Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray made headlines last week when he made some harsh comments about the performance of some of the team’s young players and also came across as critical (both indirectly and directly) of head coach Dallas Eakins.
He clarified his stance during an appearance on Hockey Central on Tuesday, saying he should have helped Eakins more but instead left the bench boss “high and dry” in his first campaign with the Ducks.
“I was trying to get across the point that I kind of left Dallas high and dry,” Murray said Tuesday of his prior comments. “Because of what had happened the year before when I let Randy [Carlyle] go, went down behind the bench and then I brought Dallas in, and with his experience in Edmonton I felt I had to get away and distance myself for his own good. And I left him high and dry. I should’ve been around him more, I should’ve helped him more.”
The Ducks’ bench has been under a lot of scrutiny the past two years, which undoubtedly made his comments last week that much more noteworthy. Upon firing Randy Carlyle in February 2019, Murray made the unconventional decision to not name an interim but instead take over the bench himself for the remainder of 2018-19 in an effort to understand a situation that he called “more problematic than I thought.”
Eakins was the natural successor after striking success with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, but Murray’s comments last week — directed at both Eakins and at several of the team’s (unnamed) young players — caused a bit of a stir and suggested the veteran GM might be impatient already:
[blockquote]“In hindsight, because of the year before and what happened at the end, I kind of backed off and gave everyone space. I didn’t feel I could be around as much. In hindsight, that’s a mistake. An error in judgement. My people argue with me on that. That won’t happen again. Everybody talking about the young guys, it just led players, at times, to say it’s just a rebuilding year, and that it doesn’t matter. Up and down the lineup, some of the kids were allowed to get away with murder this year. That’s over. Accountability in this group is going to change. I’ve said that a couple times. I’m hellbent on that happening going forward. The coaches are going to hear that loud and clear. They already have.” [cite]- Ducks GM Bob Murray, via media availability on June 3[/cite][/blockquote]
In clarifying his remarks on Tuesday, Murray admitted that the influx of “too many young players in the lineup” put a burden on Eakins.
“We have a lot of young players there and when we got injured, we even had more young players — we had too many young players in the lineup. I should’ve helped more,” Murray said, later adding that he didn’t do a very good job of explaining his initial stance on the matter. “And it put a big burden on Dallas because of, as we recall, what he went through when he was in Edmonton. That’s what I was trying to say, and it didn’t come out right.”
The Ducks were 29-33-9 at the time of the NHL hiatus on March 12, and are one of seven teams now officially done for 2019-20 after the NHL announced its decision to conduct a 24-team playoff to complete the current campaign.
“I’m happy with where Dallas has taken the team,” Murray said Tuesday. “I really believe it started good last year, there was a little problem in the middle, and then it was getting righted near the end. We made a few trades, and it was going in the right direction. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to finish the year because I think we would’ve finished pretty well.”