Bryan Murray Speaks: End of Season Synopsis

One day after the players conducted their last media availabilities of the season before cleaning out their respective lockers, Senators general manager Bryan Murray addressed the media yesterday to share his thoughts on the Senators’ 2014-15 season and shed some light on what is ahead for the organization this offseason.

Murray started his media availability with a pretty ho-hum review of the team’s season. Once reporters began to pose questions to Murray, his answers became meatier. All of his answers to those questions are transcribed below. By now you should know how this works, my thoughts are in bold.

On why Dave Cameron deserves an extension…

“Well, I think the turnaround on our club is obvious. The style of play was quite different. I think the fact that we played more of a pressure game, more of a … we played a quicker game. We broke the puck out better. We weren’t hemmed in our own end nearly as much as we were early on, but the fact that we skated more in practice and we had a different philosophy in the second half of the year played to the strength of our players. I think his ability to communicate with them and get them to perform and believe in themselves and turn a season around that could have gone sideways very quickly after Christmas. I thought he was very deserving of (an extension) and I certainly didn’t want to wait. I made the presentation (of a new contract) the day after we finished.”

If Murray could also give an extension to the hockey gods that conveniently injured some of Ottawa’s most redundant veterans that allowed Dave Cameron and roll with younger players who the hockey analytics community fawned over, he would.

The problem that I have with evaluating Cameron is a coach is that these injuries are almost a curse as much as they are a blessing. Cameron’s been given a lot of credit for playing the optimal personnel, but discerning what was done out of choice and what was done out of necessity is impossible. We’re essentially going to have to wait until everyone is healthy at the start of training camp to properly evaluate how Cameron manages a healthy roster.

Breaking down the Senators season into three sections – Paul MacLean’s tenure, David Cameron’s first game through February 7^th which was the last game before the Senators’ magical 27 game stretch run – creates the ability to contrast the differences between the “I want to gouge my eyes out watching MacLean’s player usage” days to the  “tanking for McDavid” days and finally through the “look at Curtis Lazar eat that hamburger” days.

The numbers posted under MacLean are retch-worthy and if not for the efforts of Craig Anderson during that stretch of games, this season would have been buried by midseason like Patrick Wiercioch on the depth chart.

If there is a concern about the numbers under Cameron, it’s that the Senators still allow a substantial volume of shots. Even in Cameron’s last 30 games, the Senators still ranked in the league’s bottom third for shot suppression, but the Senators benefited from their goaltenders’ .937 even strength save percentage (.930 total save percentage) during this time.

As I outlined in an article for the Ottawa Citizen last year, giving up this volume of shots puts an enormous amount of pressure on the goaltenders to make saves, but you can understand why Ottawa was forced to play such an aggressive forechecking style: they wanted to generate more turnovers in the offensive and neutral zones because they have such a difficult time suppressing shots once the opposition gains their zone.

On whether Bryan Murray will remain as the GM…

“I’m going to keep going. I’ve talked to the doctors, I’ve talked to my family, I’ve talked to ownership and if my health holds up and everything, I feel like I can keep doing this job and it’s better than sitting on the couch at home.”

And who could blame him for that?

On what Murray thinks this team needs going forward to contend for a Stanley Cup…

“Well, there’s no question that we need a couple of pieces. We’ll try real hard this summer to make a couple of changes. I think every club, no matter if you’re at the top or less than that, that you feel from season to season, you probably have to make a change or two to stimulate the growth and to encourage people. The strong part of our club right now is the age of our key players. I think the fact that they’re growing into prominent NHL positions in a lot of cases. That we have, I believe, great leadership now, a star on the blue line, we’ve got solid goaltending, I think that’s why – and I said this at the GM meeting some time now – this game is a trap for us. It’s easy for me to say I probably shouldn’t continue on. I should take a break from this game, but you see the enthusiasm of the group and the opportunity that this group going forward has and I’d like to be a part of it. So, as I say, I do know we need to make a couple of changes and we’re going to try. There are no guarantees. We know that. We try real hard some days and you get a ‘no’ for an answer from another GM, but I will be talking to people.”

It’s hard to believe that just one year ago, members of the organization were calling into question this team’s leadership situation. It is amazing how much winning can change the perception of things.

On updating Robin Lehner’s status and how he sees the goaltending situation playing itself out next fall…

“Robin’s status first of all, he still has headaches. He said they’re getting better and he’s had some good days. But he still has days where he tried to ride a bike a couple of times he told me, and the next day, there was a hangover from it. I told him to shut it down. The doctor yesterday told him to shut it down for another week – ‘don’t do anything’ and see if that helps him. But we know like most injuries, he will get better. We hope by early May that he’ll be able to start working out again and get going. We have two goaltenders right now signed. Andrew Hammond is unrestricted and we will make an offer to him. We will see if he’s interested and willing to accept what we have for him. If that happens, if he does, then obviously there will be a change in one of the other two guys.”

I’m going to come back to Murray’s comments regarding Lehner a little later on.

On Erik Condra and whether there is room for him…

“Well, we have to move a couple of guys out at any rate – whether it’s to keep Erik Condra or whoever. We know that our numbers right now don’t work – both from a budget point of view and from an opportunity for other players to play. We’ve got a couple of guys that, I believe, would like to be elsewhere and we’ll try to accommodate them and elsewhere because they didn’t play much at the end of the year.”

The Senators may not have room for Condra because they have an inordinate amount of redundant veterans on expensive deals (relative to their contributions) that may prove to be tough to move. Throw in prospects like Shane Prince and Matt Puempel who are waiting for their own opportunity and the easiest way for the organization to clear space is to let Condra walk.

Now maybe the Senators can elect to move some of the guys who didn’t play as much near the end of the year. Ottawa could elect not to qualify Alex Chiasson as an RFA or flip veterans like Zack Smith or Chris Neil. They most assuredly will buy out Colin Greening. Speaking of whom…

On what the organization will try to do with Colin Greening…

“I’ve talked to his agent at length and we’re going to try real hard for Colin’s sake to provide an opportunity for him to go elsewhere. I talked to him yesterday at length about that and he obviously knows that he’s not a fit right now here. I guess it’s up to him, his agent and myself to try real hard to find a team. And there are some teams that had expressed interest early on in him and he’s a big, strong guy that can skate. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep him in the National Hockey League elsewhere.”

“Teams were interested once, they might be again!” If Bryan Murray weren’t a GM, he’d be working for a movie production studio writing movie descriptions to go on the back of DVDs.  

On whether he would be willing to pick up salary to move Greening…

“Don’t ever mention that.”

It doesn’t matter. Teams know there’s no point in moving anything to get a player who lost the ability and confidence to play with the puck. Like Greening with the puck at the red line, the Senators are going to have to dump this one – unfortunately, it’s going to have to come in the form of a buyout.

On whether there is any interest in bringing Daniel Alfredsson into the hold in a management capacity…

“Not management necessarily, but we’ve talked to him about getting involved, getting to understand the business and spend a little time. He’s been great. He came to the last few games and when he was in Montreal, I said, ‘Well, you’re coming to Ottawa,’ and (he said), ‘No, I’ve got to go back home and coach my kids,’ and I said, ‘No, no, you’re coming to (Ottawa).’ He brought his family for the last game, so it was good to see him around. Good to be able to talk to him. He’s a bright guy and I think down the road, he’ll make a decision on if he wants to (work in) hockey or not – he still has not made that decision – but very definitely, if he was interested, we’d be very interested in talking to him.”

I would be all for Alfredsson taking on a Shanahan-like role – whatever it takes to finally get Alfie’s name on the Cup.

On whether he expects ownership to give him more money and expand the budget spent on players…

“Well, I believe we’re going to have more (money) next year. We’ve talked about that at this point. We’re not going to be a cap team. I don’t think we have to be a cap team at this stage. Like this year, we were able to sign our players. We had a couple of extra players around a lot of the year. If we do it right, we have got a big summer ahead of us. We know we have some restricted people that we have to look after. We have to move a couple of guys, as I’ve said, for their benefit as much as ours. I think we’ll be able to accommodate, with our budget, what we need.”

I can understand why Murray would downplay the limitations of the budget by pointing out that Ottawa has been able to retain players who approached free agency (ie. Ryan, Anderson, and Methot), but when you’re limited in what you can spend and you’re already set to spend $20 million next on a collection of players (Legwand, Greening, Neil, Smith, Michalek, Phillips, and Cowen) who don’t offer significant value to the lineup, there is a lot of wasted resources. It also creates a finer margin for error because management cannot afford to paper over these mistakes and it’s not like Ottawa’s going to have an easy time getting rid of these players. But hey, if Murray’s going to be incredibly aggressive and can ship a few of these players out, that would be fantastic.

On wanting to add a couple of pieces and whether Murray can divulge what it is he’s looking for…

“No, I don’t think I want to necessarily say that right now, but there are a couple of areas we’ve identified that we sure can improve in. More, not necessarily a younger, but a more middle-aged kind guy that can come in here with some game experience in the National Hockey League. Now that’s a dream. Every team in the league says that at the end of the year: ‘We just have to add a star right winger or left winger’ or whatever it may be, but it’s very difficult to do. We do think that we have a couple pieces that might work for another team, but that (remains) to be seen.”

Again, like the Lehner comment, I’m going to come back to this comment following Murray’s comments on Jared Cowen.

On Jared Cowen and whether he’s a part of the future…

“Jared, the reason (why) I brought a note here is (because) Jared needs surgery. He has a sports hernia. He practiced and stayed around. We were going to (perform the surgery) earlier, but I basically suggested to him, ‘Don’t do it until the playoffs are over in case you can come in and help us in a couple of games, at any rate.’ He’s a 6’5” defenceman. Young. Going to be a real good player in the National Hockey League and you have got to be careful. We look around at trades that are made sometimes of young players – you do it to acquire something real good. I’m not saying that any player on our team couldn’t be traded for something that is better from our point of view, but I’m going to be careful with Jared Cowen. (We’ll) get him healthy and I expect he’ll come to camp next year and be a better player.”

Okay, now Murray’s comments regarding Cowen are hardly surprising. It’s not like he’s going to publicly devalue a player who should and probably will be available in a trade this offseason. But for a moment, let’s pretend that Murray is actually serious with what he is saying. Does it make sense for him to express how cautious the team has to be with such a young player in a position that requires patience, when earlier, he insinuated that he would likely trade a 23-year old goaltender in Lehner because of what Andrew Hammond did in his 24 career starts. The two philosophies don’t really mesh.

If anything, Cowen and Lehner are two players who I envision Murray dangling as part of a larger offer to bring in another forward. Will it be enough? I guess we’ll find out this summer.

On having eight defencemen under contract and how he anticipates Chris Phillips fitting in…

“Well again, we met with Chris yesterday. He wants to make it tough on the coach game-to-game whether he can play. He knows that he may not play every game if he’s here. He knows that a lot of our young guys are emerging and but he promised that he is going to get healthy. He’s had surgery. He’s going to get healthy and going to start to work out and I’ll find out how he feels. He’ll have to keep us updated on a weekly or monthly basis on where he fits as far as health is concerned. And then we’ll have to make a decision as the year begins.”

For a guy recovering from back injury, I guess the thought of retiring and moving kegs at the Big Rig doesn’t sound too enticing. No wonder he wants to keep trying to play.

On Chris Neil and how he anticipates Chris Neil fitting in…

“Same thing. Chris is an Ottawa Senator. He wants to be an Ottawa Senator. He’s a tough guy. We don’t have a lot of that type of player. He wants to play on a nightly basis, we know that. Over the course of the summer, I know I’ll have lots of occasions to talk to Chris and then we’ll just have to decide what happens.”

I respect the hell out of what these two vets have done in their career, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the game has passed them by. The numbers reflect a situation in which the Senators are better with either play off the ice rather than on it, but with guaranteed contracts that pay seven-figures, I wouldn’t blame either player for wanting to collect what could be their last paychecks.

On expectations rising next season and how he feels the team will respond to that rise…

“Well, it depends on what (pressure) we put on them. I think when you leave a year like this with a second half or a good run like we had, we know it’s not an annual thing. We can’t put ourselves (in the same position) early that we have to have that as another event next year. I expect the team to be better. I think that the growth of a number of our young guys, and you can go down the list of guys individually, we suggested to some of them yesterday and Dave and I had meetings with them, we expect some of them to grow considerably. Now, does that mean or give any guarantee? Not necessarily, but I think we’ll be a better hockey club. I think if we do a couple of things during the summer, we have a chance to be a playoff team for sure and my expectation is to be above that. But it was this year too. I started this year, I said, ‘I felt we had a real good hockey team,’ but we didn’t play like a real good hockey team until the latter part of the year. I think that’s the kind of team that we have now. I think we’re going to be consistently competitive. I think the work ethic and the character, it appears in the group… I have never had a group come in individually in exit interviews and say how much they enjoyed being around other players on this team, how happy they were to be a part of it and what a close group it was. I think that was a compliment to Erik (Karlsson), the captains and to the group as a whole for being, as Dave (Cameron) said in his part, good people. That’s what we’ve tried to cultivate here: behave yourself, show up every day and work hard, don’t complain, be competitive, be respectful and if you do that, in all likelihood, you will be a good team. But, the NHL’s so close now. The NHL is tough. I can look around the league and tell you a couple of teams that are outside of the playoffs this year that are going to be very (determined) at getting back in the race next year.”

In any exit interview, especially in consideration of the surprise finish that the organization had, it’s tough to take Murray’s expectations of being more than a playoff team too seriously. Everything from his comments on Jared Cowen to becoming a contender are laced with unbridled optimism. Murray isn’t giving a synopsis of the season as much as he’s conducting a lesson in PR.

On the organization’s RFAs and his preference for term with these players…

“I think that’s an individual thing. I think that there are a couple that we are going to look at a shorter term – one to two years – and then there are a couple that we would like to sign for a longer term thing. I don’t want to get into specifics obviously, but that’s sort of the approach and we’ve identified that. We’ve already started talking to a couple of the agents and we’ll see how it works out. We have an ideal (strategy), but they may have a different point of view totally.”

Earlier in the season, Mike Hoffman reflected on his RFA status and his desire to pursue a short-term deal that would not lock him in on a long-term, team-friendly contract, so it would make sense for him (or even Zibanejad) to sign that short-term deal, prove they can sustain their offensive production and break the bank. If there was an exception, Mark Stone feels like the safest bet for a long-term deal.

Considering his all-around play and production, he seems like the most likely to get a long-term contract. On the other hand, an eight-year pact was once reportedly out there for Jared Cowen, so who knows?

On the way Jean-Gabriel Pageau played and whether the organization has to give him a one-way contract…

“Well, he was one of our better players down the stretch. There was no question. I think if he grows six or seven inches over the summer, he’ll be a really good player in the league. But seriously, coming out of training camp, I said this to him and I believe it at the end of the year, that he made great strides. Great character. He’s one of the kids we’re talking about being a real good person – a character guy that is going to be here, we hope, for a very long time.”

Proportionate to his ice time, Pageau was just as productive as a guy like Mika Zibanejad at even strength, so when you look at how he’s perpetually in motion and making things happen on the ice, a guaranteed one-way contract seems like a no-brainer. Hell, the only regret that the Senators have is that he wasn’t on the team from the start of training camp.

On how therapeutic the winning streak was for his health…

“I always feel better when we win. Even when I didn’t have health issues, I always felt better when we win. Absolutely being around the enthusiasm, being around the type of kid we have, sitting down and having lunch with them on a somewhat regular basis in the lounge was really good. I really enjoyed it.”

As someone who just lost their grandfather seven weeks after his wife and my grandmother just passed, I understand and completely empathize with the situation. Having something to fight for can make such a huge difference to those who are battling illness.

On his ideal trade target being a top six forward and whether that line of thought changed over the final stretch…

“Well, if you’re looking for players, you’re always looking for top guys. So yeah, my dream is to find a top six guy. I think if we could add one more piece up front, I’m not sure about the blue line, but right now, up front, that would make a huge difference on our team.”

Somewhere Mike Hoffman is raising his hand and saying, “Hey, there’s a top six winger right here. It’s me.”

Once Cameron was hired, the Senators ranked in the upper third of the NHL in even strength shot generation and in the top five in even strength goal production, so yeah, it kind of bothers me that the Senator always publicly seem to prioritize addressing its top six forward situation.

As much as I want to dismiss adding a top six forward, it really depends on who they would add. Although the opportunity cost used to acquire a top six guy would likely come at expense of adding a more talented defenceman to the mix, it’s not like the Sens can’t remedy both areas in the offseason. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. (As an aside, Zybynek Michalek – Milan’s brother – is an UFA and a right-shooting defenceman to boot. What is the line on the Senators adding him on July 1^st?)

On running through the list of injuries and who needs surgery…

“Borowiecki might need surgery for a sports hernia, as well. Marc Methot we thought had to have surgery on his elbow, but I just found out before I came up that that might not be necessary now. He did have a hip flexor and a foot injury at the end. Clarke MacArthur had a hip flexor and he played the last game, but he played not as well as he wanted to play and all that. Karlsson had muscle damage in his back. He didn’t want to divulge it, but he had injections in a couple of games and he played at half-speed. No he didn’t play at half-speed, but he played hurt. Mark Stone, of course, with the wrist and arm. Chris Phillips, back surgery. Matt Puempel, high ankle sprain and Chris Neil with the thumb. He still wasn’t 100-percent when he came back, but he wanted to come back so bad that he played in a couple of games. Zibanejad had a bit of a knee issue, kneecap but it’s going to be okay. It’s going to take a couple of days, but that’s all.”

Sigh. One of these years, I hope Murray admits that one of his players suffers from general body shittiness.

On what he said to Bobby Ryan…

“What do I say to Bobby Ryan? Get in shape. Work real hard this summer and just be Bobby Ryan next year. Bobby Ryan when he’s going, like every goal scorer, the puck goes in the net for him. When it doesn’t go in the net for him, he worries about everything. He tries to overdo it and he blames himself too much. I think that it’s just a confidence thing. It’s interesting talking to young players, they point the finger at themselves too often when they should just go play and let the chips fall. Bobby Ryan is a very good player. When he shoots the puck, it goes in the net for him. He stopped shooting the puck a bit down the stretch and in the playoffs, he was looking to make plays. But like the rest, we’ve talked to every one of them, have a big summer, come back to camp, be ready to start and let that carry you through the year. There are going to be stretches of 10-games next year, you can write the story now, that he won’t score a goal, but he will score some goals.”

I appreciate Ryan’s self-deprecation when describing his game down the stretch, but I have a hard time believing that he’s not hiding some undisclosed injury. During the last few weeks of the season and into the playoffs, it looked like he had nothing on his shot. It’s a weird feeling going into an offseason hoping that a player is more injured than he’s letting on, but when the stakes are a seven-year contract worth an average annual of $7.25 million, that will happen.

On whether it was a difficult decision for Murray to remain in his GM position…

“It’s the first time that I wasn’t run out of town, so let’s put it that way. No, it’s difficult. In a way, it’s difficult. I understand my family. I’ve been doing this a long time and I kind of leave my wife and daughter sometimes on their own. Maybe they like that now, I’m not sure, but they didn’t discourage me from doing this. The doctors were very encouraging as far as, it’s good for me to be stimulated and you guys do that every day for me, so why not?”

On whether there are already some succession plans in place…

“Yeah, we know what we’re doing and these guys that are working right now, they are in a good spot. They are doing a fair amount… I’m asking them to do more probably than the normal assistant general manager, but they’ve been good about it. I won’t go on every road trip. We know that since I don’t drink beer anymore. It’s hard to do, but at any rate, it’s good for them. We’ll be ready when I’m ready to step aside. We’ll be ready for that.”

On filling the vacancy left by Mark Reeds’ passing…

“Yes, there will be… I’ve asked Dave already to go look for another assistant if he wanted that and it appears that he does.”

Steve Stirling, an assistant coach with Binghamton, saw some bench duties during the playoffs. With Luke Richardson expected to pursue a NHL opportunity, maybe he’s an internal candidate for promotion who could receive a promotion.

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