Yesterday afternoon, a pissed off Bryan Murray unleashed a number of bombs directed towards the Pittsburgh Penguins and the manner in which forward Nick Foligno was treated at the front of the opposition’s net.
From the Ottawa Citizen:
“The rules are very clear now and if you fall into a goaltender and touch a goaltender, an elbow to the head and a butt end to the head is fair game,” Murray said, referring to the hits Nick Foligno received following a scuffle with Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury. Crosby threw the elbow.
“Dan Bylsma said that’s OK for them. Sidney said Nick Foligno is that kind of player. I wish (Foligno) was that kind of player.”
Bryan Murray wishes Foligno was a dirty player. I wish Nick Foligno was actually the top six player. Weird.
Here’s the event itself that has Murray so steamed…
As much as I would love to shit on Crosby for being a hypocrite and landing a cheap blow on Foligno’s head, a large part of me is envious because the Penguins’ best player and someone who recently came back from injury and took it upon himself to protect his goaltender and settle the score.
Mother of All What Ifs
In a follow up to our Friday post that looked at some of the greatest ‘What if…?” moments in Senators history, former Senators owner Bruce Firestone has published what he says is the “mother-of-all” what ifs.
From his EQ Journal,
What if Prof Bruce had accepted Ogden’s Doug Logan’s offer to relocate the franchise to Anaheim? Doug and I were on the witness stand together in the summer of 1991.
We were being cross examined by the ‘Perry Mason’ of OMB lawyers, Tom Lederer, who was a Toronto-based gunslinger hired by NDP Bob Rae’s government to derail the Sens by opposing the construction of the Palladium in Kanata. Their vain hope was that somehow, by nixing the Sens, the franchise would miraculously reappear in Hamilton’s Copps Colisuem where the NDP had more political support than Ottawa.
On the 2nd day, Doug got PO’d by the line of questioning being taken by Lederer and during one break offered on behalf of then Ogden President and CEO, Richard Ablon, a $20 million leasing inducement to relocate the Sens to Orange County to play in the then nearing completion arena there.
They had no prime tenant there and viewed the ridiculous reaction to the franchise award in Ontario (Hall of Famer Phil Esposito who was fronting the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise told me about the congratulatory call he received from the Governor of the State of Florida for bringing a NHL team there while we got a lawsuit from our Premier) as reason enough to blow town.
I said: “Doug, we didn’t bring back the Senators to play in California” and the hearing, which we eventually won, endured for 13 weeks.
A year and a half later, I was on the NHL’s expansion committee when the CEO of the Disney Company, Mike Eisner, came in the room wearing a Goofy hockey jersey– the NHL’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now just the Ducks) were born a short while later…
Mark Stone Named to Canadian National Junior Team Selection Camp
Hockey Canada has released its World Junior Championship selection camp roster. Amongst the list of invitees is Mark Stone, the Senators’ sixth round selection from 2010. Conspicuously absent from the list of names is 2011 first rounder Matt Puempel.
Senators Practice Notes
– According to Allen Panzeri, Nikita Filatov’s skating alongside Jason Spezza and Colin Greening. Considering that last night was his fourth game in four nights, it’s nice to see that Filatov’s accompanying the team on their current road trip and being given a few games to acclimate himself. Although I thought he skated well last night, I’m sure like many of you, I wished that Filatov was a little more aggressive on that 2-on-1. I still stand by my statement that he looks like more of a playmaker than a sniper and on that 2-on-1, he still looked like a pass-first player.
– For what it’s worth, Foligno is once again centering Milan Michalek and Daniel Alfredsson on Ottawa’s second line. While not particularly impressive last night, Foligno handled himself quite well in the faceoff dot going 5 for 8.
– Chris Neil has resumed skating but is sporting the no-contact grey jersey.
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