Who saw this one coming?
Marc Crawford Fired From Job As Dallas Stars Head Coach
Two days after his team blew a fine chance to qualify for the postseason, the Dallas Stars have fired head coach Marc Crawford. He had a year remaining on his contract. If you stopped reading here, it might make sense to you why Crawford was shown the door. You lose, you leave. Simple, right?
Well, not really. Crawford was handpicked by Joe Nieuwendyk in 2009 when the ex-Stars player took over as general manager. Defending Big D explains:
Crawford was hired by Dallas in the off-season following the 2008-2009 Dave Tippett swan song shortly after Joe Nieuwendyk was hired. GM Joe was adamant from the get go that the Stars would change their philosophy from Dave Tippett’s defensive style, inherited from the Ken Hitchcock era, and play a more up-tempo game. He brought Crawford in almost immediately to implement this.
Crawford did so in his first season here with what was largely a group of players drafted and assembled by the previous regime and they finished 12th. This season, with more of a Joe Nieuwendyk stamp on the roster Crawford also failed missing the playoffs by a single victory on the final day of the season.
To be honest, we don’t have a real reason for why this decision was made, and considering the awkward financial situation surrounding the Stars, the fact that they’d continue paying a guy to not coach their team makes this all the more strange. We’ll have more as we learn it.
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