Murray relieves himself of the power play

[F Keenan]

By Jeremy Rutherford
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/03/2009

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — When the Blues' power play finished 30th in the NHL two seasons ago, Andy Murray felt there was a need for change, so he took over the coaching duties from assistant Ray Bennett.

The Blues prospered on the power play last season, ascending to eighth in the league.

But the unit has fallen back to 30th this season, and whatever Murray has tried to improve it hasn't worked. The changes have been both structural and in personnel, including removing Paul Kariya for a stretch of games. MORE BLUES


So now Murray has removed himself. He handed the power-play duties back to Bennett and fellow assistant coach Rick Wamsley before the Blues faced the Dallas Stars on Nov. 25.

"The power play wasn't working," Murray said. "It wasn't the message that was being given. The whole thing wasn't working. So I thought it would be good to change. It's team coaching. At times, I'll have Ray speak in front of the team and I'll have 'Wammer' speak. At this point, I wanted them speaking to the power-play guys."

Murray said he was not coaxed into the move by Blues management. "It was entirely my decision," Murray said. "In fact, I didn't even consult Larry (Pleau) or John (Davidson) ... I just did it myself.

"Nobody told me the year before, 'You need to take the power play over.' I just felt that I needed to do it, and this time, I felt it was good timing for Ray and Wammer to take it over."

Murray called the change a "non-issue."

"When everybody talked about me running it last year, if you remember, I said it was a non-issue," he said. "Ray did a great job. I basically said (last year) that I'm not doing it any different than Ray was. We had some guys that were scoring on their opportunities. I think it's just good to do different things, and that's what we're doing here."

The Blues were operating at 12.2 percent on the power play before the change in Dallas. Since then, they are two for 11 (12.9 percent).

"It mixes things up a bit," said Blues forward Brad Boyes, who has one power-play goal this season after scoring 16 last season. "We've got different views from two guys now. I think that's the biggest thing ... it brings in a different perspective.

"A couple of years ago, it wasn't working and Andy came in and it worked. We're changing it back and see if that works. I don't think it's any more than that."

Boyes said that there is some structural change on the new power play. "We've changed some of the positions around, some of the roles for different guys," he said. "We're just trying to have more of a five-on-five mentality with loose pucks, more guys chasing the puck down ... work on retrieval."

Said Murray: "We're emphasizing the same things. We want shots from the point. We want somebody screening in front. The emphasis is the same. Everything they're doing now, we've done at one time or another."

[deadphish]

What a poor piece of propaganda. I'm not buying into this. This is a smokescreen or something. Something big is gonna happen soon.

[TSUCookieMonster]

Step 1: Murray relieves himself of the power play
Step 2: ???
Step 3:

Totally not cool though, all I saw was "Murray Relieves Himself of..." then clicked immediately. I just prayed that when I opened the thread it would say "...Coaching Duties".

Not so lucky I guess.

[Oz-iz-God]

So 2 years ago Bennett ran the power play and it was absolutely awful.

Murray takes over, it sucks significantly less.

When it starts to suck again, we give the reigns back to the guy that screwed it up so badly the last time around?

So exactly what is that supposed to accomplish? It's not as though we just brought in a ringer for our PP, we just gave responsibility back to a guy we previously determined wasn't capable of handling said responsibility.

I'm really starting to get pissed at Davidson and Co. They need to step in and take care of this immediately.

[kodos]

More like...



Murray relieves himself on the powerplay.

Am I right??!?

[Sweetred95ta]

Since when does 2/11 = 0.129 (referring to the article stating we're 2 for 11 since the Mur stepped down, which is 12.9%)? 2/11 = 0.182. Geez. So, he's relinquishing his responsibilities one by one until a replacement can just be painlessly slipped in, correct?

[WaukeeBlues]

More like...



Murray relieves himself on the powerplay.

Am I right??!?

I think he's sh*t on it too...

[Cabby]

Step 1: Murray relieves himself of the power play
Step 2: ???
Step 3:

Totally not cool though, all I saw was "Murray Relieves Himself of..." then clicked immediately. I just prayed that when I opened the thread it would say "...Coaching Duties".

Not so lucky I guess.

Step 1: Collect Underpants
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit

[JWatt (formerly PMS)]

More like...



Murray relieves himself on the powerplay.

Am I right??!?

You beat me to it.

[JWatt (formerly PMS)]

More like...



Murray relieves himself on the powerplay.

Am I right??!?

You beat me to it.

Or how about

[thedoc]

Why couldn't Murray do us all a favor and relieve himself of his coaching responibilities and move back to LA with Brewer in tow. Just a thought.

[ohio BLUES]

What TSUCookieMonster said.

[not_a_wings_fan]

We were pretty much a one trick pony on the PP last year, and no one lets us do our trick anymore.

It was time for someone else to coach it, but I would have rather seen the organization buck up for another coach specifically brought in to work the pp.

course, I am also for the org bucking up and bringing in another coach...

It needs to get sorted out because it is certainly costing us games.

[Sweetred95ta]

We were pretty much a one trick pony on the PP last year, and no one lets us do our trick anymore.

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

[deadphish]

We were pretty much a one trick pony on the PP last year, and no one lets us do our trick anymore.

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

[not_a_wings_fan]

We were pretty much a one trick pony on the PP last year, and no one lets us do our trick anymore.

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

winnar winnar chicken dinnar!

... even last year I kept asking myself how the Blues kept making that play on so many teams.

In thinking about powerplays of the past, it seems like no one is respecting our shots from the point yet and that really takes away any action down low. We don't have the luxury of lethal 100mph slappers from either point like we once did, but we aren't as limp as we were last year. What I do notice is that we rarely get off one-timers from the point, and that's where I would spend my practice time - getting familiar with where and how to play the puck so the point guys could uncork before the goalie has the time to adjust.

[deadphish]

We were pretty much a one trick pony on the PP last year, and no one lets us do our trick anymore.

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

You wouldn't be referring to a one-timer by Boyes from the right face off circle, would you??

[glen a richter]

I thought Johnson was supposed to QB the power play? Mismanagement of the strengths of the kids? That can't have Murray stamped all over it...