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Player Discussion Matt Murray (G) - 4 years, $6.25M AAV

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It's interesting looking back at the last few coaches in Ottawa, while they had some early success how quickly things changed for them in their 2nd or 3rd yrs. It seems to me that most coaches in the NHL have similar philosophies on how they treat rookies & younger players & the contrast to how they treat older players. Clearly society is similar that the more experience you have the more you know & are trusted to do the job. Sports is slightly different in that as you age in sports the number of injuries do pile up & can quickly end a career & while you may be much more experienced you may also not be able to get around as quickly as you once could. Inexperience is a liability as is a vet who can't get around the ice quick enough. If we look at the players on the taxi squad I'm not sure they would be any better than than what they have on the roster & management has decided that a few of the better younger players need more development time in the minors.

This team needed more experience on their team to shelter the younger players, they needed to toughen up to avoid getting physically dominated & they needed to be much harder to play against & much better defensively. Has that worked for them so far? Yes & No, there are always two sides.
A few of these vets that they have brought in so far at least have been pretty much invisible, Stepan, Dadonov, Paquette, Coburn & I would add Reilly have all been disappointing. We have also seen the best & worse of Galchenyuk, he seems to have a great shot & some high skill & yet he sucks defensively & continues to find himself behind the play defensively. Murray IMO has been better than average so far, but needs more help from his teammates to protect the net.

Gudbranson IMO has been very good defensively, he blocks shots, he's very physical hitting to hurt opposing players & separating them from the puck, he can fight & he protects Chabot. While the top line & Paul has been good, the rest of the team has been mediocre at best & lousy on other nights. They need a number of players to step up, but we also have to address whether they can or whether they need to be replaced. There are just too many passengers so far on this team for them to be successful but at the same time isn't this kind of what we expected from this team & roster?
 
Sens of Anarchy said:
Just like any other goalie .. #1 stop the ones your supposed to stop.

He hasn't done that but he has made some grade A saves.

The timing of the bad goal is often the most important thing.
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Yup, thats why you could just tell Lehner was going to be good. He let in some weird ass goals but absolutely shut the door when you needed that big save.
 
Our Dzone positioning is atrocious
Our Dzone exit is a nightmare
But hey why hire Jacques as D coach who knows Murray when you can hire jack ?
 
DrSense said:
Give him 15-20 games and then let's decide. He hasn't had any help.

He does seem a tad deep in the net at times, and also a bit over committed. He slid over for one toe pad save last night in the 1st on a nice cross ice set up by Ehlers to Copp, and looked like there was a good foot of space on the left side available, while his whole left pad (covering the shooters right) was totally out of net. Had my eye brows raised, despite making the save. Just one play though. Jury is still out.
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I saw that as well. It was only a nice looking save because he was too far over.

So far Murray has not been above average IMO. A couple of very weak goals, others that we can easily point fingers at the team in front of him but where Murray wasn't even able to scramble to give himself an outside chance of a highlight reel save.

I mean, should I really feel relieved when the back-up comes in?

I'm not ready to fully pass judgement yet, I hope he gets back to inspirational form. At this point he's not looking better than Anderson. I know why the team did it, it's a bit of a gamble, but man that contract will suck if he can't find his form.
 
supsens said:
I don’t know, 4 years is a long time. Could be a bad contract
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Getting ahead of myself maybe I guess, the jury is still out on Murray and it looks like it'll probably be another tough lottery year for the team in front of him.

I was just over the moon knowing I never had to watch Anderson again. 3 bad years in a row while being well paid was enough to completely sour my opinion of him.
 
Murray is playing average our team is playing below average.

Blaming the goalie when our coach literally put white in as an energy role is craziness.

Honestly our coach is an idiot and our GM is also an idiot.

The only logical explanation and simplest is the GM put together 3 4th lines to tank.

We are purposely tanking.
 
BK201 said:
Murray is playing average our team is playing below average.

Blaming the goalie when our coach literally put white in as an energy role is craziness.

Honestly our coach is an idiot and our GM is also an idiot.

The only logical explanation and simplest is the GM put together 3 4th lines to tank.

We are purposely tanking.
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The sens aren’t paying below average. There been average overall. Two bad games and two great games
 
swisscheeseinnet-small.jpg


That's all I have to contribute to this thread.
 
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Murray has been fine so far this year. Our defense has been terrible, particularly last night. Left him out to dry on a lot of goals.

I hate the contract Dorion gave him though. Giving him 4YRs was stupid considering he's fresh off of a sub .900 SV% season.

If he sucks like last year, we've got a bad goalie getting paid an average of 7M in salary the last 3YRs of his deal. Good luck moving that deal.

Should have given him a 1-2 year bridge deal to prove he's still a good #1 before throwing big money at him.
 
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Hale The Villain said:
Murray has been fine so far this year. Our defense has been terrible, particularly last night. Left him out to dry on a lot of goals.

I hate the contract Dorion gave him though. Giving him 4YRs was stupid considering he's fresh off of a sub .900 SV% season.

If he sucks like last year, we've got a bad goalie getting paid an average of 7M in salary the last 3YRs of his deal. Good luck moving that deal.

Should have given him a 1-2 year bridge deal to prove he's still a good #1 before throwing big money at him.
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What makes you think Murray with two SC rings would come here for less than what he got when a few teams were looking for goalies? And if he didn't come here, what would Ottawa have done in net, gone with the rookie Hogberg or back to Anderson? Then people would be bitching that PD didn't get a quality goalie. Kind of stuck between a rock & a hard place.

I think most of us agreed that Ottawa was going to suck this yr & it was next season that we hope they will begin to turn it around. It's a lot to ask from Murray when our best offensive defenceman Chabot is so terrible defensively. In numerous examples last night the Sens had the puck on their sticks & failed to get the puck out of the zone with some poor decision making & weak breakout attempts. These are not the goalies fault, IMO if the defence can improve & make smarter decisions than the team should improve as well, but I don't expect this roster to make the playoffs anytime soon.
 
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aragorn said:
What makes you think Murray with two SC rings would come here for less than what he got when a few teams were looking for goalies? And if he didn't come here, what would Ottawa have done in net, gone with the rookie Hogberg or back to Anderson? Then people would be bitching that PD didn't get a quality goalie. Kind of stuck between a rock & a hard place.

I think most of us agreed that Ottawa was going to suck this yr & it was next season that we hope they will begin to turn it around. It's a lot to ask from Murray when our best offensive defenceman Chabot is so terrible defensively. In numerous examples last night the Sens had the puck on their sticks & failed to get the puck out of the zone with some poor decision making & weak breakout attempts. These are not the goalies fault, IMO if the defence can improve & make smarter decisions than the team should improve as well, but I don't expect this roster to make the playoffs anytime soon.
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We didn't need to sign him to a big contract to get him here, we traded for him. Was in favor of it, just don't like the contract.

He was an RFA, not a UFA. His bargaining position was limited. Couldn't leave unless he wanted to sit out the entire season.

We took on a big risk with little upside with that deal.
 
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Hale The Villain said:
We didn't need to sign him to a big contract to get him here, we traded for him. Was in favor of it, just don't like the contract.

He was an RFA, not a UFA. His bargaining position was limited. Couldn't leave unless he wanted to sit out the entire season.

We took on a big risk with little upside with that deal.
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Well, how well do players play when they are pissed off about their contracts? IMO they gave him that contract to make him happy with the hopes that he is comfortable here when the team begins to peak. If they would have offered less he might just leave as soon as he could or ask to be traded or been a problem. Isn't it better to play a longer game with a proven goalie than constantly trying another goalie to see if he can be The Man at a cheap price? I just don't think they had a lot of options & wanted him to want to be here too, they have had enough locker room problems last yr without creating another one this yr.
 
aragorn said:
Well, how well do players play when they are pissed off about their contracts? IMO they gave him that contract to make him happy with the hopes that he is comfortable here when the team begins to peak. If they would have offered less he might just leave as soon as he could or ask to be traded or been a problem. Isn't it better to play a longer game with a proven goalie than constantly trying another goalie to see if he can be The Man at a cheap price? I just don't think they had a lot of options & wanted him to want to be here too, they have had enough locker room problems last yr without creating another one this yr.
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This isn't a charity. We should pay players more than they are worth just to avoid them becoming disgruntled.
 
aragorn said:
Disgruntled players have ruin a number of seasons here in Ottawa.
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Problem is his numbers last season were not good. No where close to earning a contract as large as he got. Dorion shouldn't have been in a rush to lock him down for so long. Anyone who watched him last season saw he wasnt the same goalie who won 2 cups.

If he pouts and gets disgruntled about wanting a longer deal, thats not a guy you want on your team
 
aragorn said:
Well, how well do players play when they are pissed off about their contracts? IMO they gave him that contract to make him happy with the hopes that he is comfortable here when the team begins to peak. If they would have offered less he might just leave as soon as he could or ask to be traded or been a problem. Isn't it better to play a longer game with a proven goalie than constantly trying another goalie to see if he can be The Man at a cheap price? I just don't think they had a lot of options & wanted him to want to be here too, they have had enough locker room problems last yr without creating another one this yr.
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I think they gave him that contract because within that 4 year window they feel they can compete for a cup and having a 2 time cup winner is a piece of the puzzle
 
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Guys..where were you last season (the 19-20 and 2020 bubble)? There was a ton of chatter about a head injury. And about him not being the same.

Why was a 26 year old, 2 time cup winner available? And for a second round only? Are you kidding...He should have been an untouchable, or at least fetched a King's ransom.

Then everyone got overjoyed at him signing here for 4 years...Are you kidding again? He must have been tripping over his own feet rushing to sign.

Pascal Leclaire all over again. Enjoy the next 2-3 year.
 
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Sens of Anarchy said:
I wonder if he'll be left unprotected in the expansion draft
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If the team had a good reputation they could do this as a “best for the team” thingy, but they can’t. Management doesn’t have enough clout to do that. They’d get roasted.
 
Sens of Anarchy said:
I wonder if he'll be left unprotected in the expansion draft
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Kind of a waste to protect him to be honest.. if Seattle wants to take on that contract I would let them.

I know it's only 4 games in and he could put it together, I just don't see it though. Andy let some questionable goals in but he also could steal games for us. There's still time to change opinions tho.
 
He hasn't been bad...but he also hasn't been making the big saves when we need them. But he also isn't getting much defensive help from the rest of the team, either.

I'd say my only real criticism, is that he doesn't look confident in the net. Looks like he's already a bit shell-shocked.
 
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