JimmyTwoTimes
Registered User
- Apr 13, 2010
- 19,958
- 5,281
Thats the bad thing about Sens having so much cap. It makes this league wide low value due to cap not going up a non factor in Ottawa. The RFAs see how much money they have and want a typical deal rather than accepting less.
Sens have a chance here to become a great team again with all of the prospects they had and added in this draft. Along with a few top young players already on the team.
But another big factor that most will over look is Matt Murray. I truly believe he gets back to where he was during those cup runs. Sens will have their franchise goalie for rest of this decade. Few reasons why....
Murray didnt come out of nowhere, he had a solid pedigree and was taken in 3rd round. He then went on to break records in the AHL....in 40 games he had a .940 % with under 2g against a game. Was by far best goalie that year for WBS . He then goes on to win those b2b cups . And wasnt just along for the ride but we dont win those cups without him. The first Caps series, Washington had no idea how to beat him.. We went up 3-1 and then won in 6. ECF against Tampa and Bishop/Vasilevsky. Bishop gets hurt game 1...we end up losing that game. We go onto win the next two. They win next two to go up 3-2. Which btw when it was tied 2-2 we went to Fleury and lost. Games 6 and 7 Murray dominates....we win 2-1 and then 3-1. Onto the finals against the hottest team in playoffs with the Sharks. Murray stopped them from scoring those first few games giving us that important 2-0 lead. We go up 3-1...lose game 5...then he again holds his opponent to 1 goal in a series(this time the cup) clinching game.
The next year. Murray gets hurt. Fleury wins round 1 and 2. But then came the Sens in the ECF. I guarantee we lose that if not for Murray. We lost game 1. Won game 2. Then Fleury lost game 3 and Murray took over. Went on to win the next two games. Giving us 3-2 lead. Sens tied it up. Then we all know what happened in game 7. Could have went either way but Murray did what he had to do to allow us to score in double OT and get to the cup.
Again facing another hot team in the Preds. I think we were underdogs for that too. Murray blew lead in game 1 but was great in game 2 to give us 2-0 lead. Like the Sharks series...he was good at preventing the star players from scoring. Nothing from Johanson and Forsberg. We lose the next two at Preds. Game 5 at home he only lets in 1 goal. And game 6 to win it all...a shutout.
Now, anyone can say yeah but look at last few years. Well plenty of goalies go thru these growing pains. Murray was just held to a much higher standard because of what he did to win those 2 cups at such a young age. His father then died. Our team lost a ton of players, JR kept playing musical chairs to try to copy those lineups we had for the cups. At the same time Sullivan's system didnt have the same impact. He didnt like Kessel. We had other issues. Whole team struggled. Not just Murray. But anyway now he is 26 years old ...out of Pitt and can be himself again. I think , like When Fleury left for Vegas.. ..you are getting a much better goalie than what Murray showed the last 3 years.
Absolute steal for a 2nd rounder.
Long post but just wanted to post in detail why I believe its pretty obvious that Murray will turn things around again. Btw he didnt even have the down years that Markstrom had at same age. Marks had 3 years of sub ..900% before turning things around at the same age...26.
I have no doubt Murray will as well. Prob is we had to keep Jarry over him. I reeally hope Jarry doesnt fall apart now that he is the #1 and pressure is on him. But we will see.
Ill end it with Sens got a great goalie and tons of teams(Oilers and Flames as usual) are going to regret not adding him. Especially since they are contenders. Sens arent at the moment. Which actually will let Murray ease his way in slowly anyway instead of the pressure to win right away
