Crawford quotes
He talks about the line change of moving O'Sullivan down to play with Frolov and Cammalleri, Armstrong's injury, LaBarbera's injury and the acquisition of Ellis.
``In the first period, if not for the great play of Dan Cloutier, they might have gotten on the role that they so desperately wanted. That’s what good goaltending will do for you. It allows you to find your game. We found it in the second period and started making better decisions with the puck. The puck movement -- especially with the line of O'Sullivan, Cammalleri and Frolov -- was very special. Our defense started moving pucks, our forwards wanted pucks. They started making better decision on our entries into the zone, started to retrieve lot of our shots and chip-ins. That’s when the game started to change in our favor. I don’t believe a great deal in puck luck but it seemed to start to change when those characteristics changed.''
On Armstrong's injury``Armstrong hurt a knee, the same one he's hurt before (left knee). They don’t think it's all that serious but we'll have to wait and see tomorrow, and see if settles down a little bit. It happened on a hit, I saw it on a replay in the first period. It was a collision with one of their defenseman and it just turned the wrong way.''
More on the Cammalleri-O'Sullivan-Frolov line: ``They played extremely well. There was some big-time plays in the second period with puck movement, give-and-goes, finding holes. It's nice to see when that happens. It's nice as a coach and I'm sure as a player, They started chirping a lot on the bench. You could see the energy level pick up, and a lot of that was because of the feel-good nature of what happens when you have some success.''
On why the line was changed: ``We did it out of necessity tonight. We needed to find a center. We tried Cammalleri at the end of first period and thought Thornton looked like he had a little bit tonight, so we tried him up with Kopitar. It ended up being a really good combination – Cammalleri, O'Sullivan and Frolov. Cammalleri played well the last couple games, he just hadn’t had any payoff. Tonight he got a little bit of payoff in terms of playmaking. O'Sullivan was terrific. It seemed everything he did tonight was really good. And of course Fro was the finisher.''
On LaBarbera's injury: ``He pulled his groin. He’s been playing with a sore groin probably the last two or three weeks. After practice yesterday it’s gotten so bad he cannot try to do anything going down, and that’s pretty important for a goalie. So the trainers have decided, in conjunction with our medical staff, to keep him off. He’s going to stay off for the entire weekend, so he won’t play Saturday and then we don’t play again until the following Thursday. I think they’ll make an evaluation early next week of where he’s at. Dan played well tonight. Obviously he’s going to get another start on Saturday, and hopefully we can keep him playing well.''
On Ellis: ``With Armstrong possibly being out there’s an opportunity for him to come into the lineup and hopefully give us some energy. I know Dave Lewis knew him a little bit from his days in Detroit. Talking with some people in Detroit today, they all said he’s a very popular player, very hardworking player. He’ll give us some depth of players that play with emotion, play with edge, and hopefully a very conscientious player.''
Thank goodness for NHL Center ice package. Sorry to see that most of you guys miss out on a great game.
I have to agree with Crawfish. The goaltending in the first period was the difference. Clouts was unbelieveable. Stopping point blank shots. You never know, I might have to end up apologizing to him. I hope he continues his excellent play.
Frolov is the bomb. Can you imagine where we'd be if he was 100% healthy.
Sully was all over the place. I never thought that we got the better of the Demitra trade. I'll give props to DL on this one.
Just one question, can anybody explain why DL hasn't signed Sully to a contract yet. What's he waiting for. Kevin Lowe offering him Dustin Penner like $$$.
"In the first period, if not for the great play of Dan Cloutier, they might have gotten on the roll that they so desperately wanted. That’s what good goaltending will do for you"
I don't know why I'm laughing at this quote. You can easily tell that MC is really pulling for Clout. That's his man!
Anthony,
I saw the game on the center ice package as well. were you having problems with the satellite feed all game? The entire game was chopped up by what looked like a bad feed. Its happened several times before. It took away from the enjoyment of the game.
Yes good play by Clouts in the first but really good play by our defense in front of the net. They saved several pucks on the rebound.
And who was the player wearing #27, it sure didn't look like what we had seen from Thorton this season, nice playing tonight.
After a really boring first, it was a fun game to be at. Not sure how many tickets sold, but it sure was empty inside.
Hey if Cloutier can rebound and become close to the goalie he was before injuries in Vancouver it bridges the gap and gives Bernier a year more to develop, hopefully in the AHL.
If O'sullivan becomes the answer to 2nd line center, this team will be a lot stronger, Pick Stamkos if possible but give him time to properly develop.
Matt, if possible could you give us an update on the Blake situation, is he definatly off the block or is there a chance?
Yeah in the first I didn't think Cloutier was a huge game maker. He was very shaky early on dropping an easy glove shot, and some HUGE rebounds. I thought he knuckled down and played his best in the second and third and did have 2-3 great saves in there somewhere.
yeah I'm a little bummed I missed this game (for another worthless Pac-10 basketball matchup on FSN), but I appreciate the extended highlights Yahoo! offers which tend to suffice as the next best thing for radio-only games. it's nice to beat Murray, Legace for once (and Kariya). I'll be there tomorrow (Ersberg?) to make up for it.
Frolov is sooooo good. I never stopped supporting this guy and have always hated the Times (one ahem, lady, in particular) for her constant bombardment of his play and abilities. I'd love to see him rewarded with an "A" next year.
gotta say I'm pretty indifferent about Cloutier at this point. I really think he can't hurt us any more than he already has and I'm content to just let him play out his time. a good stint this season by him might be good for everyone.
I don't expect to be doing much more booing his way, any more than I'd boo LaBarbera who was "guilty" of trying to play through an injury. it's hard to predict the future, if he doesn't end up somewhere else, Danny Boy might actually present the best backup option for us next season. if they decide to give Bernier a year in the A to develop (might end up as the smartest option), that becomes a much more plausible scenario. there's still a probable goaltender logjam so we'll see.
I never disliked the Demitra trade, was happy to "steal" O'Sullivan at the time. I simply hated that the franchise never replaced Pavol in our lineup for the following season, leaving a gaping scoring hole.