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Give the early rounds to Bryan Murray in the battle of playoff rhetoric. The Ottawa Senators general manager and head coach, an underrated presence on the list of NHL comedians, did a marvelous job of stirring up the Pittsburgh Penguins and the local citizenry on the eve of their first-round playoff series.
Murray, faced with rallying his shell-shocked team, which heads into the series without its heart-and-soul, Daniel Alfedsson, plus its best penalty killer, Mike Fisher, and its third-line centre, Chris Kelly. In such dire straits, the coaching manual says to get the focus off the remaining players and, at the same time, give them something to rally around.
Hence Murray's charge on Monday that the Penguins threw their last game of the regular season against the Philadelphia Flyers. By losing, the Penguins finished second in the Eastern Conference and drew the Senators in the playoffs.
The actual evidence of this was pretty sparse. The Penguins did rest Sidney Crosby and his tender ankle but they did play their No. 1 goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, in the 2-1 loss to the Flyers, and their top defenceman, Sergei Gonchar, was on the ice for 29 minutes.
However, the Pens did play poorly in the game and their power play went 0-for-8, which had some tongues wagging. But the NHL's head office saw nothing untoward and declined to investigate.
But that wasn't the point. All Murray wanted to do was upset the Penguins and convince his players they had been insulted. He did a fine job accomplishing the former, since his remarks were still the subject of conversation on game day.
The wily old campaigner kept the heat on by suggesting the Penguins were under a tremendous amount of pressure in the playoffs. Everyone expects them to get to the conference final. Anything less will be dreadful.
Murray was back at it on Wednesday morning after the Senators' game-day skate. He was told Penguins coach Michel Therrien said he would not respond to Murray's tanking charges because they were “so ridiculous.”
Murray shot back that, “I guess I just had a bad TV that day,” referring to what he saw last Sunday when he watched the Flyers-Penguins game.
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Joseph Daniel from Canada writes: Give me a break! The only thing Murray did is provide his players with an excuse to fail. AGAIN! whahhh Oh we are hurting so pittsburgh through the last game to face us! Whah Alfie can't play. I hope it is Pens in four and get rid of these imposters.
- Posted 09/04/08 at 3:18 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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Matt Wood from Washington, DC, United States writes: Murray must be an expert on immensely disappointing playoff performances, so we should listen to his words of wisdom here.
- Posted 09/04/08 at 10:45 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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