbera there is nothing new. He is going to stay back on this trip. In the interim, I think Ersberg is staying here. Dan Cloutier is starting tomorrow in Edmonton.''

On moving past the trade deadline: ``I have to compliment our guys, they’ve been terrific. There was only one game where they lost their focus. You hear about it more than anything. You hear about it from people around the room, what the banter is. There was one game where I heard a lot of stuff about people wondering whether they would be here or wouldn’t be here. But other than that, we’ve addressed it and our guys have been real professionals. That’s all you can ask for. The deadline for a team that is sellers is not a fun day for a lot of guys. We can’t lose sight of the fact that they’re humans, they have lives, they have children, and when trades are made they affect a lot of people. I think our guys have been very good with how they’ve handled things, how they’ve composed themselves and compartmentalizing their worries and anxiety. We’ve played well. We’re five games over .500 since just after Christmas.''

On defensive pairings: ``One thing I will say is I will keep Rob paired with Jack. I just think that’s a great thing for Jack. We’re in a huge developmental phase with Jack and you want him to be paired with the great defenseman and mentor that we’ve got. From that standpoint, that’s the one thing I’d like to do. I think it will be a mismatch of partners other than Rob and Jack.''

On pairing Harrold with Visnovsky, and if there is a developmental angle behind putting the similar-style players together: ``They’ve both got speed, they both have the ability to join the attack. It’s more a case of this is what we’ve got, and you have to make the best of what you got. We’d like to have Lubo with a bigger, stronger, stay-at-home defenseman. The same thing with regards to Peter. You’d like a stronger guy with him who’s reliable, but we don’t have that. We’ve got what we’ve got, so you have to make the best of that.''