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AS THE CROW FLIES |
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Written by JASON PETERS
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 |
Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Marc Crawford, the one with the full head of hair, answers questions from Prince George Citizen sports reporter Jason Peters on Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre. (Mark Duthie photo)
EX-CANUCKS COACH COVERS A VARIETY OF TOPICS WHILE IN PRINCE GEORGE FOR HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
He coached in the National Hockey League for 13 seasons. Now that he’s in a broadcaster’s chair with Hockey Night in Canada, Marc Crawford shares his hockey knowledge and opinions with a national audience almost every Saturday night.
But, this past Saturday night, the man known as ‘Crow’ wasn’t on the job. Instead, he was in Prince George, watching daughter Katie shine during the championship final of the double-A girls high school volleyball provincial championship tournament.
Before Katie’s St. Thomas Aquinas Fighting Saints stepped onto the Northern Sport Centre court to swap kill shots with the St. Patrick Celtics, Crawford took time to talk hockey.
Most Prince George hockey fans cheer for the Vancouver Canucks, a team Crawford played for and later coached from 1998-99 to 2005-06. So far this season, the Canucks have led or contended for the lead in the Northwest Division, a fact that has surprised many NHL observers. But not Crawford.
“They’ve got, if not the best goalie, one of the best goalies in the league, and anytime you start with that, that’s a great fundamental building block,” said the 47-year-old Crawford, a native of Belleville, Ont. “They’ve got a great defence and they were too hurt last year. They were really banged up. They missed about 160 man-games with their defence last year and that’s way too many, especially for key guys. I think a healthy defence allows them to play well, and they play with great structure. Alain (Vigneault) and the coaching staff has done a terrific job of getting them to play well together. They understand how they have to play to be successful and then they go out and execute.
“So, from that standpoint, I’m not surprised,” Crawford added. “I do think that they’re going to be a very good team. Of the teams in the west, I think they’re in the top three in the west right now. Obviously, (injured goaltender) Roberto (Luongo) not being there for a bit is going to affect them, but I think they’re a top, top club.”
The other hot topic in the NHL these days is the arrival of Brian Burke in Toronto as the new president and general manager of the Maple Leafs. Burke and Crawford are friends, and Burke was also Crawford’s boss for six seasons in Vancouver. In Crawford’s opinion, the bombastic but brilliant Burke will do just fine at the centre of the hockey universe.
“He’s very good in any market, but he’ll be especially good with his strengths in a high-profile market like Toronto,” Crawford said. “I think he’ll help that team. He’s got an uncanny ability of sensing when a team needs something, whether it’s dissertation by him or just some support by him, him making a good deal. He’s got a great sense of timing, and how he treats people is just terrific and I think that will be very well-received by all the people that work in the Leafs’ organization.”
Crawford, a Stanley Cup-winning coach with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, joined Hockey Night in Canada as a colour man in late July. He accepted the job about seven weeks after the Los Angeles Kings decided to remove him as their head coach.
Crawford, who did a brief stint with HNIC in 1998-99, also had offers from ESPN and TSN this time around.
“I chose the CBC for a couple of reasons,” he said. “One, (Hockey Night in Canada) is the oldest TV show in existence in Canada and I’ve just been such a fan of Hockey Night in Canada my whole life so it was a great opportunity. And secondly, it gave me an opportunity to be in the rinks and it allowed me to stay in western Canada. We knew that we were probably going to go back to Vancouver, my family, and this opportunity came up and it seemed like the right thing to do.”
And yes, Crawford is loving every second of his HNIC gig. He admitted he feels like a kid in a candy store.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I grew up listening to Danny Gallivan and Bill Hewitt (son of the legendary Foster Hewitt) and all those people who were involved with Hockey Night. All those people are part of my childhood. And now, people are starting to recognize me, not so much from coaching the Canucks or coaching in the National Hockey League. People are saying, ‘I saw you on Saturday night and I’m really appreciative of what you’re doing.’ So it’s nice. It’s quite a reputation to keep up with and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”
Crawford wasn’t in Prince George as a former coach or as a current broadcaster, though. He was here as a dad -- here to support Katie and her Saints teammates. In the championship final, the Saints won the first two sets 25-23, 25-19 but the Celtics took the next three, 25-20, 25-16, 15-10. Even though Katie is only a Grade 10 student at North Vancouver’s St. Thomas Aquinas, she was one of the best Saints players in the match. Later, she was named as a first-team tournament all-star.
Katie, who played on the Under-16 provincial team in the summer, is good at volleyball for a reason.
In California, where she spent the past couple years, the sport is hugely popular.
“What hockey is to Canada, volleyball is to southern California,” Crawford said. “The big team at the school that she went to is the volleyball team. So if you make the volleyball team, you’re really doing something. And the club volleyball programs are just absolutely terrific. So she got a huge benefit of being around great kids and great coaching -- just being in a volleyball Mecca, so to speak, over the last couple years.”
Katie’s high school was Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles. And Mira Costa is a volleyball factory that pumps out some of the best players in the United States.
“They usually graduate kids right to Division 1 (of the NCAA),” Crawford said. “The starting setter at USC is from Mira Costa, the starting power hitter for Stanford is from Mira Costa. Actually, Mark Hardy’s daughter -- Mark was an assistant coach for the Kings -- his daughter is the starting libero at Georgetown University, so there are a lot of great kids that come out of that (Mira Costa) program. (Katie) was in a good spot there, but she’s come here (to St. Thomas Aquinas) and she’s playing as a Grade 10 at a real high level.”
As much as Crawford is enjoying life right now, he does have a return to an NHL bench on his mind.
“That’s my plan, and hopefully it happens,” he said. “If not, I’ll be involved in hockey in a lot of different ways, shapes and forms. I’m loving doing the broadcasting right now. I’m trying to get as good at it as I possibly can and do it the justice that it deserves.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 December 2008 )
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