Curtis Lazar

[Xamar*]

I don't think Murray has ever known what it means to truly contend. It's almost as if he's living in some imaginary world where any team that makes the playoffs can win the cup. Looking at the cup winners during his time here (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago x3, Boston, LA x2), it's obviously the case that you have to be one of the elite teams in the league to truly have a chance at winning.

I mean the guy sabotaged this teams draft position in 2009 and 2011 when we were terrible, and wasted assets in other years that we had no chance of winning:

2009: trades a 1st round pick for Campoli and rental Comrie when we were one of the worst teams in the league, both contributed during the 9-1 stretch in March, giving us Cowen instead of OEL
2010: trades two 2nds for Sutton and Cullen in a year where our chances of winning were very slim, and didn't re-sign either of them
2011: trades Elliott for Anderson, which resulted in us drafting rising up the standings, drafting Zibanejad instead of Nugent Hopkins/Landeskog
2014: trades 3rd + 5th for Hemsky when we clearly weren't going to make the playoffs, then didn't re-sign him

He's almost hurt the team more than he's helped it. Imagine how different this team would look with Ekman Larsson and Landeskog instead of Cowen and Zibanejad.

Murray's made some awful mistakes and had he not drafted Stone, Karlsson etc this board would be calling for his head. I don't know if it's the cancer thing that gives Murray a free pass but he should be shown the door ASAP.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

Murray's made some awful mistakes and had he not drafted Stone, Karlsson etc this board would be calling for his head. I don't know if it's the cancer thing which gives Murray a free pass but he should be shown the door ASAP.

That's a terrible thing to say, first of all. But second of all, you can't just say "he made bad moves except A, B and C." I could easily take the opposite tack and say "he's made good moves except A, B and C." You have to take his entire body of work into consideration, not just the ones you did or didn't like.

 

[Xamar*]

That's a terrible thing to say, first of all. But second of all, you can't just say "he made bad moves except A, B and C." I could easily take the opposite tack and say "he's made good moves except A, B and C." You have to take his entire body of work into consideration, not just the ones you did or didn't like.

His entire of work spans from July 2007 until now. In that time we've won one playoff series, one more than the Oilers and the Leafs.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

That's a terrible thing to say, first of all. But second of all, you can't just say "he made bad moves except A, B and C." I could easily take the opposite tack and say "he's made good moves except A, B and C." You have to take his entire body of work into consideration, not just the ones you did or didn't like.

Not to validate one side or the other, but Murray didn't draft those players.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

His entire of work spans from July 2007 until now. In that time we've won one playoff series, one more than the Oilers and the Leafs.

he hasn't done great job. that is pretty obvious, has he done a terrible job though? I dono

 

[BrawlFan]

The only truth here is that this team is ENTIRELY Bryan Murray. There isn't a single player on this team that Murray didn't draft or trade for. So whatever happens with this team is a direct reflection of his skill level as a GM. Personally I think we need someone who is willing to take this depth and turn it into a contender but that's just me.

Most fans here wont be ready for that type of GM but if trading Zbby and Lazar gets you Kopitar and Melnyk is willing to resign him then that's a trade you make. Overpay a bit to get first line players that deliver and are winners. Stuff like that.

Say what you want about Burke but he tends to win the blockbuster trades. Pronger, Phaneuf, Sedins

 

[Micklebot]

The only truth here is that this team is ENTIRELY Bryan Murray. There isn't a single player on this team that Murray didn't draft or trade for. So whatever happens with this team is a direct reflection of his skill level as a GM. Personally I think we need someone who is willing to take this depth and turn it into a contender but that's just me.

Most fans here wont be ready for that type of GM but if trading Zbby and Lazar gets you Kopitar and Melnyk is willing to resign him then that's a trade you make. Overpay a bit to get first line players that deliver and are winners. Stuff like that.

Say what you want about Burke but he tends to win the blockbuster trades. Pronger, Phaneuf, Sedins

Chris Neil? Chris Phillips?

People love to criticize him for all the players he failed to bring in but ignore that he's opporating within a budget much lower than other teams and that he doesn't control.

Has he been perfect? No. But like all GMs, he also has to play by the rules set by the owner, and that's not neccisarilly a level playing field across the league.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I also love "trade players X, Y and Z for superstar A from team H and be done with it!"

I mean, obviously there are no other teams looking to acquire superstar A and team H doesn't have needs other than "players X, Y and Z who just so happen to be part of the Senators!"

 

[Micklebot]

Murray can thank the scouting staff for saving his job. 14/20 players on the roster are a direct result of the scouting staff, not Murray. Of the players that he acquired:

2 were acquired by using teams young depth, or in other words the fruits of the scouting staff (Turris, Ryan)
2 were acquired in bad returns for our top players (Michalek, Chiasson)
1 was acquired by trading an equally valued player (Methot)
1 was acquired through UFA (MacArthur)

That's pathetic. Considering that we'd be better off without the Ryan trade, and that Michalek + Chiasson were acquired in bad packages by dealing far superior players, and that Methot and Foligno is basically a wash value wise - the only NHL players that Murray has acquired without giving up too much value, giving up the better player or dealing a similar valued player for another, are Turris and MacArthur.

Murray does deserve credit for putting an elite scouting staff and development system in place, but we could fire Murray right now and still have the same scouting staff. Our scouting staff combined with a general manager that could get good value in trades and attract free agents would make this team a contender - a Tampa Bay-type team.

Clearly we can attract free agents. We landed the most coveted college UFA this offseason; a situation where term and contract are limited so no team has an advantage. Prior to our budget being cut, we landed Gonchar and Kovalev who were both attractive on the market at the time. IMO, budget has severely limited our ability to attract free agents, not our GM. Have we even gone after any of the Free agents that our allegedly not attracted by the GM or market?

Michalek and Chiasson were aquired for players that excecised NTC to kill a better offer.

Turris was aquired for Runblad who was aquired for a pick. This isn't a scouting staff victory unless you mean pro scouts.

As for being better off without the Ryan trade, that certainly remains to be seen. Silf has 0 pts and is a -6, Noesen has yet to do anything of note and can't stay healthy and the draft pick, Ritchie, is in the AHL (though looks promising). If Silf's head is scrambled thanks to Torres, are we still better off reversing the trade? How about if Ryan starts picking corners again instead of shooting for the crest?

You also ignore that he acquired our franchise goalie for a throw away at the time in Elliot.

People are also ignoring the secondary effects of having a good draft and develop system. Players like Zibanejad, Stone, Hoffman, and Karlsson mean that the team doesn't need to trade for players to fill their roles. It also means that resourses are used to pay them, making funds unavailable for aquiring players via UFA or trade.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

Clearly we can attract free agents. We landed the most coveted college UFA this offseason; a situation where term and contract are limited so no team has an advantage. Prior to our budget being cut, we landed Gonchar and Kovalev who were both attractive on the market at the time. IMO, budget has severely limited our ability to attract free agents, not our GM. Have we even gone after any of the Free agents that our allegedly not attracted by the GM or market?

Michalek and Chiasson were aquired for players that excecised NTC to kill a better offer.

Turris was aquired for Runblad who was aquired for a pick. This isn't a scouting staff victory unless you mean pro scouts.

As for being better off without the Ryan trade, that certainly remains to be seen. Silf has 0 pts and is a -6, Noesen has yet to do anything of note and can't stay healthy and the draft pick, Ritchie, is in the AHL (though looks promising). If Silf's head is scrambled thanks to Torres, are we still better off reversing the trade? How about if Ryan starts picking corners again instead of shooting for the crest?

You also ignore that he acquired our franchise goalie for a throw away at the time in Elliot.

People are also ignoring the secondary effects of having a good draft and develop system. Players like Zibanejad, Stone, Hoffman, and Karlsson mean that the team doesn't need to trade for players to fill their roles. It also means that resourses are used to pay them, making funds unavailable for aquiring players via UFA or trade.

2011: trades Elliott for Anderson, which resulted in us drafting rising up the standings, drafting Zibanejad instead of Nugent Hopkins/Landeskog

He sees it as a negative. Y'know, because franchise goalies grow on trees, are easy to acquire and we'd have been a far better team with Landeskog and Elliott. Clearly.

 

[BrawlFan]

Chris Neil? Chris Phillips?

People love to criticize him for all the players he failed to bring in but ignore that he's opporating within a budget much lower than other teams and that he doesn't control.

Has he been perfect? No. But like all GMs, he also has to play by the rules set by the owner, and that's not neccisarilly a level playing field across the league.

He resigned both those players. He could have let them walk but saw them in his vision. And regardless of budget this is how he allocated his funds, did I criticzise him in my post? I don't think so. The truth is not a critique, we've won one playoff round in 8 years since he's been in charge. He received a team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals the year before so before all the fanboys come in here and go nuts everyone should understand those are the cold truth facts. Also we've missed the playoffs a few times and no players are remaining that weren't signed/drafted/traded for by Murray, so this is his vision and his team and he bears all the credit and the blame. That's the truth and people need to come to terms with it.

He choose where to delegate his funds and his recipe is a bubble team. Could we have done more? Who knows, would have to look at a comparable team. Such as Nashville

 

[BrawlFan]

Clearly we can attract free agents. We landed the most coveted college UFA this offseason; a situation where term and contract are limited so no team has an advantage. Prior to our budget being cut, we landed Gonchar and Kovalev who were both attractive on the market at the time. IMO, budget has severely limited our ability to attract free agents, not our GM. Have we even gone after any of the Free agents that our allegedly not attracted by the GM or market?

Michalek and Chiasson were aquired for players that excecised NTC to kill a better offer.

Turris was aquired for Runblad who was aquired for a pick. This isn't a scouting staff victory unless you mean pro scouts.

As for being better off without the Ryan trade, that certainly remains to be seen. Silf has 0 pts and is a -6, Noesen has yet to do anything of note and can't stay healthy and the draft pick, Ritchie, is in the AHL (though looks promising). If Silf's head is scrambled thanks to Torres, are we still better off reversing the trade? How about if Ryan starts picking corners again instead of shooting for the crest?

You also ignore that he acquired our franchise goalie for a throw away at the time in Elliot.

People are also ignoring the secondary effects of having a good draft and develop system. Players like Zibanejad, Stone, Hoffman, and Karlsson mean that the team doesn't need to trade for players to fill their roles. It also means that resourses are used to pay them, making funds unavailable for aquiring players via UFA or trade.

Price is a franchise goalie...Quick is a franchise goalie. Anderson is a good goalie. Lets not get carried away here

 

[Micklebot]

Price is a franchise goalie...Quick is a franchise goalie. Anderson is a good goalie. Lets not get carried away here

Price is a generational goalie.

Anderson sv% since being aquired by the sens: .920 reg season, .933 playoffs
Quick sv% since 2010 seaons: .918 reg season, .926 playoffs.

Anderson has been the franchises best goalie pretty much ever. Hasek for almost a season was better, that's it bar none.

He's top half of the league borderline top 10, and as such, every bit a franchise goalie. He's no hall of famer like Price will be, but there are plenty of goalies out there that would love to have his stat line.

 

[Icelevel]

Murray can thank the scouting staff for saving his job. 14/20 players on the roster are a direct result of the scouting staff, not Murray. Of the players that he acquired:

2 were acquired by using teams young depth, or in other words the fruits of the scouting staff (Turris, Ryan)
2 were acquired in bad returns for our top players (Michalek, Chiasson)
1 was acquired by trading an equally valued player (Methot)
1 was acquired through UFA (MacArthur)

That's pathetic. Considering that we'd be better off without the Ryan trade, and that Michalek + Chiasson were acquired in bad packages by dealing far superior players, and that Methot and Foligno is basically a wash value wise - the only NHL players that Murray has acquired without giving up too much value, giving up the better player or dealing a similar valued player for another, are Turris and MacArthur.

Murray does deserve credit for putting an elite scouting staff and development system in place, but we could fire Murray right now and still have the same scouting staff. Our scouting staff combined with a general manager that could get good value in trades and attract free agents would make this team a contender - a Tampa Bay-type team.

I know I like bringing up the name Tim Murray, but once again here I wonder how much of the scouting staff was interviewed, recommended, hired by him.
Sorry i don't remember the order in which everyone was hired.

 

[BrawlFan]

Price is a generational goalie.

Anderson sv% since being aquired by the sens: .920 reg season, .933 playoffs
Quick sv% since 2010 seaons: .918 reg season, .926 playoffs.

Anderson has been the franchises best goalie pretty much ever. Hasek for almost a season was better, that's it bar none.

He's top half of the league borderline top 10, and as such, every bit a franchise goalie. He's no hall of famer like Price will be, but there are plenty of goalies out there that would love to have his stat line.

Do you realize what youre saying? A franchise goalie is a goalie you build your team around. Are you seriously implying that the Senators should build their team around Anderson? He's a complimentary piece but we don't win/lose on goaltending.

Youre speaking as if he is Brodeur, Hasek, Roy. Those are franchise goalies. Those goalies were great when it mattered and each one of those goalies had tremendous playoff numbers.

Anderson has highlight level saves but he also has games where he looks extremely human.

Anderson is essentially a goalie in the 20-30 range

 

[Sens Rule]

Murray is not solely trying to build a Stanley Cup winner. He has had to stay a bubble team in order to sell tickets. Get some playoff dates.

To the posters above that decried some moves made for short term success... Like anyone should criticize getting Anderson for Elliott because we WON too many games after that.

We finally got a solid starting goalie. The best goalie in the history of the Senators borganization. And that was a BAD move? Stupid tank nation fans don't understand winning.

It might make sense for the Leafs or Habs to sell off all talent and have a horrid team for several years. They would still sell out. They would still be owned by mega corporations.

Ottawa. Did you see the crowds when we were bad? 15000. If lucky. Still 16500 some games this year. Murray can't just go all Sabres and have a crap team. Never could. That was not even an option. Even if some silly fans think being awful is a recipe for everything.

Murray had done a decent job in his tenure. He has successes and failures. If some people that preach revising the last decade to have all these better draft picks were in charge. Good chance Ottawa could be like Phoenix or Florida Nashville... Fighting to stay put.

And as to winning Cups. You start with a playoff team and tweak it, try to get the few players to get over the top. You don't start from nothing and get to the promised land.... Unless you draft Crosby and Malkin in consecutive years by sheer luck. And before they did the Pens almost MOVED.

Murray has helped cement the Senators existence in Ottawa. It was pretty safe... But he has helped keep the franchise stable. Sens fans were spoiled by so much success before he became GM that just being decent and not being really bad is not seen as any kind of accomplishment. But it actually is. Murray might not be the best GM... But he is not a terrible one. Considering he came in on the downswing of talent. Rebuilt without tanking, had to deal with not just spending to the cap. Has the franchise not hemorraging money.

We can compete as a mid market team. We are pretty well positioned for the future right now. We aren't there now, but should a few chips fall our way, we could be a strong contender. In a parity league... Just being in the pack is very important. Fall behind and it is hard to reposition yourself.

 

[Boud]

Do you realize what youre saying? A franchise goalie is a goalie you build your team around. Are you seriously implying that the Senators should build their team around Anderson? He's a complimentary piece but we don't win/lose on goaltending.

Youre speaking as if he is Brodeur, Hasek, Roy. Those are franchise goalies. Those goalies were great when it mattered and each one of those goalies had tremendous playoff numbers.

Anderson has highlight level saves but he also has games where he looks extremely human.

Anderson is essentially a goalie in the 20-30 range

I dissagree with you. We don't lose on goaltending SINCE Anderson has been here because that was the case before. I don't know how old you are but I assume you are not old enough to remember how this team had a hard time buying a ****ing save for a decade with an allstar team in front. Anderson has better playoffs numbers than Price and has been one of the best goalie in the playoffs I have seen and he has the numbers to show, plus he's always playing in front of mediocre to average teams like you seem to be saying so discouting him seems somewhat contradictory.

There's definitely not 20 goalies that are better than Anderson today and we're talking about one of the most underrated goaltenders in the league. Every goaltender IS human and every single goalie has had tough stretches. We don't have a good defense and that plays a huge role on how a goaltender looks. Please tell me what kind of defense Price, Brodeur, Hasek have had over the years compared to what Anderson has been dealing with?

These guys are generational goaltenders, the best of the best, they are not only franchise goalies and it's unfair to compare any goaltender to them just like it's unfair to compare Mark Stone to Sydney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky . Does that make Mark Stone not a franchise player? NO. Corey Schneider is a franchise goalie, Holtby is a franchise goalie, Quick has been a franchise goalie, and Anderson has been playing just as good as them.

 

[Micklebot]

He resigned both those players. He could have let them walk but saw them in his vision. And regardless of budget this is how he allocated his funds, did I criticzise him in my post? I don't think so. The truth is not a critique, we've won one playoff round in 8 years since he's been in charge. He received a team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals the year before so before all the fanboys come in here and go nuts everyone should understand those are the cold truth facts. Also we've missed the playoffs a few times and no players are remaining that weren't signed/drafted/traded for by Murray, so this is his vision and his team and he bears all the credit and the blame. That's the truth and people need to come to terms with it.

He choose where to delegate his funds and his recipe is a bubble team. Could we have done more? Who knows, would have to look at a comparable team. Such as Nashville

So basically, you think that a GM with limited funds should pretty much be perfect in order to be on par with teams that can spend to the cap? He chose were to spend his limited funds, but unlike other GMs, when a mistake is made it's crippling. Other teams make mistakes (Chicago has had a few, LA as well. NYR aren't immune) but are able to buy there way out of trouble, or at the very least ride it out while still having enough room in the budget to outspend us with their handicap signing.

You act as though the team he received was in good position to continue being a contender. Your facts are a partial truth. Ignore the lack of any talent coming up the pipeline when he took over. Ignore the already deteriating health of the #1 dman. The loss of Chara and Havlat for next to nothing thanks to his predecesor.

If you want to evaluate a GM, you need to take into consideration the limitations set on them relative to their peers. You're right that he gets all the credit or blame, he's had enough time to put his stamp on things. Where the problem lies is what reasonable expectations are. What people need to come to terms with is that a GM can turn chicken ***** into chicken salad. The team was on the downswing and the owner wouldn't allow a rebuild from the ground up. He tightened the pursestrings shortly after Murray took over. Expecting a contender year after year with a bottom 3rd budget isn't reasonable. Expecting every single move to be the right one isn't reasonable. Every single GM makes poor signings. We have Greening, Chicago has Bickell.

 

[Sens Rule]

I dissagree with you. We don't lose on goaltending SINCE Anderson has been here because that was the case before. I don't know how old you are but I assume you are not old enough to remember how this team had a hard time buying a ****ing save for a decade with an allstar team in front. Anderson has better playoffs numbers than Price and has been one of the best goalie in the playoffs I have seen and he has the numbers to show, plus he's always playing in front of mediocre to average teams like you seem to be saying so discouting him seems somewhat contradictory.

There's definitely not 20 goalies that are better than Anderson today and we're talking about one of the most underrated goaltenders in the league. Every goaltender IS human and every single goalie has had tough stretches. We don't have a good defense and that plays a huge role on how a goaltender looks. Please tell me what kind of defense Price, Brodeur, Hasek have had over the years compared to what Anderson has been dealing with?

These guys are generational goaltenders, the best of the best, they are not only franchise goalies and it's unfair to compare any goaltender to them just like it's unfair to compare Mark Stone to Sydney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky . Corey Schneider is a franchise goalie, Holtby is a franchise goalie, Quick has been a franchise goalie, and Anderson has been playing just as good as them.

Anderson is not a truly elite top of the league goalie maybe. But he is a solid, reliable good starting goaltender. Something the organization has really NEVER had before. And not an easy thing to find.

Anderson legitimately has an argument of being the team MVP since we aquired him. Even over Erik Karlsson. And no one else but EK is close even if Karlsson has been our MVP since we got Anderson. I am certainly not saying Anderson is better then EK, or that Anderson is less replaceable then EK... Any good goalie has more opportunity to be an MVP then any position player. But game in, game out. He is the anchor of this roster.

Getting Anderson for basically nothing, then signing him TWICE to reasonable contracts that are below the average cost of an Established NHL starter is a huge coup to this team.

I mean if you looked at who has more 3 star selections since Anderson was aquired... It has to be Karlsson and Anderson. I don't even need to do the math.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Clearly we can attract free agents. We landed the most coveted college UFA this offseason; a situation where term and contract are limited so no team has an advantage. Prior to our budget being cut, we landed Gonchar and Kovalev who were both attractive on the market at the time. IMO, budget has severely limited our ability to attract free agents, not our GM. Have we even gone after any of the Free agents that our allegedly not attracted by the GM or market?

Murray's extremely impressive undrafted FA resume as the GM of the Sens is as follows: Jesse Winchester, Bobby Butler, Stephane Da Costa, David Dziurzynski, Pat Cannone, Cole Schneider, Wacey Hamilton, Jack Downing, Garrett Thompson, Matt O'Connor.

O'Connor was a great pickup, and hopefully he works out for Murray's sake because he'd be the only undrafted FA to make any kind of significant contribution to the team.

Michalek and Chiasson were aquired for players that excecised NTC to kill a better offer.

And who gave them those NTCs? Murray dug his own grave on that one.

Besides good GMs find ways to acquire fair value for their players regardless of their contract perks. Yzerman got Callahan and two 1sts in exchange for a 38 year old Martin St. Louis with a full NMC that insisted on being traded to only one team.

Turris was aquired for Runblad who was aquired for a pick. This isn't a scouting staff victory unless you mean pro scouts.

If Rundblad didn't have a very successful season in the SHL and establish himself as a top D prospect we wouldn't have got Turris in exchange for him. That's on the scouting staff as far as I am concerned.

If you want to talk pro scouts, Murray deserves as much criticism for his hiring and trust in our dismal pro scouts as he does for the praise he receives for putting together the scouting staff. Turris and MacArthur are the ONLY good calls by the pro scouts.

Campoli, Comrie, Chiasson, Conacher, Michalek, Legwand, Kovalev, Filatov

Pro scouting fail after pro scouting fail.

As for being better off without the Ryan trade, that certainly remains to be seen. Silf has 0 pts and is a -6, Noesen has yet to do anything of note and can't stay healthy and the draft pick, Ritchie, is in the AHL (though looks promising). If Silf's head is scrambled thanks to Torres, are we still better off reversing the trade? How about if Ryan starts picking corners again instead of shooting for the crest?

I've never been a big fan of Silfverberg, but anyone arguing that the Ryan trade looks good for us right now is foolish. If we had the opportunity today to sign Ryan for 7.25M for the next 7 years, I'd probably pass. Which means his value with his current contract is close to zero, whether positive or negative it remains to be seen. Considering we gave up a cheap 2nd line two-way winger, a good prospect and a high 1st, it makes the deal a pretty bad one for us.

This one I will admit is hindsight, as I liked the deal at the time and still did up until this season. Ryan just looks so unlike what he used to that it's hard to justify his contract let alone overpaying for him through trade to bring him to Ottawa.

You also ignore that he acquired our franchise goalie for a throw away at the time in Elliot.

If by franchise goalie you mean the current starting goaltender for this franchise, then yes, but if the term franchise goalie is to designate the holder as an elite goalie that is going to be a part of the organization for the long-term, then Anderson has never been that guy. He's a capable starting goalie that is 34 years old and is due for a decline. Hardly a "franchise goalie".

People are also ignoring the secondary effects of having a good draft and develop system. Players like Zibanejad, Stone, Hoffman, and Karlsson mean that the team doesn't need to trade for players to fill their roles. It also means that resourses are used to pay them, making funds unavailable for aquiring players via UFA or trade.

You're unaware that you're making my point. Murray as a general manager has been blessed with having young players come through the system that are both capable of contributing to the NHL level and on ELCs (cheap and cost-effective). A lot of GMs around the league do not have such an advantage. Instead of being used to acquire impact NHLers, he extra cap space given to him through the efforts of the scouting and development staff was used to give bloated contracts to the likes of Michalek, Phillips, Cowen, Wiercioch and Smith.

He sees it as a negative. Y'know, because franchise goalies grow on trees, are easy to acquire and we'd have been a far better team with Landeskog and Elliott. Clearly.

Why not draft Landeskog with our high draft pick and sign Anderson in the off-season instead of trying to fix the goaltending position near the end of a lost season?

Should have rode Elliott to a top 2 pick and then looked at our options to improve the goaltending situation when the season had ended.

Good idea, just horrible timing. And we paid the price for it.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

I dissagree with you. We don't lose on goaltending SINCE Anderson has been here because that was the case before. I don't know how old you are but I assume you are not old enough to remember how this team had a hard time buying a ****ing save for a decade with an allstar team in front. Anderson has better playoffs numbers than Price and has been one of the best goalie in the playoffs I have seen and he has the numbers to show, plus he's always playing in front of mediocre to average teams like you seem to be saying so discouting him seems somewhat contradictory.

There's definitely not 20 goalies that are better than Anderson today and we're talking about one of the most underrated goaltenders in the league. Every goaltender IS human and every single goalie has had tough stretches. We don't have a good defense and that plays a huge role on how a goaltender looks. Please tell me what kind of defense Price, Brodeur, Hasek have had over the years compared to what Anderson has been dealing with?

These guys are generational goaltenders, the best of the best, they are not only franchise goalies and it's unfair to compare any goaltender to them just like it's unfair to compare Mark Stone to Sydney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky . Does that make Mark Stone not a franchise player? NO. Corey Schneider is a franchise goalie, Holtby is a franchise goalie, Quick has been a franchise goalie, and Anderson has been playing just as good as them.

Excellently said. I wonder if people who criticize Anderson (with the defense he has in front of him) remember the period of goaltending purgatory that we had with Gerber, Auld, Elliott, Leclaire, Auld again, the not-famous Brodeur...

 

[starling]

He's almost hurt the team more than he's helped it. Imagine how different this team would look with Ekman Larsson and Landeskog instead of Cowen and Zibanejad.

Imagine how different this team would look with Tyler Cuma or Luca Sbisa instead of Erik Karlsson.

 

[bert]

Murray's made some awful mistakes and had he not drafted Stone, Karlsson etc this board would be calling for his head. I don't know if it's the cancer thing that gives Murray a free pass but he should be shown the door ASAP.

You really need to just stop.

Also all you genius's that think the sens could have just 'signed anderson in the offseason and road Elliot to a top 2 pick' are reaching and are out to lunch. You think Anderson is going to just sign here? Do you have a crystal ball? If you remember correctly he revived his career in Ottawa after the trade. He was floundering in Colorado had he finished the way he was playing there is not a chance the sens would have signed him.

Murray had to pick up the pieces of an organization that was gouged by the worst gm in franchise history. He has done a tremendous job drafting and developing and yes he gets help from a team. OBVIOUSLY do you guys think Ken Holland drafted and developed every player in detroit? Management is a TEAM. Considering being a budget team he has done a really good job, the problem is the owner. Sure has he made some mistakes? What GM hasnt? He has done alot with very little and made more good decisions than bad.

This board is really struggling and very hard to read at the moment. You guys need to stop panicking and get some perspective of whats actually going on. They are a very YOUNG team this is clearly a combination of a hangover from last year injuries and a coach that is getting away from some of the things that made him successful. Despite that they are still 500% with 74 games to go. Take a deep breath and enjoy this young talented team that is going to improve.

 

[Micklebot]

Can we move all this talk of Murray and his tenure over to aMurray thread... Poor Lazar's feelings are getting trampled on over here.

I'm just as guilty of going off-topic as anyone, but lets nip this in the bud.

 

[operasen]

Any updates on his injury. Has it confirmed as concussion?