Murray: Now is not the time to panic

He's saying the answers will come from within. 8 games in is no time to hit the panic button.

http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2008/10/27/7214636-sun.html

Sounds like there are trades to be made if he wanted to, but he's going to wait this out and tread carefully.

exactly. I'm sure GM's would line up to fleece Murray of our talent if they had a chance.

Once these boys start loosening the grips on their sticks and tighten up their D-zone coverage, the rest will follow. I'm expecting another loss or two over their next 2-3 games, but hopefully they start to find their passion and urgency.

Murray must have clicked this fortune cookie...

If they can get back to the way they played in Sweden, they'll be fine.

Reminds me of what he said two years ago, when we were 15 games in. Emery became the #1 starting with game 18 and we won something like 6 of the next seven games. That said, while I see similarities from 2006-07, there are also significant differences (new coach, lots of roster churn, severely weakened defensive corps, Auld is not Emery, and our record now is worse).

In other words, while I agree it's njot time to panic yet, I also don't see much cause for cautious optimism.

I think we genuinely have to give Hartsburg some time. These guys have BAD HABITS. These habits are hard to break and short of firing the whole team he has to work them out of it. There have been good signs... Spezza doing the soft dump and retrieving the pucks... Great pressure periods.. BUT there have been plenty of growing pains too.

This reminds me a lot of the year where Murray had to get the guys to buy into his plan. It took a while and they all did the same stupid things and eventually everyone started to realize that if they didn't play within the system they would lose. Perhaps we don't have the same talent as we did but I think we have enough that if they find their game again, there will be success..

MurderonIce: "growing pains"

Hopefully that's what we have.

Hartsburg definitely has his work cut out for him here. I'm willing to give the guy time. Even if we're not a .500 team, I don't care what the standings say, I want to see little things improving. I want to see those bad habits going away. There's going to be a learning curve, growing pains, whatever we call it, and I think as fans we're going to have to do something Sens fans are bad at: being patient.

mattbond wrote:MurderonIce: "growing pains"

Hopefully that's what we have.

Hartsburg definitely has his work cut out for him here. I'm willing to give the guy time. Even if we're not a .500 team, I don't care what the standings say, I want to see little things improving. I want to see those bad habits going away. There's going to be a learning curve, growing pains, whatever we call it, and I think as fans we're going to have to do something Sens fans are bad at: being patient.

Well said, patience is always in short supply in the Sens Army, guess that is the double edge of the sword of passion...

MurderOnIce wrote:I think we genuinely have to give Hartsburg some time. These guys have BAD HABITS. These habits are hard to break and short of firing the whole team he has to work them out of it. There have been good signs... Spezza doing the soft dump and retrieving the pucks... Great pressure periods.. BUT there have been plenty of growing pains too.

This reminds me a lot of the year where Murray had to get the guys to buy into his plan. It took a while and they all did the same stupid things and eventually everyone started to realize that if they didn't play within the system they would lose. Perhaps we don't have the same talent as we did but I think we have enough that if they find their game again, there will be success..

This sums it up about perfectly IMO.

mattbond wrote:MurderonIce: "growing pains"

Hopefully that's what we have.

Hartsburg definitely has his work cut out for him here. I'm willing to give the guy time. Even if we're not a .500 team, I don't care what the standings say, I want to see little things improving. I want to see those bad habits going away. There's going to be a learning curve, growing pains, whatever we call it, and I think as fans we're going to have to do something Sens fans are bad at: being patient.

This too.

I would still like to see a bonafide #1 D-man coming here (which we obviously don't have), but let's iron out some of the kinks first.

Hopefully we'll see the Hartsburg system starting to click and roll by the 15-20 game mark. We should see signs of it starting soon. Spezza has been going in to get pucks and fore-checking more than I can ever remember.

We're a few bonafide parts away from a contender at the moment.

That said, I have hope for building from within. Guys like Campbell don't just magically appear on the scene. He was AWFUL in Buffalo for years. I'm sure one of Lee, Picard, or down the line, Karlsson will shape up into effective D-men.

As far as a bonafide goaltender, I think we all have high hopes for Elliott.

Not to say we shouldn't explore trade routes, but what I'm saying is I prefer the "build from within" theory. If we're one guy away from being contenders, make a move, if not, we have time to see what happens.