NHL.com - VANCOUVER (CP) - Marc Crawford is out as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.
General manager Dave Nonis made the announcement during a news conference at GM Place. He said Crawford was a good friend and that it was a difficult decision, but the team needed a kickstart.
The Canucks finished ninth in the Western Conference this season with a 42-32-8 record - the first time since 2000 they didn't make the playoffs.
Crawford was hired in 1999. The 45-year-old took the Canucks to the playoffs four times and holds the franchise record of 246 wins.
But the Canucks won just one playoff series and twice lost a Game 7 on home ice under his leadership.
Everyone should have seen this coming, he was fired for the same reasons as Pat Quinn. Neither are bad coaches in fact quite the opposite which explains why they were with their respective teams for so long. But these teams need to try something new because clearly what they were doing just wasn't working. These two teams need younger approaches to the game, kind of like what Laviolette brought to Carolina.
This is a tough one. Crawford is a great coach and is not the reason the Canucks were crap this season. However, after 6 seasons he has only led them to one playoff series victory. I just hope they also get rid of Bertuzzi so they can really 'start fresh'.
Rumors about who will take over the head coaching job in Vancouver have already started and candidates include: Dave Lewis, Alan Vigneault, Paul Maurice, Pat Quinn, and even Ken Hitchcock who is still employed by the Flyers. Personally I could care less who takes over. For me its all about changing up the players on the team. I think Crawford did ok and took the fall for a bunch of underacheivers.