Intelligencer and CP photos The many faces of Belleville native Marc Crawford: Top left, as a teenaged star with the old Belleville Junior "B" Bobcats; Bottom left, as an NHL rookie with the Vancouver Canucks in 1981; Right, a dejected Crawford arrives in Quebec City after his Nordiques were eliminated from the NHL playoffs by the New York Rangers last month. 5 fine." Marc, you mentioned the I called-back goal by referee Andy Van Hellemond in that i crucial Game 3 loss. It was glaringly obvious that Ranger forward Alexei Kovalev faked an injury behind the play to negate that goal. The officiat- ing was questionable on sev- eral other occasions in your series and the others. Do you think NHL officiating is as bad as it seems? "No, J believe we have the best officiating in the world. These guys have a very tough JOD. There are going to be tough calls, we had four (TV) networks doing our games, there's going to be a whole lot of commentary. I think they take an undo amount of abuse. We have to protect our officiating a little bit more." There appear to be prob- lems, however.' How would you address them? "I don't think, as a league, we've identified the problem real well. In our series the problem was diving and the unbelievably quick recuperation (of the divers). That should be addressed, it shouldn't be a determining fac- tor." What's the answer? "First and foremost, they have the diving rule in affect and they don't call it. If they call it early in the game, guys will think twice about it. I think the other thing is if players are injured and if the result is an expulsion for a game, then that (injured) player shouldn't be allowed to partici- pate in the power play. It's not my job to evaluate officiating, those are just a'couple of areas they can look at. It's a good game, we don't want to tinker with it too much." Is increased use of video re- play one possible solution? "I don't think you can do that. It's good for goals but it shouldn't be in place for anything else. There is too much focus on them when there's a blown call rather than on guys like Kovalev and (Nick) Kypreos when they're div- ing all over the place." Back to Denver. Despite your sadness in leaving Que- bec, you must be excited about a new situation in a new city. "The city itself is very excited, judging by the number of media calls I've received. We're anxious to get out there."