Murray discusses Wayne Simmonds

Question: When you look at Wayne Simmonds’ year, was it a step backward?

MURRAY: “He had a bit of a lull. I don’t know if he took a step backwards. Maybe half a step. I thought, in the first couple years, there was a lot of physical involvement, a lot of grit, a lot more confrontational stuff. Sometimes you have to get into that `F you’ battle all that time on the ice. That’s how you send a message, that way. I think sometimes, and this year I might have liked to see more of that in year three. I don’t want to say it’s a natural progression for young players, where you come in with a big bang and now you’re trying to sort it out, trying to improve, and you kind of have a tough time getting to that point and you have to sort it out. What’s critical here is the offseason and, for me, that you continue to push, not only on the physical part of it but now you have to analyze your own self and your own game, and watch your game again, bring the game home with yourself and analyze it so you can have yourself ready and bring yourself back to where we want you to be.”