Crawford:”An exciting brand of hockey”

Kings and Canucks fans are rolling their eyes, judging from what I’ve been reading on the blogs the last 24 hours.

In a press conference stuffed full of generalities, niceties, and clichés, (a year in the broadcast media really sharpened his skills in the field of talking and saying nothing) this was the only thing I found useful:

“We won’t be vastly different from the way we were before; this team already has a strong set of core fundamentals. If you watch the two teams that are playing right now in the Stanley Cup Finals, you see two teams that play an exciting brand of hockey. It’s a lot about skating, it’s about speed, it’s a lot about pace and it’s a lot about tempo and those are the main facets that have been a part of every team that I’ve coached. You really do have to look at your team and adjust to the people you have, however.”

That paragraph fills a great many of you with fear and loathing. Fear of the unknown and loathing for what he did in Vancouver and Los Angeles, respectfully. This morning on Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket, Crawford admitted that he changed too many things, too quickly in Los Angeles. He said he changed everything they did there completely, from the hockey to the trainers and doctors, to the people handling the equipment, every coach, every everything. He said this was a mistake.

We won’t be vastly different from the way we were before; this team already has a strong set of core fundamentals.

I am always leery of someone going out of their way to say “we’re not going to change.” More often than not it means “we’re going to change.” In this case we have the qualifier “vastly”, and I hope he meant what he said. Some change is needed, obviously.

If you watch the two teams that are playing right now in the Stanley Cup Finals, you see two teams that play an exciting brand of hockey. It’s a lot about skating, it’s about speed, it’s a lot about pace and it’s a lot about tempo and those are the main facets that have been a part of every team that I’ve coached.

Speed. Pace. Tempo. To me those sound like things that probably, though not necessarily, translate to more shots on goal. More shots on goal generally translates to more goals.

Teams that took the most shots last year did pretty well. There are a million other factors, obviously, but the philosophy en vogue right now in the NHL is puck possession, speed, higher shot totals, etc. Speed is something this blog complained about frequently last year. If Crawford can coax a faster defense to offense transition, the Stars could benefit greatly.

“You really do have to look at your team and adjust to the people you have, however.”

Ah and there’s the catch. The teams that play successful up-tempo hockey have forwards that play a better two way game than the Stars have. More importantly they boast better blue lines and more consistent goal tending.

Up tempo hockey, tempered with a modest defensive responsibility can work in this league. Nieuwendyk’s swift, decisive actions so far paint the picture of a man who knows exactly what he’s after. Until he shapes the roster to fit his vision, it’s impossible to say if Crawford and “An exciting brand of hockey” are right for this team.