Good text. No complacency.
Just remembering how many were asking for Murray at trade deadline.
He was indeed, such a good fit to us.
Cost was two second round: Lekhonen + ?. At 1.5M, Murray is a great deal.
For us, he does fills: block shots, hits and toughness.
Since we have lost Gill and Hamrlik, few were able to block shots.
Diaz had a pace of 141 shots blocked back in 2011-12.
So, now we have Gorges, Murray and Diaz who can all block shots.
Emelin is OK at blocking shots but he is more skilled at hitting.
He also adds significant hits to our blueline.
Whereas PK needs to take a few steps to throw his famous hits, Murray just needs to be there: he does the play and the hit follow thru in a continuous motion.
There is a territory that belongs to Murray that extends 6 feet of the boards.
The fighting skills are great but I do not expect him to fight that much.
First, the team approach is not to try to intimidate.
Second, I am pretty sure that Murray will not loose his time with the opponent first line fighters: this is Parros job.
So once you have eliminated the Orr, Neil, Thornton, Scott of this list you are looking at second fighters in the opponent team.
This is where Murray's true value comes in.
Second, third and fourth fighter will have to face: Murray, Prust and Moen.
I am not expecting us to be goonish as the Leafs or Boston.
Point is that they will understand that intimidation will not work.
Ottawa: Neil, Kassian and Smith can face Parros, Murray, Moen, Prust.
Same with Orr, McLaren and Frasier.
As far as Boston is concerned, once Thornton is out, any fight with Parros, Murray, Moen, Prust against McQuaid, Lucic, Campbell and Chara makes us a winner.
Before, fights with Boston was based on toughness, now, almost any fight against the Bruins makes us a winner.
Any fighter in our team who can bring Lucic or Chara to the bench makes us a winner.
So Chara and Lucic won't be able to use intimidation as much as they used to do.
I know many complained about Laraque but when he chased Lucic around, it was bugging him.
No need to worry about Detroit, so Parros probably won't play against them.
Same applies to Florida and TBL and to Buffalo.
In the PO, it is another game and Parros won't be there.
Chara and Lucic had zero major penalties (Chara deserved a game for his sucker punch on Crosby).