Dallas Stars fire head coach Marc Crawford

FRISCO, Texas – Dallas Stars General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk announced on Tuesday afternoon that Head Coach Marc Crawford has been relieved of his coaching duties, effective immediately. “I would like to thank Marc for the hard work he provided to the Dallas Stars over the last two seasons,” Nieuwendyk said in a prepared statement. “We wish him the best in the future.” With a record of 79-60-25 in his two seasons with the Stars, Crawford, who had a year left on his contract, failed to the take the team into the post-season for the second straight year and although there were signs of improvement, Nieuwendyk felt it was time for a change. “These decisions are always tough and they don’t come easy and I really proud of some of the things we’ve accomplished in the last couple seasons,” Nieuwendyk said during an afternoon press conference. “I feel much stronger about our group today than where we were at this time last year. And Marc deserves a lot of credit for that and our players do as well. They bought in to what we are trying to do and we have a lot of good pieces that are starting to come together. The future is bright in my opinion.” Midway through the 2010-11 campaign, the Stars were one of the top teams in the league but they struggled over the second half of the season, going 2-10-1 during one stretch and 1-5-3 in another. Making the post-season at times seemed out of reach, but the team hustled, winning four of five games in April, with their last hope for a playoff berth dependent on the result of the final regular season contest.

Marc Crawford

Marc Crawford

On the road against the Minnesota Wild, the Stars needed a win to keep their hopes alive. They had beaten the Wild in six previous meetings, including two 4-0 shutouts and a 4-3 overtime win this season. Unfortunately, after scoring the tying goal with less than two minutes to go in the second period, Minnesota scored twice in the final frame to secure a 5-3 victory and for the third straight year, the Stars would miss the post-season. “It’s difficult when you don’t make the playoffs because that is ultimately the goal,” Nieuwendyk said. “The goal is to win playoff series and challenge for the Stanley Cup. I believe we are making steps towards that…unfortunately it wasn’t good enough this year, even with 95 points in an extremely tough conference and an even more tough division. This is why we have to get better and be with the elite teams.” For Crawford, this marks the fourth time he has resigned or been fired or resigned from a head coaching position in the NHL. He coached the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup victory in 1996 and helped the Vancouver Canucks make the playoffs four times (2001-04), but he failed to make the playoffs in two seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and now the Stars. Nieuwendyk indicated that he is in no rush to hire a replacement for Crawford, who was the Dallas GM’s first big hire when he took over in the spring of 2009. “We’ll take our time with putting a coach in place,” Nieuwendyk said. “We’ll do our due diligence in the front office and look long and hard,” he added. “There will be a number of good candidates.” As for the team’s assistant coaches, Nieuwendyk left things up in the air. “I am going to meet with each of them over the next little while when we get through with some of our player evaluations,” Nieuwendyk said. “Those things will be decided in a timely manner. Obviously with a new coach coming in, there will be input from the new coach as well.” Contact the writer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com

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