MURRAY LEFT HIS MARK ON OTTAWA AND NHL
Hockey world mourns death of Senators GM
Bryan Murray never backed down from any battle during his lifetime in hockey.
That was the same approach he took with his cancer diagnosis.
The legendary former Ottawa Senators GM and coach, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in June 2014, put up a brave fight and refused to back down against long odds.
The 74-year-old Murray, a native of Shawville in the Outaouais, died Saturday morning, surrounded by his family and friends.
“Bryan was one of the greatest men that the game of hockey has ever known and also a great father, mentor and teacher,” Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said.
“We extend our sincere condolences to his wife, Geri, daughters, Heide and Brittany, and the entire Murray family on their loss.”
Murray coached for 18 seasons and 1,239 games in the National Hockey League. The 2016-17 season was his 35th consecutive year working in the league.
Murray, who led the Senators to the Stanley Cup Final as the club’s head coach in 2006-07, then took over the job as general manager until he handed over the reins to Pierre Dorion in April 2016, left a mark on the hockey world and will never be forgotten.
“Bryan Murray’s strength and character were reflected in the teams he coached and the teams he built over decades of front office excellence,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
“While his warmth and dry sense of humour were always evident, they were accompanied by the fiery competitiveness and determination that were his trademarks.
“As we mourn Bryan’s passing, we celebrate his many contributions to the game — as well as his courage.”
The first member of the Senators installed in the Ring of Honour by Ottawa on Jan. 24 this year before a game against the Washington Capitals, Murray spent more than 35 years in the NHL.
When his cancer diagnosis became public, he told his story to help save the lives of others.
Murray, one of the truly fine characters in the game, sent a message to those who haven’t had a colonoscopy to go to their doctors and get one done. Although there wasn’t a cure for his cancer, there could have been if he’d had the test.
“I didn’t have a colonoscopy, which I should have had,” Murray told TSN’s Michael Farber in a feature that aired in November of 2014. “I don’t know why I didn’t. One of the comments that came back to me on a regular basis were, ‘You’re healthy, you’re from a family that hasn’t had any disease whatsoever, we can maybe wait.’
“But that’s also my fault in that I should have demanded (one) or at least asked for it, but like a lot of men do, I put it off.”
Murray then made sure he hammered home the importance of the checkup.
“A simple colonoscopy, in my case, probably would have solved the problem that I have,” he said.
Murray told his wife Geri he wanted to try coaching “for a year” when he took over the WHL’s Regina Pats in 1979 and never looked back. He was with the AHL’s Hershey Bears the next season, and was hired by the NHL’s Washington Capitals in 1981. Murray spent the rest of his career in the NHL.
After a remarkable nine seasons behind the Capitals bench, Murray made stops in Detroit, Florida, in Anaheim as a both a GM and coach, before coming to Ottawa in 2005-06. He had success because he had the ability to understand the way to get players to rally around him.
Murray’s nephew Tim was general manager of the Buffalo Sabres and his brother Terry was a longtime NHL coach.
“To get right to the very bottom of Bryan, you have to go back to his roots,” Nashville Predators GM David Poile, a close friend who first met Murray in Washington in 1980, told Postmedia in March 2015 before Murray was honoured by the NHL GMs at their annual meeting in Boca Raton.
“Bryan, by education, is and was, a teacher. He knows the X’s and O’s of the game of hockey really well and I don’t think there’s anyone who will dispute that. But, first and foremost, he’s a teacher. As a teacher, he really knows his players. He knows how to communicate with them. He knows how to push their buttons and he’s got a great way, a unique way, about him.”
Despite the cancer diagnosis, Murray remained on the job in Ottawa for two more years while undergoing regular chemotherapy treatments and moved into the role of senior adviser in the spring.
Melnyk noted Murray should be “inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame” when he was selected to the Ring of Honour and, hopefully, that happens.
“Some of his meetings he was pretty sarcastic with certain things,” winger Chris Neil said in January. “We were in a meeting and he showed video of (Jason Spezza) turning the puck over and he’d be like, ‘This is what not to do’ and the whole room would be laughing. He got his point across and that’s way he got guys to respond.
“He’s one of those coaches that always had everybody in his lineup going for him and that’s tough to do.”
Murray loved being at the rink every day and especially being around the players. He said in January he was fortunate to close out his days in the NHL with the Senators.
“To finish my career in Ottawa and to receive this recognition, is certainly another highlight,” said Murray, who listed his trip to the final with the Senators and the reaction of the city among his most memorable moments.
Not only will Murray be terribly missed by his family, there will be a deep hole in the lives of all the people in the hockey world he touched.