The best Matt Murray ever played came when he had to fight for his place in goal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. When there was almost no expectation of him winning Stanley Cups.
He wasn’t guaranteed anything when he showed up as a 21-year-old callup with the Pens, playing alongside a struggling Marc-Andre Fleury. He knew he wasn’t the fans’ choice to be in goal. He knew, for the most part, he wasn’t the players’ choice either.
But just after his 22nd birthday he carried the Stanley Cup for the first time and did it again one year later alongside Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and friends. It was only after the victories that Murray’s numbers began to fall. The drop came after Fleury was traded for salary cap reasons and the net belonged to the young goaltender.
The book on Murray then was he was great when he had to scrap for his position and not great when he didn’t. That eventually prompted the Penguins to trade him to Ottawa, where the Senators chose to build around him. But, after two seasons, the goalie had lost the trust of the front office, the coaching staff, and the fans. There’s nothing worse for a hockey team than a goaltender no one believes in.
And now here are the Leafs with Murray as their likely No. 1, with the goalie having been traded twice in the past three seasons, with Pittsburgh and Ottawa looking elsewhere in net — and with him possibly in competition with the equally wayward Ilya Samsonov. Two lost goalies fighting for one spot — or a tandem situation of the broken.
Murray can still play, those who know him best from Pittsburgh and Ottawa insist. But they do wonder, if he has played his best when he had to fight for the net, when he had to deal with doubt, is that not what he’ll be facing this year with the Leafs?
THIS AND THAT
Marty Biron said it first on TSN. He said the Leafs have the worst goaltending in Canada. He might be right if Carey Price is playing for Montreal. Vancouver has Thatcher Demko. Calgary has Jacob Markstrom. Edmonton has Jack Campbell. Winnipeg has Connor Hellebuyck. Ottawa has Cam Talbot. The Leafs begin with Murray and Samsonov … I will agree with Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on this: I wouldn’t have given five years to Campbell, who has yet to play a full NHL season as a starter without difficulty … Why didn’t Dubas offer Murray-like money for Fleury, who signed in Minnesota for $3.5 million? That one confuses me … I wouldn’t have given four years to versatile small forward Calle Jarnkrok, who played his best hockey for Nashville four years ago. Jarnkrok, not really a goal-scorer, scored just once in 29 games with the Flames … Calgary should sign Nazem Kadri. Imagine playing against a Flames team with Elias Lindholm centring one line, Kadri centring the second line and Mikael Backlund centring the third? No team in hockey would be deeper down the middle. The Flames think Kadri’s too expensive for their tastes, but forget money on this one; think team only. They can’t afford not to make the move … Brendan Shanahan played alongside Steve Yzerman in Detroit and Joe Sakic on Canadian Olympic teams. Now Sakic has built a Stanley Cup winner, Yzerman all but built the Tampa Bay Lightning. Shanahan, with gold medals and Cups as a player, is still looking for Sakic, Yzerman results as an executive … This is a pretty amazing number: In the 21 seasons Shanahan played in the NHL, only one player in his time accumulated more goals than his 656. That was his teammate Brett Hull … The Leafs didn’t win with Campbell in goal, with Ilya Lyubushkin on defence, with Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Spezza up front. Now they’re expected to win with less of a team … Timothy Liljegren has a new contract to pay him $1.4 million a year. Rob Thomas in St. Louis has a new contract to pay him $8 million a year. Mark Hunter’s biggest miss with the Leafs came in the 2017 NHL Draft when he wouldn’t go off the board to pick Thomas, the London forward he believed in, when the rest of the staff, including the analytics folks, including Shanahan, favoured Liljegren as the choice.
HEAR AND THERE
Memo to John Schneider, just days into his career as a major-league manager: Don’t use Anthony Banda in close games. Ever. Thank you … If you count John Gibbons twice and Cito Gaston twice, and forget the interim days of Gene Tenace and Mel Queen, Schneider is the 12th manager I’ve covered with the Jays. Jimy Williams was the first and easily forgettable. Then came Cito, Tim Johnson, Jim Fregosi, Buck Martinez, Carlos Tosca, Gibbons, Cito again, John Farrell, Gibbons again, Charlie Montoyo, and now Schneider. My favourite Jays manager: Gibbons. My least favourite: Farrell … I did spend a few days writing about the Jays when Bobby Cox was manager. So maybe the number is actually 13 …Only Gaston and Gibbons have won playoff rounds as Jays managers and only Cito has won the World Series … If the Jays want Schneider to manage the team beyond this season, they can’t just name him that right now, according to big-league rules. Because it’s essentially a new hiring, they have to go through the process of interviewing minorities for the position before they can promote Schneider to the job he already has … The Philadelphia Phillies understand that. Even if they want to name Canadian Rob Thomson as their manager for next season, they can’t do so without adhering to big-league policy … Thomson, by the way, is from the small town of Corunna, Ont., which is famous for him and Olympic gold medal-winning high jumper Derek Drouin, and not much else … The time was right to fire Montoyo. When a team doesn’t look right, it’s always the manager or the coach who pays the price … The Jays have lost just seven of Alek Manoah’s 18 starts this season. In those games, he has given up one earned run three times, two earned runs twice, and four earned runs twice, and at least one of those where his defence let him down. Four Blue Jays are going to the MLB All-Star Game. Manoah has been the best Blue Jay this season. He has made 38 big-league starts lifetime for the Jays. Toronto has won 27 of those games. Reminds me a little of the late Roy Halladay, although they couldn’t be more different as pitchers or people. In Halladay’s last eight seasons with the Jays, he lost only 60 games … I understand the logic of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. batting second and Alejandro Kirk batting third for the Jays, I just don’t love the idea of having one ordinary runner and one very slow runner hitting back-to-back.
SCENE AND HEARD
The Foster Hewitt Award goes annually to a member of the broadcasting world for his/her contribution to hockey. Essentially it is Hall of Fame recognition. But the NHL Broadcaster’s Association, which votes on the award, has deemed that the award will only go to play-by-play announcers and game analysts. This means broadcasters such as Dave Hodge, Ron MacLean, James Duthie, Don Cherry, and Scott Oake will never be considered. How do you have a Hockey Hall of Fame for broadcasters without those men recognized? The Hall needs to step in and change the rules here to open it up to all broadcasters … Rather than worry about who is managing the Blue Jays, shouldn’t Bo Bichette just play better. That may solve a few things … Claude Giroux will turn 35, 36 and 37 in his three seasons with the Senators. They like the free agent signing. I don’t … If I want to go to the U.S. by plane, I have to show that I am vaccinated. So why do Major League Baseball players treat the Canadian vaccination rules like they’re unique? The same rules exist in both countries … If I’m in an individual sport, the way Novak Djokovic is, and I choose not to get vaccinated, that’s my business. If I’m in a team sport, the way 10 members of the Kansas City Royals are, and have made a choice that affects my team, then I’m letting people down. When you agreed to play for a team you should agree to be there for every game you are able to play.
AND ANOTHER THING
An NHL man who has watched Victor Hedman’s entire career insists the Red Wings rookie of the year, Moritz Seider, is ahead of where Hedman happened to be at a similar age. There is a remarkable number of game-changing NHL defenceman under the age of 25: Seider, Norris Trophy winners Cale Makar and Adam Fox, Miro Heiskanen, Quinn Hughes and still waiting for Rasmus Dahlin and Bo Byram to totally hit their marks … I sat in the dugout the other day beside media relations man Rich Griffin, radio man Ben Wagner, and current first base coach Devon White. “Do you remember him?,” Griffin asked White about me. “Take off your mask,” White said. I took off my mask. He recognized me. “Ah, spit,” said White, who actually used a different word. Then he laughed. Sort of … Got an email yesterday with the title line: Blue Jays acquire Griffin. And all I could think of was Alfredo … My latest TV obsession: Hacks with Jean Smart. Highly recommend … When did the British Open become just The Open? Who decided to drop the British part? … This is an almost unexplainable CFL season: The East can’t win; the West can’t lose. The combined record for East teams heading into games Saturday was an improbable 2-14 … I’ve known Tom Renney for 30 or so years. I’ve always found him to be smart, well-spoken, respectful, professional, and someone worth admiring, which makes the scandal surrounding Hockey Canada all the more confounding. It’s not like the Renney I know … Happy birthday to Bryan Trottier (66), Barry Sanders (54), OG Anunoby (25), Duncan Keith (39), Ben Cahoon (50), Scott Norwood (62), Claude Lemieux (57), Adam Lind (39), Ryan Miller (42), Eric Moulds (49), Brian Fryer (69) and Don Kessinger (80) … And, hey, whatever became of Ben Curtis?
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NOT YOUR ORDINARY BRATT
Before the 2016 NHL Draft, before the Maple Leafs selected Auston Matthews with the first pick and Alex Nylander went eighth overall to the Buffalo Sabres, father Michael Nylander had a tip of sorts for the Leafs who had already drafted his son, William: Don’t pass on Jesper Bratt.
He wasn’t rated highly by Central Scouting. He didn’t have much size. He had played in the Swedish Elite League, and like a lot of teenagers didn’t necessarily fare well playing against men. But Nylander had seen enough of him in Stockholm to believe he had elite skill. He told the Leafs this — maybe he told other teams too — and the Leafs listened, and seemingly had some interest. But on draft day in Buffalo, Toronto selected eight different players after Matthews, two of whom have played some games in the NHL. None of them have developed anywhere close to the way Bratt has developed with the New Jersey Devils.
Jersey took him in Round 6, with the 162nd pick in the draft. You don’t expect to get much from players drafted in the sixth round. The Leafs took someone named Jack Walker with their first pick of the round. He last played a year ago for the Miskolci Polar Bears of the Slovak League.
Bratt, now 23, ranks sixth in scoring among all players picked n the 2016 draft. He had a breakout season with the Devils recording 73 points in 76 games, leading Jersey in both goals and assists. The Leafs, who got Matthews, Nylander, and Mitch Marner will early draft picks, haven’t had a late-round surprise of consequence since Tomas Kaberle was picked 26 years ago.
They had information on Bratt. Maybe because it was a player’s father in Nylander, they didn’t pay enough attention to the advice. Those kind of misses can be the difference between winning championships and never getting beyond a round of the playoffs.
JAYS PREZ SHAPIRO IS M.I.A., ONCE AGAIN
When Dwane Casey was fired as coach of the Raptors, Masai Ujiri, senior basketball man, made the emotional announcement with all the explanations. When Mike Babcock was fired as coach of the Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan, senior hockey man, made the announcement with all the explanations and interviews afterward.
When the Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo, club president Mark Shapiro, as is his custom, was nowhere to be found.
General manager Ross Atkins made the announcement after someone first leaked the news to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Atkins took the questions. He blamed himself for the Blue Jays difficult half-season. He tried to explain why Montoyo was let go and wasn’t exactly clear with his answers. But that’s who Atkins is; he struggles slightly being public. He tries too hard to protect the truth and speaks mostly in generalities.
Maybe Shapiro would be different — but in fairness, we don’t know. We haven’t heard enough of him or seen enough of him in his seven years with the Jays — can you believe it’s been that long? — to have any real sense of who is he, what he thinks, or how he acts. Montoyo knew the end was coming. He could feel it, even though he has yet to say so in public.
Shapiro is in charge of the Jays, who go to the all-star break playing below expectations. It’s why Montoyo was fired. The time for leaders to talk most is when crisis hits. The firing of a manager is a crisis point with any baseball team. With that, Shapiro was once again the Invisible Man.
JOHNNY HOCKEY DOESN’T OWE US AN EXPLANATION
Johnny Gaudreau doesn’t have to explain anything to anyone.
He spent eight seasons with the Calgary Flames. He more than exceeded expectations as a fourth-round draft pick. He earned his free agency — and happened to put together a remarkable 115-point season in his final year in Calgary. He became an NHL star in Alberta. He put in his time and then he left for Columbus and the Blue Jackets.
And maybe that part is a little confusing to you or me.
Why sign in Columbus when you can sign anywhere? Why sign with a historical also-ran when you may be able to contend somewhere else? We may look at the hockey part that way — why Columbus, why now, why not a contending team, and why not a team closer to your home in the Jersey-Philadelphia-New York corridor?
Often, the convenient conversations in the media don’t mirror the talk over the dinner table at home. Where do we want to live? Where do I want to play? Where do you to want to raise your children? Where do you want to be long-term?
The decisions aren’t always about hockey. They’re more about lives. They’re more about families. They’re more about house prices and neighbourboods and what feels comfortable.
Gaudreau earned the right to pick his team, his city, and his new home. That he didn’t pick what we thought or wanted or cared most about is rather insignificant. He picked what he wanted — the key term of free agency, freedom of choice.
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