from Wayne Scanlan of the Ottawa Citizen,

Senators fans are overjoyed for the team, the general manager and his scouting staff (18 players drafted and developed in-house). Murray, 72, from up the Ottawa Valley in Shawville, has especially touched the hearts of team supporters as he fights a daily battle against stage 4 cancer, a battle that doesn’t keep him from his daily work.

Poignantly, Murray wasn’t thinking of any personal triumph when the buzzer sounded in Philly, even if he said he couldn’t remember the last time he was this nervous watching a game. He was thinking about his young players, like the two rookies, Mark Stone and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who did all the goal-scoring against the Flyers, just as it was rookies – Stone, Pageau and Mike Hoffman – who produced all the goals in a 4-3 comeback win against the Pittsburgh Penguins last Tuesday that saved Ottawa’s season.

“It was all about the kids,” Murray said in the visitors dressing room, describing his thoughts at game end. “They worked so hard, deserved getting in, and it would have been a shame if we’d lost out.”

In nearly 40 years in the NHL, Murray has coached and managed a host of different teams, but none with greater “character.” He has been nearly overwhelmed by “how much these guys have shown they care about putting it together. And hanging together every night. Handling the pressure. Every game was a must-win almost.”

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