From Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page:
It’s official. The Stars have hired Marc Crawford as head coach.
Assistant Mark Lamb has been relieved of his duties and the rest of the coaching staff is being evaluated.
Read more about the hiring and some Crawford background information here.
No surprise here, as reports came out on TSN yesterday that Crawford was going to be the man for this job. In Crawford, the Stars get a fiery coach, who sometimes loses his cool, that preaches speed and offense first and foremost. He is certainly a change of style from Tippett, who was very reserved and was extremely focused on defending goals. As far as I know, Crawford and Nieuwendyk do not have any real extensive history together, so clearly Nieuwendyk likes the type of coaching style Crawford brings to the table. I’m sure Crawford is eager to prove people wrong after quite an unsuccessful stay in Los Angeles. Although as I said yesterday, I think this team is going to be undergoing a facelift over the next little while; so the group Crawford is coaching in September and even January, may be very different than the group he currently has.