Ottawa Senators Can Lean on Crawford as Associate Coach

The Ottawa Senators hired Marc Crawford as an associate coach this offseason, and he provides a well respected source of leadership that Guy Boucher can utilize.

Boucher has been a successful head coach in his own right, but Crawford boasts some hardware that Boucher hasn’t yet hoisted.

Crawford won a Stanley Cup as the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche in 1995-1996, in the franchise’s first season playing home games in the U.S.

The Quebec Nordiques hired him to coach the team during the lockout shortened season of 1994-1995, and the team finished with the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference.

In fact, they only finished with 11 less points than the previous season despite playing in 36 less games due to that lockout.

However, the team was facing turmoil. Finding it difficult to economically function in the small market of Quebec City, the team moved to Colorado to become the Avalanche the very next year.

A weakening Canadian dollar made paying hefty salaries in U.S. currency even more difficult, and marketing problems attached to Quebec City having a severely limited amount of English media exacerbated the problem.

Eric Lindros famously cited that reason as part of why he didn’t want to play in Quebec City when he was drafted by the Nordiques. Whether it’s a legitimate reason or not is irrelevant to the fact that it contributed to the team eventually moving.

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Crawford withstood these challenges and found success immediately in Colorado with this lineup. They won a Stanley Cup in 1996, and the Avalanche remained a competitive team under Crawford.

They won a President’s Cup in 1997, and finished first in the Pacific Division in each of Crawford’s 3 seasons there.

He resigned after the 1997-1998 season, after another playoff appearance by the Avalanche as well as a 4th place finish coaching Team Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

He served as a TV analyst for Hockey Night in Canada before taking over head coaching duties for the Vancouver Canucks midway through the 1998-1999 season.

Although he didn’t reach the success he had in Colorado, he helped build Vancouver into a winner.

When he first got there in 1998-1999, the team finished with 58 points. For the next 4 seasons, the team improved in point totals from the year before, peaking at 104 in 2002-2003.

In 2003-2004, the Canucks won their first Northwest Division crown since the 1992-1993 season.

However, this stop only produced one playoff series win for Crawford, and he was fired following the 2005-2006 season after missing the playoffs.

While in Vancouver, he became just the 3rd youngest coach to reach 400 wins, but his NHL head coaching stints since then haven’t been very successful.

He was hired to coach the Los Angeles Kings before the 2006-2007 season, but was unable to oversee their improvement the way he had in Vancouver. He was fired after two seasons and no playoff appearances.

He spent the 2008-2009 season as a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, but was lured back into coaching by the Dallas Stars for the 2009-2010 season.

As in Los Angeles, he was fired after two seasons of missing the playoffs. His career is filled primarily with early dominance, and has hit a bit of a rough patch in his different stops.

He hasn’t made the playoffs in his last 5 seasons as a coach, and that spans 3 different franchises.

In fact, that streak coincides with the NHL eliminating ties following the 2004-2005 lockout year.

Since then, he has never won more than 42 games in a season. However, despite his recent struggles in the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup in the NHL is an extremely noteworthy accomplishment.

Although it’s a much different NHL game now than it was pre-2004 lockout, Crawford is coming off a fantastic run of success in the Swiss National League A.

Crawford lead the ZSC Lions in National League A to 3 regular season championship titles, from 2013-2016.

He took the job in 2012 and instantly put his stamp on the organization. Along with the 3 regular season championships, Crawford also guided them to the 2014 Swiss championship as well as the 2016 Swiss Cup.

In his last 12 NHL seasons as a head coach, he has won just 1 playoff series. However, his recent success in Switzerland is encouraging.

Any time an associate head coach on staff has the qualifications of Crawford, the head coach should feel extremely secure in the ability of his right hand man.

Crawford ranks 18th all time in head coaching wins. Of the 17 coaches that rank ahead of him on that list, 6 of them have a points percentage in games coached lower than or equal to him.

Of that same group of 17 coaches, 8 of them have a lower playoff winning percentage than Crawford.

8 of those 17 coaches with more career wins than him don’t have any Stanley Cups. Only  5 of those 17 have multiple Stanley Cups.

Crawford is 1 of 13 coaches in NHL history to have a Stanley Cup as well as 500 regular season wins.

Crawford is one of the best coaches in the history of the NHL, and it’s remarkable that someone with his track record is only an assistant coach on this staff.

Next: Ottawa Senators Top 6 Forwards Look Good

As the Senators try to avoid missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season, it helps that a proven winner like Crawford can offer his wisdom from the bench.