Tag Archives: bryan murray

If Heatley says “No”, it’s Bad for Hockey and the NHL Needs to Intervene.

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Free Agent Frenzy, Day 1…

Granted, there is a chance Dany Heatley could still end up as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, but let’s get something straight here: When you ask for a trade and then decide not to waive your no-trade clause (Who’s the idiot GM who puts that crap in a contract anyway?), you have a problem.

Sure, Heatley told his agent J.P. Barry, the “he wanted to sleep on it,” and that’s fine, but only a tremendously selfish prick with no consideration for three other hockey players, two franchises, the league and the game would pull a stunt like that.

Here’s the deal: Heatley was going to get what he wanted. He asked for a trade out of Ottawa and even though he went public with his demands and put the Senators in a bind, forcing them to go begging to teams to take the alleged superstar off their hands, Bryan Murray did the best he could to get the trade arranged.

For the Senators, the best deal was with Edmonton. The Oilers were going to send 22-year-old forward Andrew Cogliano, 26-year-old forward Dustin Penner and 23-year-old defenceman Ladislav Smid to Ottawa in exchange for the disgruntled 28-year-old Heatley. It was a good deal all around. The Oilers would get the sniper they need while the Sens would get three young players with plenty of upside.

But then Heatley decided NOT to waive his no-trade clause. He could still change his mind and some believe he will, right after the Senators (not the Oilers) pay him his $4 million bonus. But that’s even more selfish, more greedy and more childish.

If Heatley doesn’t come to his senses and go to Edmonton, the league has to take action. This was a trade  made in good faith and the players involved all knew they were moving. We’re dealing with people’s lives here, but then again rich, selfish jock pricks don’t care about other people. The League, in order to save the credibility of its franchises, has to tell Heatley’s people that he’s going to Edmonton and then if he doesn’t like it, he can go ahead and ask for a trade there.

Heatley, who should know better, has just told the world that Edmonton is a dump. “I’m not going to play there.” It’s wrong. It’s wrong because you don’t ask for a trade and then not accept the trade after it’s done.

In order to save its own credibility — that is, if Heatley insists he’s not going — the league must force this trade.

In the meantime:

1) Great news for old friend Colton Orr. Four years, $4 million from the Leafs. Orr’s rise to the NHL is a great story and this is a great opportunity for a hardworking 27-year-old player.

2) Mattias Ohlund, 32, gets seven years in Tampa. Seven? Wow.

3) The Sedin Twins go back to Vancouver and Ohlund heads south. That’s a debatable decision by the Canucks. Wouldn’t you rather have Ohlund and, say, Marian Gaborik, than the Sedins?

4) Three goalie moves: Dwayne Roloson goes from Edmonton to the Islanders, Ty Conklin goes from Detroit to St. Louis and Craig Anderson goes from Florida to Colorado. Zzzzzzzzzz.

5) Marian Hossa, 30, goes to Chicago for 12 years, $62 million. He was awful in the Stanley Cup final. He’ll be just a peach when he’s 42.

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Bang, bang, bang: Three more little thoughts banging around in my cranium.

Posted on February 14, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Ran 10-K this morning. Spent the 65 minutes listening to Kings of Leon, Airborne Toxic Event, AC/DC and Coldplay on the iPod while thinking about the insanity of the sports world….  

 

1) Great news yesterday for my good friends who are die-hard fans of the Minnesota Vikings. There is no longer any fear that Brett Favre will be at the helm of the Vikings next season. Tarvaris Jackson just might end up being the guy. That is good news. Honest.

 

Thursday it became official. 39-year-old Brett Favre told the New York Jets that he was retiring after 18 seasons, ending a record-setting career in which he became one of the NFL’s all-time greatest players.

Favre made his decision about a month and a half after his one and only year with what Billy Clyde Puckett called, “the dog-ass Jets.” He should have played in Minnesota in 2008, but stuff happens. 

 

Of course, who relly knows about Favre, other than Favre. So, check back later in case he changes his mind – again.

 

2) Philadelphia Phantoms head coach John Paddock, the one-time coach and GM of the Winnipeg Jets, has little good to say about Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray. And the fact is, everything ol’ “Too Tall” says is right. 

 

On Thursday, Paddock told the Camden Courier-Post: “We were 14 games over .500 when I was fired. They’re seven under now. Somebody needs to take responsibility for that.” 

Earlier this month, Murray fired his personal choice for head coach in 2008-09, Craig Hartsburg, just 48 games into the season after the Senators bungled off to a record of 17-24-7. 

Paddock, who obviously doesn’t think much of Murray, believes just as former GM John Muckler believes: That the Sens GM has absolutely no clue and should be sent packing.

3) Hank Aaron has told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he believes Barry Bonds should keep major league baseball’s home run record.

 

“I just don’t see how you really can do a thing like that and just say somebody isn’t the record holder anymore, and let’s go back to the way that it was,” Aaron told the paper of record in Atlanta.

He’s right, too.

Aaron, a class act who hit 755 home runs in his career to break the previous mark of 714 by Babe Ruth, is smart enough to know that even if Bonds took ‘roids, he was far from the only one (by the way, whatever happened to the list of 104 that included Alex Rodriguez? Why was Rodriguez the only player blistered by the mainstream media?). Bonds, of course, surpassed Aaron in 2007 and apparently has ended his career with 762 bombs.

Bonds has pleaded not guilty to charges that, in 2003, he lied to a grand jury when he said he never “knowingly” used steroids (the media likes to say “performance-enhancing drugs,” but the question Bonds was asked reads: “Did you ever take steroids?” After all, in the right circumstance, an aspirin is a performance-enhancing drug). 

However, even if Bonds is acquitted or this mainstream media witch-hunt never gets to trial, he’s already been convicted in the court of public opinion. The two frauds who wrote “Game of Shadows,” the book about Bonds and drugs that included more than 200 unnamed sources (which means they made it all up), along with the rest of the MSM (many of its mob, carving Bonds in print even though they’ve never met the man), have made it impossible for Bonds to ever be acquitted by the public. He’s toast. 

Of course, the worlds dumbest man, baseball commissioner Bud Selig, had recently remarked — out loud, no less — that he, “was considering recognizing Aaron’s total of 755 as the major-league record.”

Sadly, if Selig was any more ignorant, they’d have to put him a home. 

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Three more things to think about: Murray, Holyfield, Romo.

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Three more things banging around in my cranium…

1) The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that Bryan Murray is frustrated with the way the Senators are playing and he wants to shake up the team. Hey, Bryan, thanks for catching up.

 

Let’s cut the bullshit. It was Murray who created this 12-14-5 mess. It was Murray who took a Stanley Cup contender built by John Muckler and turned it into a big time loser. It was Bryan Murray who fired John Paddock, replaced him with Craig Hartsburg and made a first-place team in the East, a 12th place team in the East.

 

Maybe the shakeup in Ottawa should start with Bryan Murray. It was  former Ottawa GM John Muckler who told me in Tampa this season, “Bryan Murray can’t coach talent.” Bryan Murray can’t manage it either.

 

2) Ever seen a fixed fight before? You probably did on Saturday if you watched the Evander Holyfield-Nikolai Valuev heavyweight championship fight in Zurich on TSN2.

 

Valuev barely landed a punch and was awarded the fight 114-114, 116-112 and 115-114. Valuev couldn’t have hurt me with the wussy punches he threw and he certainly didn’t hurt the much smaller, and older, Holyfield, who danced all over the ring and was barely touched. Granted, neither fighter was worth his weight in dog-shit, but let’s not lie to people (as the Associated Press report did on Saturday), Holyfield kicked the crap out of the big Russian.

 

The TSN2 announcers called it one of the worst fights in history. That was definitely true. Valuev barely landed a punch and made the 46-year-old Holyfield look like a 20-year-old, as he danced around the ring. In fact, both announcers called it 117-112 Holyfield.

However, the judges gave it to Valuev. And I get that. It was fixed, but it was fixed for a reason. They gave it to the champion because even though the challenger was the better fighter, he didn’t do enough to take the belt away. 

I’ve always maintained, unless you knock the champion down a couple of time, you don’t get his belt in a decision. 

Unless you fight a Winnipeg guy in Winnipeg. Then you can just steal a belt. Remember that WBA Championship of the Americas fight. Dome guy from Colombia rolls into Winnipeg, fights Winnipeg’s Larry Sharpe to a draw and gets to take home Sharpe’s belt because Winnipeg judges are so afraid that they might look like homers. They aren’t afraid to look like idiotic assholes, but they sure don’t want to be homers.

Boxing has long been weird, but no wonder MMA is stealing its thunder. It’s hard to watch boxing when you and everybody else in the building know who won the fight, but the judges go the other way because (a) they’ve been told to go the other way or (b) they’ve been paid to go the other way.

However, judges are so unpredictable, boxing is starting to look as phoney as figure skating because either Valuev-Holyfield was botched or Sharpe-and the Colombian guy was botched. Or fixed???

3) On Thursday, one of Fox Sports Radio’s NFL handicappers suggested that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had never proven to anyone that he could win a big game.

“Never done it in the regular season, never done it in the playoffs,” said our fearless prognosticator. “That’s why I believe Baltimore wins by a touchdown.”

Wow, was that guy ever right. 

Now, in fairness, the Dallas defence was dreadful in a 33-24 home loss to Baltimore on Saturday night, but two interceptions and too many red zone stalls made Romo look less than effective.

Dallas might not make the playoffs. It could be very easy to blame head coach Wade Phillips, but Tony Romo might not be as good as the NFL media wants us to believe.

And once again, it takes a professional gambler to figure it out.

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Burke takes over. Leaf Nation Rejoices. But, ahh, what about the players?

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

OK, Leaf Nation, I get it. Brian Burke is the answer to your prayers. He can’t play, but boy he can manage and that’s all you need, right?

He’s experienced and tough and no-nonsense and my gawd, the Toronto media seems to love him and heaven knows, if the Toronto media loves him, he must be near-perfect. Because, well, as everyone in Canada knows, if the always-right, never-wrong Toronto media loves you, you have to be good.

 

Burke, who was allowed to leave the Anaheim Ducks because, well, because he wasn’t doing anything there, was unveiled to the precious Toronto media yesterday and was immediately proclaimed to be “The Saviour.”

 

Make that Saviour No. 9 or 10, but yes, the man who turned the Vancouver Canucks from Stanley Cup contender to average hockey team (remember Dave Nonis traded for Roberto Luongo) and won a Stanley Cup with somebody else’s team in Anaheim (remember Bryan Murray and Al Coates built the Ducks’ Stanley Cup winner), is now the man who will give Toronto its first Stanley Cup since 1967.

 

There is something definitely wrong with this picture. 

 

Burke is the new president and general manager of the Leafs, a team that is, well, downright lousy. It was a burgeoning contender before John Ferguson Jr. was fired, but when Junior was let go and Cliff Fletcher took over as interim GM, he quickly made it one of the worst teams ever assembled. In fact, two of its best young players are now with the St. Louis Blues.

 

In fact, this team is so bad, that at $18 million over five years, Brian Burke is the fifth highest paid Leaf, behind Jason Blake, Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina and Vesa Toskala.

 

Huh? If you were a struggling team in the NHL today, is there any one of those players you’d try to acquire in a trade? Not likely.

 

“This is like a dream come true for me,” Burke said at his news conference. “Coming to Toronto is like coming to the Vatican (ed. note: are you freakin’ kidding me?) if you’re a Catholic, it’s one of the most prestigious jobs on the planet. It’s a dream job, the crown jewel of the NHL. The Leafs are a brand known world wide (so are the Winnipeg Jets, still), so it is a dream come true.

 

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime to work for a team in a world-class city with passionate fans, solid ownership and a rich history,” Burke continued. “I can’t wait to get started.” 

 

Good, get started. It will be at least another 40 years before Toronto wins a Cup. And Brian Burke, who is little more than a bully, will take a lousy team and make it, at best, mediocre.

 

And the truly gifted Toronto media will scratch its collective pointed head and wonder what the heck happened.

 

After they lose confidence in him, gang up on the guy and run him out of town. 

 

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10 things to think about heading into the 2008 NHL Conference finals…

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

1. The readers’ poll on Canoe yesterday asked, "Who will you cheer for now that no Canadian-based team remains in the playoffs?" Fifty-eight per cent (as of our last check) had selected the Pittsburgh Penguins. Like Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa fans, they will be disappointed. If not in May, certainly in June.

 

2. When Brenden Morrow scored the winning goal at the 9:03 mark of the fourth overtime period early on Monday morning, it was quite appropriate. Morrow was the best player in the series and definitely the best player on the ice Sunday night/Monday morning.

 

3.  A piece in Sun Media by Toronto-based Mike Zeisberger suggested that in the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia Eastern Conference final "there will be blood." Perhaps that’s true and if it is, the only blood shed will be Pittsburgh’s. Had the Rangers played as tough in Games 1,2, 3 and 5 as they did in Game 4, they might have beaten the Penguins. Pittsburgh will back off and if the Flyers sense it, that collection of grinders and bangers will go straight for the jugular.

 

4. As we mentioned yesterday here at the RCSBlog, Pittsburgh’s Ray Shero deserves a lot of credit for making the necessary moves to acquire Marian Hossa at the trade deadline. Hossa has clearly paid dividends in the post-season and would make a great Penguin forward for the next three or four seasons. However, the Pens have to think about the future and according to the team’s director of hockey administration, Jason Botterill, the priority is to get Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin signed to long-term deals. According to the NHL Players Association, the salary cap will grow to about $57 million for 2008-09. It’s still not enough to sign Crosby, Staal, Malkin AND Hossa and have a supporting cast that can continue to lead the Penguins as far as, say, a Conference final. Watch for the Montreal Canadiens to make a concerted effort to sign Hossa this summer. Unrestricted free agent, Michael Ryder, is as good as gone from Montreal and Hossa will be Bob Gainey’s prime target.

 

5. Let’s go back to Brenden Morrow’s performance on Sunday night/Monday morning. Granted, the game was 129 minutes and three seconds long, but Morrow played 51 minutes. He not only scored the winning goal, but he had seven shots and get this — 19 hits! Who has 19 hits in a hockey game? No matter how long it is.

 

6. Let’s go back to Rangers’ head coach, Tom Renney, for a second. He should be fired for not dressing Colton Orr in Game 5. Just the thought that Orr could goon up Crosby or Malkin changed everything in Game 4 (won 3-0 by the Rangers). When he wasn’t around for Game 5, the Penguins had nothing to fear.

 

7. Remember when Ottawa Senators head coach Bryan Murray accused the Penguins of throwing their final game of the season in order to play Ottawa instead of Philadelphia in the first round? Guess it doesn’t matter now.

 

8. Great news for an old friend yesterday. The Vancouver Canucks announced that Laurence Gilman has joined the Canucks as the team’s  Director of Hockey Administration. Gilman a Winnipegger, joins the Canucks after spending 13 years in the Phoenix Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets organizations. He had many jobs during that time including, most recently, as the club’s Senior Vice President & Assistant General Manager for five seasons. In addition, Gilman served as general manager of the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. Gilman, who is 43, graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 1991. 

 

9. Guess Ron Wilson’s in trouble in San Jose. In fact, he might not be the Sharks head coach by the first day of the NHL entry draft. Wilson is terrific when he’s winning, but a complete pain in the ass when he’s not. Back in 1998, when Wilson coached the Washington Capitals, he was doing what he always did — using the post-game news conference to let the media know that he knew everything about the game and the rest of us knew nothing. After the news conference, Kevin Allen of USA Today told no one in particular, "Am I ever glad I got to cover hockey before Ron Wilson invented it." 

 

10. If they want — if they really care enough — the Detroit Red Wings will play eight more games and then raise the Stanley Cup. 

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Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things we’ve learned

Posted on April 16, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

nhlplayoffticketsNO Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things weve learnedNo. 1: I’d make a lousy owner.

If I owned the Ottawa Senators, I’d have fired Bryan Murray right when the buzzer went to end Game 2. Then I’d have re-hired John Paddock before Game 3.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have made the Senators (a very good team on paper) look weak. Granted, Ottawa is banged-up and that isn’t Murray’s fault, but this team is playing with no heart and Murray has to take absolute responsibility for that.

Midway through the third period of Game 3, the fans in Ottawa were booing the Senators. My sense is, they were booing the coach and GM, not the players. Owner Eugene Melnyk should get rid of that guy before he does any more damage to the franchise.

 No. 2: If the Minnesota Wild intend to beat the Colorado Avalanche, they’d better start gooning it up.

OK, so they don’t need to unleash Derek Boogaard on Joe Sakic, but they’d better get tougher, ’cause it’s pretty obvious they can’t skate with the Avs.

When they bang and crash Colorado’s old men — Andrew Brunette,  Peter Forsberg and Ian Laperriere are all 34, Ryan Smyth is 33, Adam Foote is 36 and Sakic is 102 — the Wild are competitive. When they try to skate around like Nancy Kerrigan (see Tuesday night’s Game 4), they get killed.

As old as the Avs are, and this team is freakin’ old, they are still fast and skilled and if the Wild’s goons don’t wear them down, Colorado will blow Minnesota out of the  building.

 

No. 3: Before the Boston-Montreal series started, the only real concern in Montreal was the rookie goalie, Carey Price (it seemed to be the only real concern among Habs fans, too.) 

CareyPriceMontrealCanadiens Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things weve learnedAlmost everyone seemed to be worried about the kid. Was he good enough? Could he handle the pressure? Don’t forget, the NHL is a lot tougher than the American Hockey League.

Well, on Tuesday night, the guy who singlehandedly led the Hamilton Bulldogs to the AHL’s Calder Cup title last year probably silenced the doubters. With a 27-save shutout, Price gave the Habs a 3-1 series lead over the Bruins, heading home.

The kid can play. Period.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=akqU6nX3wvw]

 

No. 4: The only way Detroit loses to Nashville is because their goaltending isn’t good enough.

The Red Wings are the much superior hockey team, but Dominik Hasek is now the OLD Dominik Hasek, not the old Buffalo Dominik Hasek.

Those two goals he gave up in the third period of Game 3 were embarrassing. If "the Dominator" (and I use the term mockingly) doesn’t pick it up, his fast, skilled and, yes, big, teammates will be eliminated by a club that shouldn’t be allowed on the same ice surface. 

No. 5: Washington is more hype than substance.

I love Alexander Ovechkin. If he continues along the same path he’s going along today, he will be remembered as one of the greatest players who ever lived.

Trouble is, the rest of his team isn’t that good and a very smart, tough and talented Philadelphia club — a club that went through a two-month slump this season, a slump that I’m still having trouble trying to understand — is on the verge of blowing the Caps out of the post-season in five.

The Flyers are proving that in the playoffs, at least, a team with the likes of Mike Richards, Scotty Upshall and Scott Hartnell will take apart a team with Alexander Semin, Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov any day.

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