Ducks GM Murray clarifies comments he made on Eakins, says he left him high and dry

Bob Murray, the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks, is walking back some comments he recently made regarding team coach Dallas Eakins. Murray came across as very critical and somewhat harsh regarding the job Eakins had done since becoming the bench boss.

“I was trying to get across the point that I kind of left Dallas high and dry,” Murray explained Tuesday on Sportsnet 590 while talking about his previous comments. “Because of what had happened the year before when I let Randy [Carlyle] go, went down behind the bench and then I brought Dallas in, and with his experience in Edmonton I felt I had to get away and distance myself for his own good. And I left him high and dry. I should've been around him more, I should've helped him more."

“We have a lot of young players there and when we got injured, we even had more young players — we had too many young players in the lineup. I should've helped more,” Murray said. “And it put a big burden on Dallas because of, as we recall, what he went through when he was in Edmonton. That's what I was trying to say, and it didn't come out right.”

On June 3rd, Murray made himself available to the media and was asked to critique Eakins' performance.

“I thought he was very well organized, very well-prepared,” said Murray. “I thought the communication was good early. It got off-track a little bit. I think he had to get rid of some of the things that came from Edmonton, and I think those are gone now. He was very, very hard on some young people in Edmonton, and it kind of backfired on him there. I'm not saying it was all his fault, by the way."

"I'm saying just that whole situation was kind of (…) and I think he took the foot off the gas a bit with them. I just know he's going to be much more consistent and on point with things, with everybody next year. He had to get a few of the things out of the way, and he did. But again, we were a decent hockey team a lot of nights. That's why I expect much more next year, because we showed we can play the game.”

Source: Sportsnet

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