re wings will win in article vela acs oakland edu ragraca vela acs oakland edu randy a graca writes gballent hudson uvic ca greg ballentine writes in article vela acs oakland edu ragraca vela acs oakland edu randy a graca writes i also think that they will have a hard time with pittsburgh if they face them in the finals which is what all the detroit sportswriters are predicting although i think bryan murray is probably the best gm i have ever seen in hockey how do you figure that when bryan murray took over the wings they were a pretty good team that was contending for the stanley cup but looked unlikely to win it now they are a pretty good team that is contending for the stanley cup but looks unlikely to win it a truly great gm would have been able to make the moves to push the team to the upper echelon of the nhl and maybe win the stanley cup a good gm like murray can maintain the team s success but can t push them to the next level when jacques demers brought the wings to the conference finals twice a few years back he had everyone on the team giving percent but he had very little talent he had yzerman bob probert who had drinking problems at the time and a couple of decent goaltenders in hanlon and stefan who got hot that s about it can you name one player on those earlier teams who even deserved to be in the all star game much less actually got there other than yzerman and probert like petr klima give me a break when they faced edmonton in both of those conference finals as hard as they played it was clear they faced a team that simply had superior talent to the wings that s why they could not get to the finals also at that time the norris division was still the weakest division in hockey and getting past chicago and toronto was not as impressive as it is today murray has brought scoring talent to the wings that they did not have a few years ago when devellano was gm and demers was coach to name a few ysebaert kozlov and paul coffey who has made a definite positive impact on the power play especially murray has built one of the most talented teams in hockey at the present with the possible exception of the pittsburgh penguins the wings have at least five goal scorers that i can think of and a couple of defenseman with over games worth of playoff experience murray s one failing is that unlike the other gm s you mentioned who are definitely also good don t get me wrong he has not found for himself a strong coach to motivate the team to go out and give percent for the full minutes every night like they did the last time they made a cup run when a team wins or loses it s a reflection of the gm and the coach which was the point of my original post if the team outmatches their opponent in terms of talent but loses anyway which has been the case this year when the wings have struggled that indicates that the gm has done his job in building up the team but the coach has failed to motivate them if as in the case of the last run the wings made in the playoffs before murray came they gave opponents a hard time who should have beaten them easily that indicates good coaching making up for a lack of talent all of this is fine i never said that murray was a bad gm i merely said that he isn t the best gm in hockey or even a contender for that honor if murray is as great as you claim the wings would have won the stanley cup by now probably more than once if he was as great a gm as you claim and he was as poor a coach as you claim he would have been intelligent enough to hire the coach to push the team to the next level of success but murray is an average unspectacular nhl coach and a pretty good gm so none of this is true anyway gregmeister
