Turn that frown upside down Ottawa, the events of the last three weeks are the best thing to happen to your organization in a very long time.
Dating back to November of 2007, Bryan Murray has endured many a sleepless night wondering which bad apple is spoiling his bunch. He thought it could be Ray Emery and discarded one of the brightest young goaltenders in the NHL to test his theory. Same goes for puck-moving former all-star Wade Redden. And how badly do the Senators need a puck mover right now? The unrest within the room also burned through three head coaches, and still, the cancer persisted.
Cancers come in many different shapes and sizes in a professional sports franchise, but the attribute shared by all is an over-abundance of self-interest -- decisions made in the best interest of themselves and nobody else. With that in mind, let's review the chain of events from the past three weeks.
First, Dany Heatley blindsides not only his general manager, but his teammates and owner with a trade request that he publicly blames on someone else -- his head coach. Selfish.
Then he submits to Murray a list of "preferred destinations," making life infinitely more difficult on the Ottawa GM, who didn't exactly bring this on himself. Very selfish.
Although Edmonton was not on the list, Heatley assures Murray that he will consider the Oilers. Murray strikes a deal with the Oilers, only to hear that Heatley will consider Edmonton, but, from his cottage on the lake, is unimpressed with Murray's hustle and wants him to put other viable options on the table before accepting the trade, disregarding his own lack of tradeability. Again, unbelieveably selfish.
THEN, in blatant disregard for the value of someone else's dollar, Heatley refuses to cooperate in the 11th hour, with a viable deal on the table (viable to everyone EXCEPT Heatley), and forces Ottawa to pay him a $4-million dollar bonus thanks to his own indecision and self-interested manoeuvering.
All this from a guy who has been given more second chances in life than you or I could ever hope for.
If selfishness = cancer, then you've finally diagnosed the problem.
What Bryan Murray needs to do now is forget about fair market value, pick that list of "preferred destinations" out of the trash and offer Heatley FOR FREE to the first team on his speed dial.