Saturday, February 9, 2008

Redden Treated Shabbily


Why is Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray revealing details of his trade talks with other GM's?

He's obviously trying to publicly shame Wade Redden into waiving his no-trade clause which is a surprising tactic from the usually classy Murray. By trying to turn the fans against Redden, Murray is simply adding to the chaos that has already engulfed this team. What's the goal here? Hope the fans boo Redden out of the building for being perceived as selfish?

Roy Mlakar needs to sit down with Murray and resident arsonist John Paddock and explain to them again the meaning of public relations. The Ray Emery situation was handled poorly and now there's another fire that must be put out.

What an absolute joke.

Redden hasn't played well this season but he deserves more respect for what he has done for the organization over the years. Why would players want to sign in Ottawa when they know that the organization will treat them like garbage if they're struggling?

Editors Note:

It comes out today that Bryan Murray claims he did not leak the story and is somewhat upset that it did. The fact is that the story somehow got from Murray's office to the press in a matter of an hour and Murray bears some responsibility for this latest fiasco.

Just take look at today's Ottawa Sun poll.

The question is "What should the Senators do with Redden? Waive him? Bench him? Keep him in the lineup?"

Waive him? Intelligent hockey discussion has come to this in a supposedly knowledgeable and passionate hockey town?

Now that's great marketing for a small market franchise. Turn the fans against the players. Works every time.

2 comments:

Peter Raaymakers said...

I'm not really sure how differently the Emery situation could have been handled, but I don't think that Murray was responsible for his conversation with Redden being made public. In fact, I've heard he was quite upset when he found out that everyone knew about it.
That said, I don't think it's fair for fans to suggest that Redden is being selfish for what he's done; this organization rewarded him with a no-trade clause for what he'd accomplished with Ottawa in the past, and--like it or not--the Sens have to honour that clause.

Jeremy Milks said...

Peter, I think the organization should have protected Emery a little more while dealing harshly with him inside the dressing room.

The punishment would have been the same but they would have avoided idiots like Glen Kulka openly suggesting substance abuse problems over the air and reporters seeking out people who have no knowledge of the situation, such as George Chuvalo, and then taking his comments as gospel. It was a ridiculous week that could have been handled much better if it was kept in-house.

It's come out today that Murray is upset and claims he didn't leak the trade talks. Perhaps he didn' do it on purpose, but the story still got out and that comes straight from his office. Other teams manage to keep this stuff out of the papers, why not the Senators?