GM Murray gives coach Eakins vote of confidence
ANAHEIM » The Ducks’ 7-12-6 record, seventh-place standing in the West Division and their 28th-ranked power play certainly were not what general manager Bob Murray had in mind as the midway point of the NHL’s COVID19-truncated 56-game season approached Friday.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything,” Murray said during a state-of-the-team conversation before the Ducks faced off Monday against the rival Kings at Honda Center. “Our record is not good enough. I expected to be better and we’re not. There’s no sugarcoating it.”
Murray declined to fault coach Dallas Eakins for the Ducks’ struggles, which included a 1-6-3 mark in their past 10 games. In fact, Murray praised Eakins, who has a less-than-stellar 36-45-15 record since he was hired before the 2019-20 season.
“I’ve got total confidence in Dallas,” Murray said. “I think he’s doing a pretty good job right now with everything that’s going on. I have no issues whatsoever. I have no problem with Dallas. I think he’s doing a great job this year.”
Murray said he hoped to hire another assistant coach to take on the role held by Darryl Sutter, who departed last week to become the coach of the Calgary Flames. Sutter’s title with the Ducks was advisor to the head coach, but he wasn’t around the team much because of the pandemic.
At present, Mark Morrison and Marty Wilford are the Ducks’ assistants.
Murray said he would continue to seek trades to upgrade the roster before the NHL’s deadline April 12.
Longtime captain Ryan Getzlaf, who is in the final year of his contract, was one player Murray would not consider dealing unless Getzlaf asked to be traded to a contender.
“I talked to the agent last week, I’ve talked to ‘Getzy’ a little bit,” Murray said. “I’m tired of hearing this from Toronto anymore, how his name is out there. The only way Ryan Getzlaf would go anywhere is if he came to me and said, ‘Bob, can you try and trade me to a contender?’
“As for next year, we’ve talked and we’re going to see how he feels after this year. We’ll see how his body feels. We’ll see how it’s going. You know, he may just say, ‘I don’t want to keep going through this rebuild we’re doing here.’ But the relationship is wonderful and he’s not going anywhere.
“We’ll talk and we’ll see how his body is at the end of the year.”
The Ducks’ lack of scoring, especially while on the power play, has been a major issue and it falls on the players’ shoulders, according to Murray. After all, the coaches can’t put the puck in the net for the players, although sometimes they probably wish they could.
“We have to learn how to do it,” Murray said. “It’s got to come from within. I’m seeing, lately, much more buyin or group effort to do these things. I’m seeing this group learn. For example, the good teams like St. Louis and Colorado make their own noise out there (in empty arenas).
“The other night, when ‘Getzy’ blocked a big shot, there was finally noise on our bench. All these things, to make your own noise, to make your own happenings, it’s got to come from within. We’re a quiet group and we’ve got to stop being a quiet group.
“We’ve got to get into the games more.”
Murray also addressed the generation gap between veteran players such as Getzlaf, 35, and Ryan Miller, 40, and leading scorer Max Comtois, 22, and rookie Trevor Zegras, 19. At times, there has been an obvious disconnect between the older players and the younger ones.
“It’s a lot better lately,” Murray said. “Too much was said early on about the young guys and the old guys. I think that’s been much better lately. The positive is, for me, I’ve got a much better picture right now of some of the younger guys than I did at this point last year.
“I can definitely see where they fit into a puzzle of making a winning hockey team.”
Injuries continue to be a concern. Murray revealed Sonny Milano was to be examined by Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a Detroitbased specialist in concussions and post-concussion syndrome. Murray also said Carter Rowney would undergo an MRI on his injured right knee.
Milano, Rowney and Hampus Lindholm (fractured wrist) are on injured reserve.