‘He was one of the calming voices’: Melnyk
Sens owner and GM had more than employer-employee relationship
Somewhere, up there in the heavens, you have to think that Bryan Murray is standing behind the bench of a pretty good hockey team and providing a steady, guiding hand.
That was the way Murray was in life and it’s a big reason why the people at the Canadian Tire Centre will miss having the 74-year-old former Ottawa Senators general manager around after he lost his three-year battle with cancer Saturday morning.
Not only did Murray leave behind his wife, Geri, along with his daughters, Heide and Brittany, he also left a big void in the hockey world. For 35 years, Murray was involved in the National Hockey League in one way or another, as a GM or coach, before spending his final season as a senior adviser in hockey operations with Ottawa.
The Senators never really thought about Murray not being around because he had always just been there. He could be counted on to tell a funny story when it may have been needed the most or be a shoulder to lean on because there wasn’t a whole lot that Murray hadn’t been through during his storied career.
“It sucks. … It really does suck,” owner Eugene Melnyk said in a telephone interview. “People just always expected to have him around. He was always around. He was always a calming influence. If you looked up in the middle of chaos for soft eyes to look back, that was him.
“When guys were all melting when we had guys hurt and we wondered who was going to play, (Murray) would come in and it’s almost like he’s been there and done that. He’d say this is the best thing for you guys to do. He brought that calmness to the whole organization.”
After taking over Senators head coaching duties in 2005-06, Murray moved into the role of GM following the club’s trip to the Stanley Cup final in 2007. There were ups, there were downs, there good times and there were difficulties, but always Melnyk stuck by Murray because he knew he could lead the team out of troubled waters.
“It was his experience,” Melnyk said. “There were times that he made moves, with all due respect, that didn’t work out, but I really believed that in the end his experience would always win in the game.
“The guys with experience have seen it, they’ve done it and they won’t make the same mistakes twice. That’s what I always banked on with (Murray).”
In his new role last season, Murray, who handed the general manager’s duties to Pierre Dorion in April 2016, was there to be a voice of reason and lend a hand when advice was sought on what should be done next.
“He was one of the calming voices,” Melnyk said. “The last 18 months he had skin in the game, but he could sit back and say whatever he wanted. If he didn’t like something that was happening, he thought it was going the wrong way or he thought a player wasn’t what we thought he was, he could say something.
“He was kind of the matriarch of that group. Pierre is the guy in charge, but you always had that quiet voice that you could look to and you could take (Murray) aside to get his opinion to see what he thought. He’d been through it before.”
Melnyk had a special relationship with Murray. They weren’t just an owner and a GM, they were also friends. Melnyk, who required a life-saving liver transplant in May 2015, recalled sitting with Murray at a Toronto hospital during some of Melnyk’s darkest hours before a donor was found.
“He was one of the few that came to the hospital to visit me,” Melnyk said. “I sat with him for two hours, just me and him, and I asked him what it was like (to be going through what Murray was battling).
“He was very fatherly in that way to me. He gave me great advice and that came from a guy who was going through it. It was tough for him, but he decided to look the other way at it. He decided to say, ‘Screw it, these are the cards I was dealt, and I’ve got to play them out.’ And he did.”
Not only did Murray battle bravely while undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but he also told his story publicly to help raise awareness about colonoscopy screening.
“You have to admire his strength,” Melnyk said.
It’s the strength Murray brought to the table that will be sorely missed.