Posts Tagged ‘Bob Murray’

Burke is back

Posted: 02/21/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Anaheim Ducks have announced that former Vice-President and General Manager has accepted a position as a part-time scout with the team.

Via AnaheimDucks.com:

“We are happy to welcome Brian back to the organization,” said Ducks Executive Vice President/General Manager Bob Murray. “Anytime you can add a person of his quality to your staff, it makes your organization better. We’ve had success working together before and look forward to doing it again.”

Burke returns to the Ducks after originally serving as Executive Vice President/General Manager from 2005-08. Over his three-plus seasons with the organization, the Ducks captured their first Stanley Cup (2007), first Pacific Division title (2007) and first two 100+ point seasons (2006-07 & 2007-08). The Ducks also qualified for the postseason in all three seasons, winning six of eight playoff series over that span.

The scouting role was not clearly defined in our Ducks press release. Brian Burke could be doing anything from scouting upcoming teams on the schedule, players that are offered in trade, our own players in the minors and/or draft prospects.

Let’s just hope our Ducks don’t start a losing streak Sunday.

 

A self serving really ticked off post

Posted: 01/15/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Last season this blog noted that Jonas Hiller was battling those vertigo symptoms. I suspected it because I’ve had my bell ring a few times and know how being not quite right affects your game. Additionally, Hiller was having trouble with the same kind of shot. He was letting those long, unobstructed view shots get past him.
I’ll find links from this blog and post them up later. Right now I’m just ticked. Why? Because last season OCR’s Mark Whicker is on Duck Calls with Josh Brewster. So I call in and share the idea and observation. Brewster mocks the suggestion saying that he’s not a brain surgeon and Whicker backs him saying he hasn’t seen anything.

So today I’m reading Ducks News and Murphy is quoted, ”As far as goaltending, Hillsy [Jonas Hiller] struggled at the start of last year. The heads thing just hadn’t gone away.”

The team knew that Hillsy was still battling symptoms but they managed to keep it from the media.  Bob Murphy does run a tight ship information wise. Corporate media for its part takes the attitude that its easier to dismiss a blogger/caller.  See media people treat us like we don’t know the sky is blue until the weather guy says so.

The point is you can trust this blog. Fact is I’ve forgotten more about hockey than most people ever learn (including some media pros) and I’ll always give ya the straight skinny.

Maybe that’s because my only interest is bringing you closer to the game. And oh yeah, if you really know your stuff, it isn’t necessary to put down callers to your radio show and posters on your blog. You take their ideas out for a walk and build on them. That’s how we play here.

Meet our Ducks newest ECHL affiliate

Posted: 08/30/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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If Bob Murray is looking to reestablish the Big Bad Ducks affiliating with the Fort Wayne Komets is a good place to start. Ever since Ernie Berg entered the Komets in the old ‘I’ back in 1952-53, the team has reflected the tough as nails blue-collar nature of the city.
Now entering their 61st season and first in the ECHL, these Komets have strong ties with Anaheim. Coach Boudreau played there and former Ast. Coach Al Sims is the current head coach.

Quick hits: In defense of Bob Murray and a bag of chips

Posted: 07/11/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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via Ducks Daily Blog -

As you have probably noticed, a “Fire Ducks’ GM Bob Murray” petition has been making its rounds through the twitterverse lately, fueled by writers over at Anaheim Calling. It recently picked up even more steam when Puck Daddy spotlighted the endeavor. As of the time of this writing, it has gathered over 300 signatures.

Dobias chronicles the positives that have occurred under Murray’s watch. It’s a good read.

via BackCheck @SlashSkater on Twitter -

SlashSkaterSlashSkater

Hey Jared, as a law clerk your eloquent, though half-hearted defense of Barstool Bob is the best I’ve read to date.
It is the conventional view that Burke left our Ducks in a cap-challenged mess, we don’t know what Burke would have done to resolve it. IE, I can’t imagine Burke trading Pronger, maybe he would have let Scotty retire if not for Henry “working quietly behind the scenes” Samueli.

Note: It isn’t necessary to always agree with somebody to appreciate their talent. Jared Dobias at Ducks Daily is a fine advocate.

In other news…

a real trade happened yesterday and none of the Gossip Girls had predicted it. St. Louis Blues sent depth forward BJ Crombeen and its 4th round Entry Draft pick in 2013 to Tampa Bay Lightning for the Bolts 4th round picks in 2013 and 2014.

Various corporate media sources are reporting interest in Dallas Stars power forward Brendan Morrow. File this as plan D for those teams not acquiring one of Shane Doan, Rick Nash or Bobby Ryan. Ducks fans will recall that Coach Babcock slotted Morrow alongside Perry &  Getzlaf on Canada’s 2010 gold medal Olympic team.

NHL Trade Report reveals Rick Nash’s shortlist of teams he’d accept a trade to is reportedly the Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, and the New York Rangers.
I believe it kinda, sorta as the list makes sense. It still has the feel of a “Mom Gives Birth to Alien Love Child” tabloid story. 

UFA & Trade Tracker

Posted: 06/27/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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All the tools for covering today’s moves are up and running. NHL Network TV coverage is set to start in 32 minutes. Five open tabs bookmarked to this blog, its email& Twitter accounts, THN and tsn.ca.

First Happy Canada Day to Canucks everywhere. What better way for Canada to  celebrate it’s birthday then have it coincide with UFA season in the NHL? Maybe, Jack Kent Cooke, first owner of the Kings said, “I bought the Kings because they (NHL) told me that there were one-half million Canadians living in Los Angeles. What they didn’t tell me is that they moved here because the hate hockey.”

Knocking off at 1:34pm for a bit….

Bob McKenzie ‏@TSNBobMcKenzie P.A. Parenteau to COL, 4 yrs, $16M total.
Great move for the AVS. It’s kinda tough seeing all the guys I’d hoped might be Ducks sign elsewhere. Wonder if Retired Hockey Mom is in the for a b-session? BRB….

RED ALERT: #FlaPanthers have signed RW George Parros to a two-year contract http://ow.ly/bWF2Q Welcome, @Stache16!

Chris Kuc ‏@ChrisKuc #Blackhawks have agreed to terms with defenseman Sheldon Brookbank on a two-year contract.
Retweeted by Bob McKenzie
All the best to George Parros in Florida and Sheldon Brookbank in Chicago. Parros stands a better shot at becoming an everyday player under Panthers Coach Kevin Dineen than Bruce Boudreau. Brookbank will be competing with former Duck Steve Montador for the 6th spot on Chicago’s depth chart.
Enjoyers of irony might appreciate that Monty & Brooksie are each a D who can forward that we let get away only to be replaced by an equally versatile Brad Staubitz.
For those with marking pens at the ready, tell us if the Bob is (a) treading water, (b) taking a step backward after taking two steps forward, (c) fooling anybody but himself.

Another guy who’s cause I’ve been championing, Marc Methot was just traded to the Sens for Nick Foligno. We’re talkin’ a top 9 forward, who like Andrew Cogliano can be moved up or down for short stints. Jeez I miss Bryan Murray. He loses shot blocking match up D-man Filip Kuba to free agency and within an hour replaces him with a guy who’s a younger version. Bryan Murray is a professional grade GM. Barstool Bob is well…let’s enjoy the yuks laugh at this Bozo Bob clown and hope to gawd Sammy or Shoe hear us.

Two moves of note are Adam Burrish has signed with San Jose. Sharks lost hard to play against Torrey Mitchell though Burrish is a rough grit of sandpaper with size. LW Guillaume Latendresse is given a shot to hang around on a one year deal in Ottawa. If he gets healthy he’s a bargain for the Sens.

Live from Pierre Lebrun, Filip Kuba off to Florida, Bob McKenzie affirms. Snap, he was on my Ducks wish list.

Josh Yohe ‏@JoshYohe_Trib The New York Rangers give Arron Asham two years, $2 million
Bob McKenzie ‏@TSNBobMcKenzie 2 x $1.1M for Tanner Glass with PIT. Done deal.

Ducks update - 

BREAKING: DUCKS GM BOB MURRAY SIGNS DENNY’S RECIEPT- DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Ducks update - Meet George Parros replacement Brad Staubitz. He’s a team first  guy and popular in the room. Found video on him but I was really looking to study his skating which isn’t in his fight clips. Staubitz is versatile and could play everyday as a 4th line forward or 3rd pair D. In this sense he replaces both Parros and Brookbank who weren’t quite everyday players under Coach Boudreau. The downside is he’s called out for taking stupid penalties and is tagged with repeat offender disciplinary meter outer Brendan Shanahan.
For those of you with your grading pens out, give our GM kudos for signing Staubitz. He’s certainly an upgrade on J.F. Jacques, arguably better than George Parros and possibly better than Sheldon Brookbank.

Former ‘Yote Ray Whitney signs in Dallas. Great pickup after trading Ribeiro.

I am so happy to have just agreed to a one year deal with Montreal. So pumped. My fav childhood team.
Habs get a good top 9 player to go with Travis Moen.

Ducks Update- per Darren Dreger on NHL Network, George Parros is considering 3 firm offers.  ‏@andystrickland Expect George Parros to make decision this afternoon…circling back to teams before choosing club

D Joe Corvo goes back Carolina for one year at a reported $2million. Players love living and playing in Raleigh.

#NYR have agreed to terms with defenseman Stu Bickel

AVS sign former SENS enforcer Matt Carkner. The West just got tougher. Whoa this went sideways for now. AVS announced prematurely.
Aaron Ward ‏@aaronward_nhl

Matt Carkner 3 yrs to Isles. #TSN

David Moss leaves chilly Calgary for sunny Phoeniz. Doan”s replacement?

Former Leaf G Jonas Gustavson goes to Red Wings.

Vet G Scott Clemenson re-ups for two years in Florida. Less likely Panthers looking at Brodeur.

told David Moss signs two-year deal to return to Calgary

Lightning resign top 9 LW Benoit Pouliot.

NHL ‏@NHL

RT @nhl_canes: BREAKING: Canes’ agree to terms with Jordan Staal on a 10-year, $60 million contract.
Very similar to the agreement Staal reportedly turned down in Pittsburgh. 

NHL Trade Report:

Nashville Predators have resigned center Paul Gaustad to a 4 year, $13million contract. Many Ducks fans had him on their wish lists. Who wouldn’t want a big, defensive minded match-up center who wins face offs.

Ducks Update UFA morning:

The Plan as seen from here -

THN’s Ken Campbell postulates this summer may be the last time long term contracts can be executed. Good reason for our Ducks, Getz & Pears to negotiate extensions now rather than wait for a new CBA.  Getzlaf should be mindful of what happened to James Wisniewski on the day Bob Murray signed him to an extension.
Two other recent events, sending Lubo to the Islanders and shopping Bobby Ryan open a roster spot on the blue line presumed to be filled by the asset(s) received from trading Bobby Ryan.
Whoever our Ducks sign today will indicate who is available in trade.

Ducks Update UFA Eve:

From various Ducks Blog files -

Two blurbs on the OCR’s Ducks Blog provide a peek into the strateeegerie of GM Bob Murray. Barstool Bob calls resigning both Ryan Getzlaf and Corey an imperative. He admits to sending out feelers to their respective agents. Pears’  rep is Newport Sports, the same wonderful folks who negotiate for and advise Bobby Ryan and Justin Schultz.

Is the reason trading Bobby Ryan is on the table because Getz is only signed for one year and Bobby three? 

Gabby plays the good soldier in Boudreau: Murray did “everything right” concerning Schultz.

Well duh…of course he’d say that. If you believe that you also believe that a 21 year old conned our entire Ducks org. More likely, our entire Ducks org missed some signals. The reaction (calling out Schultzie on character issues) signals the world on what a small, petulant fat cat Bob Murray has become. 

Bob Kittleberger, Bleacher Report identifies 5 moves Ducks need to consider before Barstool spends up to $30million in cap space.

Matt Vevoda reports on the draftees making their marks in conditioning camp. You can see scrimmages at The Rinks, 10:00am Monday and again on Tuesday. As of now, I plan to attend the Monday morning scrimmage but that is subject to change.

Jeff Shibley focuses his sharp eye on on the 2012 Anaheim Ducks draft review. Shibber often does his blog posts in parts so I’m always looking to forward to what he’ll say next.

via NHL Trade Report -

Dave Pollack reports San Jose Sharks aren’t expected to re-up former Duck Brad Winchester. Is he an upgrade on my homey Matt Beleskey? Winchester’s size, speed and snarl might make him an upgrade or a go to option on LW. As a player Winchester reminds me of Todd Fedoruk before the concussions.

Teemu Selanne will talk to Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray over the weekend, according to the Orange County Register.

(more…)

Murray’s lies cost us Justin Schultz and may cost us Bobby Ryan

Posted: 06/24/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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Ever heard the old saying if your word is no good, you’re no good?

Consider that two summers ago Bob Murray broke his word to Bobby Ryan and his agent, Don Meehan of Newport Sports. At the time I posted that this would come back to haunt Bob Murray and more importantly our Ducks. Today, the OCR has the first public notice of the cost of Murray’s lies. Justin Schultz is represented by Newport Sports.
As we all know, Schultz doesn’t want to play here and now we learn Bobby Ryan has asked for a trade.
Newport’s other Ducks’ client, Corey Perry.

No NHL GM can succeed without at the least the respect of player agents and the NHLPA. You earn respect by being trustworthy and credible. People have to be to rely on your word. Maybe this idea is just too simple for a reputed genius like Henry Samueli to appreciate or maybe he just condones it.

Poor Hampus Lindholm on the day he’s drafted into the NHL he’s already compared to Jake Gardiner, Justin Schultz, Matt Dumba, Derek Pouliot, Filip Forsberg Jacob Trouba and Mikhail Grigorenko. Unless he proves to be the best among that group, he’s a bust.

Ducks extend Coach Boudreau two additional years

Posted: 05/11/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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Take the lame duck tag off Gabby as GM Bob Murray continues to line up his ducks for next season. Ducks have announced that Coach Boudreau’s contract has been extended through the 2014-15 season.
“Since joining the organization last November, Bruce has done an outstanding job with the team,” said executive vice president and General Manager Bob Murray, who brought in Boudreau when he fired Randy Carlyle on November 30th. “He’s committed to us and determined to lead us back to the playoffs.”
Boudreau was originally under contract with Anaheim through the 2012-13 season.
“It’s always great that the General Manager and ownership have that much faith in you, and it’s my job to justify it,” Boudreau said via the team’s Twitter account.
Boudreau led the Ducks to a 27-23-8 record in 58 games after taking over for Carlyle, including a 24-15-6 mark after January 1st that ranked fifth in the Western Conference.
“I think this team has just started going where we want to go,” Boudreau said. “We competed with all the teams that are in the playoffs now.”

The Ducks raised the hopes of all fans with an improbable 17-3-3 run to start the new year. The incredible streak came after Bob Murray announced his only untouchables were Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu. The team went 3-6-1 after they got past the trade deadline.
Gabby has some passengers in this boat. Not everybody is grabbing an oar and rowing in the same direction. His first challenge will be to get the slackers to buy in to the program. If not, expect Bob Murray to be busy at the 2013 trade deadline.

Saku Koivu earns a raise as production declines

Posted: 05/10/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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According to Google News OCR’s Eric Stephens was first to report that our Ducks and Saku Koivu had agreed to a one year bonus laden contract with a base of $3million. It represents a $500k increase on his base pay from last season.
At the time of this posting all 105 Google News articles are derivative from Ice’ original report. The eyebrow raiser is the increase in base pay. It’s very rare that a veteran with declining production gets a raise. Especially on a one year contract. In that sense Bob Murray’s comment might be illuminating.
Also noteworthy is that our Ducks first signing of this financial season partly addresses team leadership.
“Saku is a character player and someone we really wanted to keep,” Ducks Executive VP/GM Bob Murray said. “We need three strong lines next season that can produce, and Saku will be a part of that.”

Our Ducks also honored and respected Koivu’s request that a contract get done before the end of May when his family returns to Finland for the summer. Obviously bringing him back settles one question going forward. Ducks appear set at center for 2012-13. The operative word is appear though.
During the throws of our Ducks horrible November & December Teemu Selanne challenged the team. In December, new coach Bruce Boudreau openly discussed limiting Ryan Getzlaf’s scope of responsibility as captain.
During the more conversation than negotiation on bringing back Sak, the gritty and smooth skating Finn said, “Talking with Bob and hearing his plan and also getting a very positive from the ownership, I’m confident that they are going to make a push.”
Refreshing to see the hand of Henry Samueli who usually prefers to stay quietly in the background, taking an active role in roster decisions.
On looking ahead to next season Koivu said, “It’s tough to say at this point, when you miss the playoffs this year. But if I didn’t feel confident about their view and their willingness to make the push, I would have looked somewhere else. It was very clear they want to get a team to make the playoffs and make the push in the springtime.”
Bob Murray didn’t discuss exactly where Koivu fits in the plan. “He’s definitely in the top nine forwards on any team in the league. That’s all I need to know.” It’s also a decision made by the coach, not the GM.

While it would be nice to know exactly what the pair discussed it doesn’t take a hockey genius to know where our Ducks are hurting. This signing speaks directly to the leadership challenge.
for the most in-depth look at our Ducks available, check out Off-Season Game Plan from Scott Cullen for tsn.ca.

Bob Murray sees what we see

Posted: 04/06/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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As reported by Eric Stephens, “”After the trade deadline, I thought some of the guys were relieved not to be traded and their desperation dropped off a little bit,” said Bob Murray.
This blog has noted the same thing a handful of times. We’ll never get the chance to followup with Mr. Murray because of our Ducks policy of refusing the free media access. The official policy of our Ducks is to exclude the blogosphere in favor of controlled corporate media.
In the matter of this blog, I’ve never asked for a seat in the press box. I only asked for access and participation in the post game media scrums and other press conferences. But I digress.
Murray continued, “A few of them let me down. I have to be honest.”  It wouldn’t be any deep secret to name the few though Ice never goes there in his report.
Ryan Getzlaf struggled through his second consecutive disappointing season. This is the guy who was going to lead us back to the Cup. Lubomir Visnovsky and Toni Lydman never properly rehabbed following surgeries and each battled through the effects all season. Saku Koivu was as smooth and heady as always but his production is in decline. Scoring from the back line is down by nearly half in year to year comparison.
Bob Murray is challenged in the art of communication. The all too rare times he does speak, it’s refreshing to know that we’re on the page.

In other news (more…)

LOL, forgot to title this post,

Posted: 03/06/2012 by bc in Uncategorized
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It was just one of those 30 teams in 30 words capsule that speak volumes to our Ducks. From the magnificent mind of THN’s Ken Campbell:

Anaheim: The gap between the talent level on paper and the results on the ice, on a year-by-year basis, might be the largest in the NHL.

The obvious inference is that we’re wrong about the talent level. This blog remains the only place for Ducks coverage where the transition from Brian Burke to Bob Murray included a change from a team powered from the blue line to a team powered down the middle has been chronicled. I don’t believe that I’m the only person who gets this but I’m the only blogger who’s covered it. (more…)

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