Earlier today, Ottawa Senators General Manager Bryan Murray spent ten minutes speaking with the media at the Canadian Tire Centre.
And to nobody’s surprise, Murray expressed some frustration with the play of his team. Despite holding down second place in the Atlantic Division, the Sens have been anything but perfect in the early going and from Management on down, recognize that they need to be better if they want to remain in playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
In particular, Murray highlighted the struggles in their own end of the rink, specifically mentioning Patrick Wiercioch and Jared Cowen by name as players that need to be better.
He touched briefly on the possibility of a trade and sort reiterated that if anything, they are looking for a little help on the blueline. Sort of a no-brainer at this point although as we’ve discussed at length in the comment section, pretty difficult to do mid-season. And that’s probably part of the reason Murray went on to say that he still believes in this group and that the early season struggles may be a case of the current group of defenceman underachieving a little bit.
If you’re waiting for Murray to make a trade to address the issue though, it sounds like you may be waiting awhile.
As Murray explains, there’s plenty of talk but no real action on the trade front. Rumour has it the Senators asked Chicago about Trevor Daley (a defenceman that has struggled with the Blackhawks) and the asking price was one of Shane Prince or Matt Puempel and a 2nd round pick. Pretty steep. And obviously difficult for the Senators who would require that most moves be money in/money out.
Anyway, lots to take away from the always candid Bryan Murray. Video of the interview is included below, courtesy of SensTV.
