One glaring problem with the premise of your post.
There are usually 3 forwards and 1 DMan who are on the ice the same time as Murray. Murray is not out there by himself.
Of course. That doesn't explain how Murray is leaps and bounds worse than all the other players who play with the same teammates. It looks even worse when you look at matchups and zone starts. It's not all on him but when his shifts are isolated there's a clear trend.
Three shots on goal (while Murray is on the ice) against Carolina had Eller as Center.
Four shots on goal DD was Center.
Two shots on goal White was Center.
Three shots on goal Pleks was Center.
Can you give me the correlation between those shots, those lines and Murray? Or is it all Murray and none of the above allowing shots.
One game samples don't show you very much. The fact is that over the course of the season he is a clear outlier among the D corps and substantially worse than the rest. No matter what linemates or situation he's in outside the PK he drags everyone down and bleeds chances against.
We were outshot by Carolina 32-24. Murray only played 13:58, of which 1:58 was on the PK.
The possession issues facing the Habs rise far above Murray.
Why can it not be both? Why can it not be that both the system and the player are bad? Murray isn't going to be a plus possession player if we suddenly turn it around, he was a boat anchor with the Sharks and Penguins too, where's the excuse for him there?
As for his ice time, he doesn't generally play a lot of minutes but the D has become built on sheltering him. He gets offensive starts which means Subban and Markov start from their own end more often, facing tougher competition. Gorges gets leaned on even more, a rookie D-man and Emelin play on their off side, we do a lot to accommodate Murray's presence in the lineup and he still is the worst on the team and one of the worst in the league.
You too will eventually overcome the pain of losing Diaz. Warm milk or beer will help you sleep at night. Time will be your best ally and friend.
Or you can simply watch Vancouver if you cannot overcome the grief.
Come on, at least go all the way and say I only like computer hockey or something.
We're all playing make believe GM on this site. Diaz isn't a core player or a top pairing defender but it's stupid to trade him away to keep a guy like Murray in the lineup who should be in the AHL. As I said, it's to a lesser scale what we saw the Leafs do when they moved out a good player in Grabovski for Bolland, and let "soft" MacArthur walk to sign Clarkson. Good teams don't move productive players away for a 4th liner when there's a place for them in the lineup. Good teams don't shelter plugs to the detriment of better players.
My concern is we'll do something similar.
