Watching the Sens finish out the season versus the Bruins and still trying to wrap my tiny mind Murray’s new deal. Trying to process what this means for the club going forward is kinda futile, the larger statement focuses on the fact that no one has any idea of the nature of the professional relationship between Murray and Melnyk. Also that the notion of a rebuild can’t really be considered when the man making the decisions is still making the decisions.

You may have noticed the title of this post, what I mean is that we’re undergoing a bit of revisionist history. Locking Murray up for three more years is an explicit acknowledgement that the level of talent on this squad is adequate enough to compete for a playoff spot and compete for the Stanley Cup in the not too distant future. These are still his players, the draft picks are still at his discretion. What went wrong during this season was a result of injuries, guys playing hurt and suspect goaltending.  Essentially the organization is passing the blame square to the shoulders to the players.

Correct or incorrect, I don’t think its entirely fair, how many games were lost while watching Brian Elliott put his pads on backwards? What conversations between the training staff, the coaching staff and the front office were being held in regard to injuries? Everyone lauded Murray for robbing the Avalanche at the deadline, in my opinion, he made that deal 30 games too late. He held on a little too long to the idea that Leclaire was going to be the answer. (I don’t blame them when you’ve got that much salary involved) Of course hindsight is 20-20.

Earlier I mentioned the professional relationship between Murray and Melnyk and its nebulous nature. I’ve long been a proponent of an additional resource embedded somewhere within the organization’s infrastructure with a focus on oversight. If this were a professional organization outside the spotlight of sports there would be a loud movement for greater oversight. Imagining the players as red and blank ink on the balance sheet one can only determine that the sheet was examined a little too late. What mechanisms are in place to foster course correction?

Well there is the argument that re-upping Murray is a form of course correction. Is anyone noticing the discrepancy in play here? Organization re-signs the GM responsible for massaging a roster into something that has shown great promise late in the season, essentially a bunch of AHL’ers, Jason Spezza and Craig Anderson saved his job. (but not his coach’s?) Winning is a great salve, but my question is what happens when the youngsters falter?

I sincerely hope they don’t but realistically it will happen and when it does the call of “rebuild” emanating from the minaret on top of Scotiabank Place will fall on deaf ears.