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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: DUCKS VS PREDATORS

May 11, 2017

Bob Murray

Anaheim, California - Practice Day

Q. You have to be happy with the result last night, bringing in Randy and getting that Game 7 win. Is this what you expected when you made the hire?
BOB MURRAY: Well, as I said when we hired Randy, he knew -- always knew that Randy is an excellent bench coach, and I think throughout the series, I think him and Todd had a great duel of bench coaches, and they both made adjustments, tried to make adjustments, and I think Randy did a heck of a job.

Q. Bob, I know you've been a huge proponent of John Gibson. I wanted to ask, what was the initial attraction when you guys drafted him, and how do you think he's progressed throughout the season and these Playoffs in particular?
BOB MURRAY: Well, watching him as we did in the USA program, he was a good goaltender. He was athletic. He wins. He likes to win. He doesn't like to lose. And I think what you've seen about John is he's a little different, comes off a little different, but the one thing about him is, if he has a bad night, which we all have bad nights, and he's very resilient, he comes back, and I'm very impressed at his age that he comes back, and he's always done that.

Q. With the win last night and obviously getting to this point, there was a fair amount of criticism that you guys took at bringing Randy back. Is this validation, perhaps even vindication?
BOB MURRAY: I don't look at it that way. I look at it we try to win. You do what you have to do to try to win. You do what you have to do at different times. I think what you have to understand is the group of people in that dressing room, the way that game started last night. Everybody is saying, oh, here we go again. They didn't miss a beat. So you've got to tip your cap to the guys in the dressing room, the team. You know, everybody talks about how we were the older, more experienced team. I think if you look at in the last three games we're less than .5 years older than Edmonton, average age. So that's pretty -- and the defense is probably as young a defense as is still playing in the last 16 days of the Playoffs. This group has learned, and you've got to give them all the credit in the world.

Q. First of all, the conditional trade with Dallas now kicks in, giving up the first-round pick.
BOB MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. Justified by the returns you've gotten, or -- obviously couldn't predict the injury.
BOB MURRAY: Couldn't predict the injury, but I think Patrick has a huge effect on the organization. It was a move, I thought, that was very good for the team.

Q. To get back to Randy again, you're saying you knew he was a good bench coach, but could you have known that he would change and be so calm as he said he was going to be? People said they change, but they don't always. But he really seems that he did.
BOB MURRAY: You never know. I just -- all the interview process that Dave Nonis and I did, we really believed that -- we discussed it after the time, and we really felt that his time in Toronto was really good for him. We benefitted from it.

Q. Randy also last night pointed out that the Ducks have good young players, too, despite all the talk about the Oilers' good players, and you guys have not drafted as high as they have or a lot of other teams have. What's been the key to being able to keep that pipeline coming even though you don't have a lot of top ten picks in the draft over the years?
BOB MURRAY: We have an outstanding organization staff. They work their butts off, they're loyal, and I'm obviously they know talent. I think also with Martin Madden, they get the idea of what I like, which is important, the kind of teams we're trying to have, and they've done an outstanding job. And again, we haven't picked in the top five since our first -- my first year here.

Q. One of your messages last year was to your core group of players, you kind of put them on notice saying they have to be better. How satisfied are you with their performance in the first couple rounds?
BOB MURRAY: Well, I'm very happy for them. Again, sometimes you just -- you want more, and you know there's more there from people, and I think they've realized it. Again, it starts with the leadership group, who were outstanding, obviously. I'm more happy for them than anything.

Q. Circling back to what you said a second ago, specifically what do you think Randy learned in Toronto, and how has that helped him going forward here?
BOB MURRAY: Well, I think he had to work with the older players, which Toronto was doing. I think all our years with Bryan and I and him here, we had an older team, and I think he -- I think we've all had to make that learning transition, myself included, to younger players, because the team that won the Cup was an older team, no doubt about it, and that was very good for him and for us, handling all that.

Q. Do you have any particular or possible timeline on Patrick Toews, in terms of any possibility, and how close is Kevin Bieksa as well as the other assorted injured?
BOB MURRAY: Kevin is very close, very, very close. He's been skating every day. Clayton is available. Best news I got today is Patrick, he was walking around the dressing room, working out. He's a ways away yet, but the therapy he's doing and the people he's working with, it's coming along -- I have hope. For a while, I just thought that was it. But I have hope now that we're going to see him again at some point.

Q. This series?
BOB MURRAY: Maybe. Maybe. We'll see how the next week goes.

Q. You touched on it earlier, but you've got three veteran defensemen on the shelf with injuries and you just made the Conference Finals with six defensemen largely playing under 26 years old, all of them. What level of satisfaction does that give you as a talent evaluator?
BOB MURRAY: Well, I think, as I said, I have an outstanding amateur staff, and I think my development group, I think in the minors, for a while, for some, it was Trevani (phonetic), then it's been Marty Wilford and Dallas Eakins. I think the key for this organization, obviously, we're not a big-spending group, and we have to develop to be successful. But in this day and age with the cap staying the way it is, everybody has to develop, so I think our people, between our amateur staff and our development crew, which also includes Don Marchant in talking to these kids, I think we do a very, very good job.

Q. I want to get your impressions on Ryan Getzlaf, his play from March onward. Not to take anything from the rest of his outstanding career, but is this the Getzlaf you've always imagined, and has he put all the tools in the toolbox the last couple months?
BOB MURRAY: Getzy, he's just leading by example now. He's just -- I think he's not worrying about anybody else and what they're going to do. I guess he's another guy that's misrepresented at times, and I think he's just -- he's going out and he's leading by example, like some other great players have done, and it's very nice to see for him.

Q. Overcoming the hump last night, is there a sense of confidence going forward, or is that something you try to forget?
BOB MURRAY: Again, it was very good for our group to get over that and get that monkey or whatever you want to call it off the back. That's gone now. And now we're playing -- we're going to play a very good hockey team who has been very impressive so far in the Playoffs. Very impressive.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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