Murray ‘pleasantly surprised’ by Senators’ playoff berth
After a season in which the team’s fans were calling for his head, Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray now gets to take credit for a remarkable turnaround.
After a season in which the team’s fans were calling for his head, Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray now gets to take credit for a remarkable turnaround.
It’s one that even surprised him.
All general managers, of course, believe at the start of the regular season that their teams will make the playoffs, and Murray was no exception.
But he was also realistic.
Just as almost everything went wrong last season, almost everything would have to go right this season for the team to make the playoffs.
And they did, with the clinching of a playoff berth on Sunday afternoon in Uniondale, New York.
Murray wasn’t about to gloat, though. The business of professional hockey has a way of humbling the boastful.
“We thought we could be a competitive hockey team, but we also respected the league,” he said.
“It is so close now, there are so many good teams, that you’d have to have a really strong year to be in the playoffs, and we’ve had that.
“It didn’t look like that at the start, but a lot of the players have played extremely well.
“Some of the guys that were sort of off last year, our veteran guys, they really stepped up and did a big job.
“And I think a lot of it was the direction and the coaching they’ve received from the whole staff, and they brought along a lot of the younger players in the organization.
“So, yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised to a point. I think it’s a start in what we’re doing.”
When critics of the team consigned it to the Eastern Conference trash heap at the start of the season, Murray heard two complaints: Its veteran players were too old, and its young players were inexperienced.
Murray thinks it was a case of his critics not knowing his players as well as he did.
“I think they looked at (Chris) Phillips and (Filip) Kuba, and (Sergei) Gonchar and (Daniel Alfredsson) and even (Jason Spezza) to a degree and felt that they not able to rebound to a level that they did,” he said.
“The other part is that people probably didn’t respect is that we had a group in the minors that won a championship, and when you win, and you’re a winner, I think they grew a great deal in that two-month period.
“They weren’t the big scorers on our team, but they kind of came in and gave us role definition and allowed us to play hard every night.”
Goalie Craig Anderson said the players also wanted to prove themselves after hearing the pre-season criticism. It stung to hear that they were being picked to finish last.
“I think anytime someone challenges you, it’s either fight or flight,” he said.
“But we buckled down, put on the work boots, and fought. We started out with a 1-5 record and said to ourselves that it wasn’t good enough.
“We had a lot of pride and we showed through good leadership and good followers that we could do anything.”
Not to look past the playoffs, but next year’s team could even be better.
Murray said it was gut-wrenching to part with players such as Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly during last spring’s house cleaning, but a rebuilding did have to take place and the team drafted well with the resulting draft picks.
Consequently, the pipeline is poised to deliver a number of offensive prospects, including Mika Zibanejad, Stefan Noesen, and Matt Puempel, who were drafted last June, Mark Stone, who was drafted in 2010, and Jakob Silfverberg, who was drafted in 2009.
That’ll have some of the players on this year’s team sweating for their jobs.
Coach Paul MacLean thought a critical moment in the team’s final push for a playoff berth came on March 23 when it lost 5-1 to the Canadiens in Montreal.
It was as much a wake up call as the 7-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche and the 7-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the first two weeks of the season.
They realized if they didn’t start playing better, they could find themselves out of the playoffs. Their response was to win four straight and clinch a berth.
“I think the fact that we lost, and how we lost, did it to us,” said MacLean.
“It was huge game that probably would have put us in (the playoffs) at that point. It would have put us up by eight points, I believe, and as a result we ended up getting back in the race for the playoffs.
“We were were kind of above it for a little bit, and I think the fact that we were back in it kind of gave us a spur and our leadership group took charge of that and got what we wanted.”
And now that they’re there, the players are looking forward to being this spring’s surprise team.
“You’ve just got to get yourself to the dance, and once you get there it’s a whole new ball game,” said Anderson.
“Anything can happen. You run into a hot goalie, hot player, hot power play, hot penalty killing – there are a few things that can go your way in a playoff series and help you win it.
“But first you have to be there, and right now we’ve got ourselves there.”
Good job Murray !
Murray deserves a lot of credit. I guess we now know who really built the Anaheim Ducks Stanley cup team!
That is so true. I will give Burke his due as he has gone on record stating Murray did the work for the Ducks cup win.
I love that they did it. They did not back into the playoffs based on some other team’s record.
Well Done!!
Kudos to Murray & Paul M(Mustache!!!
I have a feeling they may surprise 1st round prediction by so call “pundits”…. They may past through first round will get knocked out in Second round!!!!!
That’s my view…GO SENS Go…
I had my doubts, but happily, he proved me wrong. Nice work Murray!
Brian Murray’s skill is unearthing young talent and building a solid foundation with a combination of young prospects and cagey veterans. He did it in Anaheim and now he is doing it with this promising young Senators’ team.
Credit has to go to Tim Murray and the scouting staff. Bryan Murray is the general, but he needs his loyal soldiers!
Congrats to owner and managers but behind the bench is the big reason we had good momentum.Coach Maclean and his assistants certainly found the recipe to teach the team to play a good game.
Murray found 2 great pieces to the puzzle in Anderson and Bishop. I hated to see Fisher and Kelly leave the Sens, but it was time to retool. It was great to see new energy and life to this team. If in a loss, the Sens are working hard and never quitting.
Go Sens Go!
Note to editor/author;
PLEASE stop adding clarification parentheses. You are assuming your readers are idiots. And it’s extremely distracting.
Murray had one of the youngest teams in the league, turned it into one of the oldest and then had to tear it down again. In any other city that would have given you a ticket out of town, but not here in Ottawa, strangely enough.
We can say whatever we want about Zibanejad and Puempel and so on but Zach Smith is barely producing, Zibanejad did squat in his nine games here and the rest of the forwars are a smattering of grinders etc.
My only comfort for those that reference Anaheim is that they didn’t win until Murray hit the road and a new GM came in, overhauled the defense and tweaked the forward corps on top of inherited assets to make them into a champion.
Please let that be the case here…
RecalSentrant,
do you EVER have anything positive to say? Zach Smith not only had to recuperate from a head shot, but he’s not really expected to “produce”. And you want to complain about a team’s production when it is top ten in the league?
Would you rather we hire Brian Burke here in Ottawa? Maybe Stevie Y? There are fans for twelve teams that would love to get rid of their GMs and Ottawa should not be one of them.
I don’t know if you have children. If you do, it’d be interesting to see how you try and undermine their accomplishments with negativity at every turn. Don’t like the team, tune out and cheer for another one.
Well put Ed.
I don’t think evaluating 9 games of Zibanejad’s play as an 18 year old (I think) on a team that went 1-5 is all that telling. I think Zach Smith has been an excellent role player and adds a threat even if his production is limited.
If RecalSentrant is suggesting that the other prospects like Stone, Noesen and Silfverberg are simply grinders, I’ll have to disagree.
I will always welcome stronger building through the draft, keeping the Senators in contention and keeping up with the rest of the league. Murray seems very capable of doing that, and I’ve been happy with the majority of his decisions and moves. John Muckler brought in a “culture of winning” when he was GM, but he sold the future to do so, and made a lot of poor decisions. I’m glad we have Murray. Very glad.
HERE!!! HERE!!!
GO SENS GO !!!
People that thae on thios team and criticise Bryan Murray should go to H*LL. Go cheer for the leafs moron.