Just to evidence this, back in the day Crystal Dynamics came on board towards the end of development on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Take a look at this
Crystal Dynamics staff-member linkedin for an idea of how much they had to amend SK's work:
If this is true, then it sounds like Crystal Dynamics literally came in and rescued the entire Legacy of Kain project. Its like they saw what SK had been working on for the last few years, and had to urgently come in and overhaul most of the game. It certainly corresponds with that rumour that Crystal flew out an absolute ton of staff to Canada in the last few months of Kain's development.
Of course, this is a linkedin profile, so they could be somewhat stretching their contribution. But the next bit...
makes it sound like Silicon Knights couldn't manage anything at all, from budgeting, meals, documents, health and safety, etc, and when Crystal arrived on the scene they to do it for them. The "serving the company's interests at great personal sacrifice" sounds painful.
Again, its a linkedin profile so take it with a pinch of salt.