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Friday, October 15, 1999
The new King
"When I first got here, everybody was saying 'But he's just a high-school coach!' " admits the new man in charge of the L.A. Kings. "Now that we've got off to a good start, some people are maybe believing that I can coach a little bit.
"But I also know that when we lose a few in a row, I'll go right back to being just that high-school coach again. I'm not going to let my perception get skewed."
To most of those in the dodge, coaching in the NHL is a lifelong dream that mutates into an obsession; a be-all, end-all utopia where the money, fame and challenge lie.
Andy Murray, bless him, is an exception. He gazes back on his years here in Calgary guiding the Canadian National Team as "the two best of my life."
Nor does he merely assume just because he's now standing behind obscenely-paid players in a fancier suit, visiting hotspots such as Miami and New York, that the games are any more significant than any other he's been involved in.
Quite the contrary.
"People ask me about the 'pressure' of coaching in the NHL," says Murray, amused. "Well, I remember (CHA president) Bob Nicholson coming up to me before the gold-medal game at the World Championships. And he said, kind of kidding, kind of serious, `I just want you to know ... this game is worth $1.6 million to our program.' To the development of players and coaches across the country. Think about that. It's quite a responsibility. And I thought `Boy ... '
"So I don't think -- no, I know -- nothing I go through here can top that kind of pressure.
"To be honest, I felt more pressure my first game at Shattuck (a prep school in Faribault, Minn.) last year than I did in Nashville this year. It'd been 20 years since I'd coached 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds, so that was unfamiliar territory. NHLers were the age group I was used to dealing with."
Andy may be a quiet King. A bookish King. A thoughtful King. But he's also a King not to be trifled with; a King to play hard for; a King who demands as much of himself as he does of his subjects.
He's open, attentive and flexible but it's all fortified by a shaft of unbendable steel. That's what landed him the job in L.A.
"At the end of the season, when we knew Larry (Robinson) wasn't going to be back, Dave (L.A. GM Taylor) got some of the veterans together and asked us what we thought the team needed," recalls Kings sniper Luc Robitaille. "We told him we needed more drive and discipline. Andy's brought that, from Day One. More organization, too.
"Yeah, his practices are tough. But he's communicated with the veterans -- with everybody -- really well."
"Being intense is the only way I know how to coach," Murray says. "Doesn't matter if I'm coaching peewee or bantam or high school or the national team or in the NHL, I'll never cheat my players.
"I've always felt you get what you deserve. Anywhere in life. When I lost out in three other (NHL) positions, I felt the candidates who won deserved them.
"I didn't take this job because I needed it. I took it because I wanted it. But I would've been perfectly happy going back to Shattuck-St. Mary's."
His family has flown in from Manitoba to attend tonight's Kings-Flames game at the 'Dome. He has a sister living here.
"I'm really looking forward to this," says Murray. "Calgary was a great community for my family and myself. The main reason I left the national team program was to spend more time with my family.
"So what's the weather like there? And how are the Stamps doing?"
Murray's Kings are doing just fine. Off to a 3-1-1 start. Readying to move into their new home, the Staples Center, on Oct. 20.
This evening can't help but be a coming-home of sorts.
"I spent a lot of time in the press box at the Saddledome. Coaching the national team, we'd be up there every game, looking for potential players for the World Championships, watching teams we didn't think would make the playoffs."
Andy Murray laughs. He can't help issuing a friendly caution.
"So you can tell Tom Renney I'd better not catching him up there checking out our team on Friday night."
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