Coaching alumni update

Just a few days after he signed on to be a television commentator, Marc Crawford has emerged as a finalist for the New York Islanders’ head-coaching job. According to published reports, former Columbus coach Gerard Gallant is another finalist.

Former Kings assistant coach John Van Boxmeer has suffered a heart attack and is recovering in Switzerland.

Still pretty quiet on the Kings front. There’s nothing substantial on this at the moment, but don’t be surprised if the name of St. Louis defenseman Jay McKee emerges as a potential target for the Kings. McKee is a left-shot defenseman who is due $4 million over each of the next two seasons. This isn’t to give the impression that there’s anything imminent here; it’s just a name right now.

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Crawford gets TV gig

i-bfa1c91ac492b7da21e2852acc9006ca-crawford-thumb-200x113.jpg

Former Kings coach Marc Crawford has been hired by CBC to be a game analyst on its Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.

“I couldn’t be more excited to begin my second tenure with Hockey Night in Canada,” said the 47-year-old Crawford. “I’ve coached from coast to coast in this country and I have a deep respect for the place that hockey holds in the hearts of Canadians. I relish the opportunity to be a part of the Saturday night tradition.”

Here’s the story from the Vancouver Sun…

Hockey Night hires ex-Canucks coach Crawford

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Postgame quotes

No truth to the rumor that Daniel Taylor left the game after the first period, flew to Reading and returned for the start of the third period. Here’s some quotes from tonight’s postgame…

ERIK ERSBERG
(Re: Game recap) “It felt good to get a win back, especially against this team. They’ve gone 20 games without a loss so it’s good that we could break that streak. It was a fun game. The first goal was kind of my fault so I felt a little bad about that, but I guess it’s better to have that in the first minute than the last minute. You have to look at it like, ‘There’s 59 minutes to make up for it,’ so that’s how I looked at it.”

ANZE KOPITAR
(Re: Game recap) “This is kind of a game we want to play to get ready for next season for the big games. I think we all contributed to this result, and we’re happy to get the win.”

(Re: finishing season on a high note) “I think right now we’re playing for the fans. They’ve supported us all season when we didn’t have a very good season. They’ve been so loyal to us, and we’ve got to pay them back with a strong last game. We’re playing against the Ducks too, so it should really be buzzing in the building.”

(Re: Game recap) “We got down pretty quick on the first shift, but we didn’t panic. We knew we had nothing to lose, and that we could play better. We stepped out the gate and outshot them in the first period which really got the crowd in the game. I think we kind of deserved this win. We had a lot of chances that we didn’t put in the back of the net at first, but luckily in the end the bounces went our way.”

MARC CRAWFORD
(Re: game recap): “We were very deserving of the win tonight. They got the fortunate bounce when Joe Thornton caught our rookie goaltender trying to cheat a little bit and got the one-goal lead. A number of things happened at that point. Erik [Ersberg] really bared down and was great from that point on for the rest of the game. I thought our defense was very stingy tonight and as a team we really checked them into the ground and didn’t give them a lot of chances…. When you get the type of performance where all your players play well, it’s very gratifying to get the victory.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email