5 Takeaways: Murray Out, Troy Terry Is Very Good
The start to the season has been enjoyable on the ice for the Ducks. They have started to put things together in a way that they have not been able to for the past few seasons and are providing fans with an entertaining brand of hockey.
Yet while the on-ice product has vastly improved, the season has been mired in a big off-ice issue leading to Bob Murray’s resignation from his role as General Manager.
The following are my five takeaways from the start of the season:
1. Bob Murray Resigns as General Manager
The number one topic for the Ducks this season is that Bob Murray, the General Manager of the Ducks since 2008, has resigned due to allegations of improper professional conduct. These allegations along with the Ducks placing Murray on administrative leave were announced on Tuesday, November 9th, with Murray resigning from his role the next day, Wednesday, November 10th.
After Murray was placed on Administrative leave, it started to leak out from various sources that the improper professional conduct had to do with various forms of verbal abuse towards staff, players, and coaches. Emily Kaplan from ESPN had the following:
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff had the following information:
Multiple league and team sources tell Daily Faceoff that Murray is under investigation for allegations of creating a toxic workplace environment by way of his repeated verbal abuse and harassment of Ducks players, coaches and personnel, plus his intimidation tactics and temper tantrums that fostered a culture of fear throughout the organization.
“Working for Bob Murray was pure daily mental warfare,” one source said. “The abuse was endless. Crazy text messages to players and staff berating them for their performance and threats of job security happened with regularity. These weren’t one-time slip-ups or mistakes. These were regular explosions and eruptions.”
It is unclear how or why Murray’s behavior went unchecked for so long, given that so many people associated with the Ducks organization bore witness to it. This season marks Murray’s 45th consecutive year in the NHL; Murray was promoted to Ducks GM on Nov. 12, 2008.
My thoughts go out to every person that has had to deal with Murray over the past decade because dealing with mental warfare every single day takes a toll on you and no one should have to go through that. Additionally, while I am happy that Murray is seeking the help he needs for his issues with alcohol, that should not be utilized as an excuse for his actions and do not absolve him of these errors. He was abusing his staff and regardless of the reasoning for it, that is not acceptable behavior.
There should be no flowers given to Murray either for the product on the ice over his tenure. No one should be appreciative of the job he did because even though we are just learning about these allegations, these issues have been the reality for every person within the Ducks organization during Murray’s tenure. Commending the job that he did not only ignores these issues but also encourages this type of behavior because it “created” a winning franchise.
We should look back at this situation and ask questions about how was this allowed to happen? Who covered up for Murray and enabled him to treat people the way he did? What changes will be made within the Ducks organization to make sure that this will not happen again? There are lots of answers I can come up with, but what is important is that we get answers from the Samueli’s
This is a black eye on the Ducks organization and one that they will have to wear for the foreseeable future. It completely tarnishes Murray’s legacy along with those that enabled this type of behavior from him.
If there is one positive to be taken away from this situation, it is that how quickly the Ducks acted, with it being reported that they first got notified of anonymous tips to the NHL hotline two weeks ago, shows that there is progress. The team did not drag their feet once the allegations were brought to them.
2. Jeff Solomon Takes Over
With Murray resigning, the Ducks named Jeff Solomon as the interim GM. Solomon was hired by the Ducks in the summer after being with the Kings since 2007. With the Kings, he was responsible for building out their analytics department, negotiating contracts, and managing the cap. He took that responsibility and built out one of the best analytics departments in hockey. He hired Rob Vollman, who would publish a new hockey prospectus each year along with publishing the book stat shot, as one of the lead men in the group. Here is what Vollman had to say about Solomon:
“Jeff represents the organization very well in the sense that he has a real long-term thorough commitment to everything that can give the team an edge,” Vollman said in 2020 to The Athletic. “I know his commitment to this field. It’s not an infatuation or a fad to him or to the organization.”
Personally, I am very excited to see what someone that is that analytically inclined can do at the helm of the Ducks, even if it is on an interim basis.
On Thursday Solomon addressed the media and had the following quotes:
“The message is straightforward,” he said. “It’s truly unfathomable that in this day and age (that) we really need to have these constant reminders about fostering inclusion. Treating people with dignity and respect. We should have to be reminded yet we find ourselves dealing with unusual and unfortunate circumstances and situations that are constant reminders for us. As a league, as players, as staff working for this organization, we’re privileged and honored to have the ability to serve the people. And these are the people that deserve our respect and our trust and our commitment.
“I think of our vision of treating everyone equally fairly and with compassion. I just talk to the guys about the standard that we set in the league, in the organization. The league was really good about sending a memo basically reminding everyone about the overriding objective to foster inclusion. But, honestly, I didn’t have to read the memo. We shouldn’t have to read it. It’s unfortunate that we even need these reminders. Because these are things that we should already set our standards to. And we have a high set of standards and bar of excellence with his organization and it’s going to continue to be that way.”
If that means creating a better, healthier atmosphere than the one Murray allegedly fostered, then that only makes going about the business of winning games a little easier. What attracted Solomon to Anaheim were the people that he would be dealing with from the top on down. In his six months, Solomon said he was never personally aware of abuse or toxicity behind the scenes. “From my personal experience, my introduction to this organization has been outstanding,” he said.
It doesn’t mean everything was copacetic within the organization. It obviously wasn’t and hasn’t been. And that will be one thing Solomon looks to remedy.
“I just reminded the players of the obligation that we have and the standard that we set in this organization,” Solomon said. “And I’ll make sure it’s enforced to treat everyone the right way. When I say everyone, I told them I mean everyone. It’s easy to be nice to the people that you report to. But really the test of a person’s character is how you treat people that you really don’t have to be nice to. But you should. It’s not a high bar that we really need to set but it’s one that we’re going to follow.”
He absolutely hits the nail on the head and I am not sure he could have addressed the culture issue any better.
As for the on-ice product, Solomon did reaffirm that nothing has changed in terms of the plan, even though the Ducks have won six in a row and there is a new person leading the charge for management.
These next few months will be very interesting seeing as they are essentially his job interview for the full-time position.
3. Troy Terry Is Very Good
The movement is sweeping the nation! Troy Terry has a 14 game point streak with 20 points over those 15 games and here is the thing this point streak might not be completely unsustainable. Sure he is not going to continue to shoot over 30%, but his on-ice shooting percentage at 5v5 is only 7.5%, while the league average shooting percentage at 5v5 is 7.6% per naturalstatrick.
When Terry is on the ice, the Ducks score at the league average rate at 5v5. Terry will eventually stop scoring goals at a 30% clip, but once that happens Getzlaf and Henrique will more likely than not start scoring, which means Terry should rack up more assists. Quick side note, Getzlaf is shooting 2.3% this year. There is no way that continues.
On top of all of that, Terry is continuing his great 5v5 play and is still a monster defensively for the Ducks. He has definitely improved due to getting older, but this has not been the massive improvement some make it out to be as shown in the chart below per Jfresh. The biggest change for him is that the results finally align with the process for him.
I am so happy to see Terry get the praise he has deserved for multiple seasons.
4. Get Zegras away from Deslauriers
For the past couple of games, Nic Deslauriers has been glued to the hip of Trevor Zegras, and it all dates back to the Montreal game.
In this game, Paquette took a run at Zegras and got a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. Paquette was then suspended, rightfully two games. I would assume that Dallas Eakins saw that play and thought that Zegras needed protection, and Deslauriers could be that.
The problem with this logic is that it was immediately disproved in the next game, when Subban slew footed Zegras with Deslauriers on the ice.
Having Deslauriers on the ice did not deter Subban from making this play, and goes to show that the logic of having someone out there try and discourage other players from being physical with Zegras is inherently flawed. Zegras after the slew foot, would go on to miss multiple games, but upon returning would still find Deslauriers riding shotgun with him.
Additionally and most importantly, Deslauriers has had a negative impact on Zegras’ 5v5 numbers.
With Deslauriers on his line, Zegras sees his differentials trend in the wrong direction, as shown above, and his chance generation plummets from 3.34 xGF/60 to 1.63 xGF/60 (Stats per naturalstattrick). He is getting fewer opportunities to make an impact on the game with Deslauriers and fewer opportunities to learn how to create offensive chances for himself and his teammates.
Zegras is primarily a rush offense player that thrives when he has the puck on his stick. He loves to enter the zone with possession and then survey the ice to figure out which attacking option will create the best chance. Deslauriers on the other hand is your prototypical bottom-six NHLer that focuses on getting the pucks in deep. When the puck is on his stick in the neutral zone, I can guarantee that he is going to chip it off the boards. The issue there is Zegras’ game does not jive with that kind of player. When the puck is chipped in deep, that is giving up possession to the other team instead of getting it into the hands of a gifted playmaker.
Note that these stats were prior to last night’s game.
Also with a two-goal lead and an empty net, put out the kid with two goals so h can get the first hat trick of his career.
5. Ducks 5v5 Numbers trending in the right direction
I am going to end with a short but sweet point. Early on in the season, the Ducks 5v5 numbers were very concerning. It felt like they were getting continually out-chanced, but over the past few weeks, that has started to trend in the better direction. They still overall are below break-even, at 48.76 xGF%, but as the image below shows, the 5 game rolling average looks much better. There are minor tweaks that need to happen to the lineup, like Deslauriers being removed from Zegras’ line, but overall the trend is going in the right direction.
The next step for this team is to continue this trend against good teams in this league. As of late they have for the most part played teams that have floundered at 5v5 this season.
Chart and stats per evolving-hockey. Note these stats are prior to last nights game.