Shark Circle™ · @SharkCircle
4th Apr 2013 from TwitLonger
@MikeColligan Sure thing. Because most defensemen dont put up many goals or points, NHL fans tend to forget that they play a big part in the offense, despite being defensemen, even despite being defensive defensemen who "aren't here to score goals." They still make up 2/5 of the players on the ice at all times, and still play a big part in getting the puck up to the forwards, through the neutral zone, into the offensive zone, and then in keeping the puck in the offensive zone, making punches, picking out passes, and getting pucks to the net.
Because NHL fans forget these things, they also forget to evaluate defensemen like Murray on their offensive abilities. Why would I think about Murray's offensive skills when he's clearly not on the team for his offense? An NHL fan might say.
But when you remember that he's on the ice for offense as well as defense, and that players like Joe Thornton and Logan Couture need him same as every other teammate when they're on the ice with him, or else be forced to try to score 4 against 5, that's when you remember to consider how his skill set transfers to the offensive side of the puck, and that's when you might come to the conclusion that I have, that he's an absolute anchor around any team's offense.
I also arrived at that conclusion from watching him in all of his anchor-like glory for years, so I saw it over and over again.
Here's why. He's extremely slow, so on defense, once you set up the cycle, he can't close you down quickly and get the puck back up the ice on offense quickly. His awful speed, and the fact he tires quickly and gets even slower, leads to many extended sequences in the defensive zone where his team can't retrieve the puck. His speed hurts his defense, and hurts his ability to get the puck back.
Once he gets the puck back, his awful speed leaves him with poor angles to make crisp transition passes up the ice. Opposing forecheckers close off his lanes much more quickly than he create them, and thus even when he has the puck, often times he just has to chip it out or bang it off the boards, hoping it gets to his teammate, as opposed to making a nice clean pass to start the transition game quickly up the ice. His inability to do this slows down the team's entire transition game and offense.
On the rare occasions when Murray can create a good angle to pass to a teammate, or rather when angles are given to him (because he doesn't have the speed to create them ever), his passing ability is extremely poor, which means, if not lots of turnovers, at least lots of inexact passes that lead to his teammates having to slow down or bobble the puck. Once again, this hurts the transition offense. Murray's skating also prevents him from skating the puck into the offensive zone. This isn't a strength of most defensive defensemen, of course, but at least your average one like Marc-Edouard Vlasic or even Scott Hannan, or just any of your normal NHL defensive defenseman who may not be world beaters, but can at least move, they can skate the puck in and gain the line when it's there for the taking without problem.
But not Murray. He's so uniquely slow, unlike almost anything you can find in the NHL, that he just can't do it.
Once one of his other teammates have gained the offensive zone for him and set things up, when the puck rings around to his side, his lack of foot speed and ability to stop and start means he has to be very conservative when deciding whether to pinch to keep the puck in. Most times, he smartly has to decide to stay back, so as to not risk creating a 2-on-1 situation the other way if he fails to keep the puck in. This means many scenarios where offensive zone possession would be kept with any other defenseman on the ice, it is not with him. And even when offensive zone possession is maintained, don't ask him to partake in the offense in any way, because his passes are awful and will lead to you losing possession, and he has maybe the worst shot in the NHL, never getting it on net with his iron hands.
And that's why he's SUCH an anchor on offense, unlike any other player in the NHL maybe. He is literally NHL worst in EVERY SINGLE OFFENSIVE CATEGORY. Skating, speed, acceleration, hands, passing, shooting. Only his hockey sense is good (on defense) and acceptable on offense, but acceptable hockey sense is completely useless on offense when you lack the physical skills to make any use of it.
This is a player who sinks a team's offense in the defensive zone with his inability to get the puck back from the opposition, then once he gets it he sinks you in transition with his inability to skate and create passing lanes, and then he sinks you more in transition even if he does get a passing lane because his passing is so bad, and then he sinks you more with his inability to be a threat of gaining the offensive zone due to his poor footspeed, so the opposition only has to key on four players instead of five when defending their blue-line, and then once you gain the offensive zone, he sinks your offense there, too, with his inability to pinch and keep pucks in because of his footspeed, his poor passing, his dreadful puck-handling, and his dreadful shooting accuracy and complete inability to get the puck anywhere close to the net.
He's not just bad, he is NHL worst in pretty much every single phase of creating and sustaining offense. That probably explains why the Sharks have immediately been SO much better without him, beyond anyone's wildest expectations (except maybe mine). The guy almost literally ensures that you're not going to score for the 15-20 minutes he's on the ice every night, which is between 1/4 and 1/3 of the entire game.