23. Anaheim GM Bob Murray was in Ontario this week, watching some of his players in OHL playoff series involving Kingston and Sault Ste. Marie. Murray likes scouting draft-eligibles, more so than many of his contemporaries. But there’s no question he’d prefer to be attending the NHL playoffs now. After their elimination to San Jose, he delayed the Ducks’ exit meetings.
“I’m not ready for that yet,” he said Wednesday. “There’s still a lot of emotion. I wanted to sit for a bit.”
They will begin Friday. He held an interesting debriefing with local reporters about the way his team needs to play.
“We are all in agreement the games are being played faster. I was watching Sault Ste. Marie the other night, and they have two or three guys coming back underneath to pick up speed. We don’t do that. We can’t have three forwards standing around waving sticks. I would say to [head coach Randy Carlyle] that we have to play fast, and sometimes we did. But he didn’t have the leverage all season, because we were so banged up that we were always chasing the playoffs. But we know we have to, because we are playing slow hockey.” Murray credited Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski for being able to play fast without being the swiftest skaters.
24. The GM added two other changes he wanted to see. First, more usage of the fourth line. That was something Toronto questioned about Carlyle, too, but Murray gamely took responsibility for that. He credited old defence partner Doug Wilson (GM in San Jose) for getting the Melker Karlssons and Marcus Sorensens.
“Doug did a hell of a job finding guys (coach) Peter DeBoer could trust. I don’t want to force-feed Sam Steel and Troy Terry on the fourth line. That’s not a place for a 20-year-old.”
At the end of Game 3, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler were in the penalty box as the Sharks poured in goal after goal. That needs to be controlled.
“This is still a physical game,” Murray said. “But you have to play between the whistles. If others don’t engage, you can’t lose your cool mentally. That means you are not ready to play.”
25. Murray is hopeful a summer of rest will help Getzlaf and Kesler. He feels they have to ease the captain’s workload. He would not discuss Perry, but it’s clear there is some tension. This will be a huge summer (and 2018–19 season) for one of the franchise cornerstones. One player he did correct my opinion of is John Gibson. In the past, I’ve mentioned that the Ducks love their goalie, but worry about his propensity for injuries. The GM said that is no longer the case.
“That was when he had some hip flexor or groin issues. But he hasn’t had those in two years. These were different, and in some cases, he was held out for precautionary reasons. We’re not worried.”
