We know Andy Murray as the all-time leader in wins as coach in Los Angeles Kings history (215 wins from 1999-2006), but he has had a long and successful coaching career, as an assistant, head coach or as a consultant, at so many different levels (Canadian College, U.S. prep School, European Leagues, Canadian National team with numerous tournaments as well as World Championships and Olympic games, NHL and now U.S. College). I caught up with Andy just before Christmas while he was spending some time off in Florida with his wife Ruth during the college Christmas break and we chatted about some of the things he has accomplished in the past, but we started with his current position as head coach at Western Michigan University…
JF: My first question is just getting us up to speed. On July 26, 2011 you were named head coach of Western Michigan University. Last season you were CCHA tournament champions…as we speak, WMU is rated top ten. Please go back to the decision and take us through the process of choosing the US college route.
Andy Murray: Well first of all it caught a few people by surprise. I just had bought this home in Florida and I had been asked to look at a couple of NHL jobs and decided I wasn’t going to and I’d actually agreed to be a consultant–and then I was going to be a health consultant with a Swiss Hockey Federation–Brady’s there…
…and Jordy was playing—I did a little work with their national team and a few guys that I coached in the NHL, Jamal Mayers in particular, who had played with Western and a few other guys that had played there called me said ‘coach we’d like you to go and consider this possibility at Western Michigan’…
…and it’s something where I’ve said that it’s kind of on my bucket list of things that I hadn’t done yet and I’d always been a fan of college sports–football and everything about the atmosphere and I having my three kids (Brady, Sarah, Jordy) all play college hockey…
…I didn’t get to see many games but I watched quite a few on the computer and that type of thing. I always respected the college coaches and thought it would be great and I also thought you only live once and you’ve got to try it all and I thought I would regret it if I didn’t try so I went to the school campus–I was fortunate enough they offered me a job and I came back home and I walked in the door and Ruth (Andy’s wife) said ‘we are not going to Florida’—(we bought this place two years ago, from the day I bought it, it’s the second time I’ve seen it. We had four days off for the Christmas break so we came down here)–but really it was just something as I said ‘you only live once’ and it was something I had on my bucket list that I’d love to try and be in the college environment–I mean, I get sideline passes to the football games and the basketball games and the women’s volleyball. Ruth and I go all the time there, it’s helped keep me young as well and I’ve enjoyed it—our team has fortunately been successful, we finished tied for second in the regular season which was actually a bit of a surprise, more surprising that we ended up winning the tournament but we’re it’s been enjoyable.
JF: I’ve always thought about this–I’ve never been in this situation certainly as a coach or even as a recruit. I’m sure there are many, but what point do you feel you need to get across when speaking to the parents of a recruit?
Andy Murray: Bottom line is that we’ll do things the right way. First of all, if we offer somebody a scholarship; they’re getting a scholarship–we’re not pulling scholarships off the table and that type of thing. You hear lots of stories where schools are out offering scholarships and all of a sudden they decide they don’t want the player and just dump them. But to me I think the bottom line is we will do things the right way. Another thing I do–parents will ask me ‘what’s your scholarship package’ and I’ve told our assistants right from the get go but we don’t talk scholarship until we know a player wants to be a Bronco–first of all, we only recruit players we want and once we have a player in and that player says ‘coach I’d love to be a Bronco’ then it’s up to us to find a scholarship package that fits their family’s needs. So I think honesty and being forthright, letting them know that we want players that want to be part of the program–you’ve heard me say many times, ‘we’re demanding but we don’t have a demeaning coaching style’, we demand a lot of players, in the classroom and on the ice and if you’re willing to be a part of that package and commit to it we’d love to have you. So I think its honesty. I’ve fortunately got a bit of a track record where they don’t have to go very far to check into my coaching style–I don’t push the NHL side–I know my assistants do, quite a bit in the sense that they talk about ‘he knows what it takes to get to the next level’ and so on, but really we just sell our school and we sell the integrity of our program and we do things the right way and that we’ll communicate with their sons everyday and let them know exactly what our expectations are and how they need to adhere to those expectations. Bottom line is just honesty. And we’ve got a great school, great academic school, we’ve got a passionate fan base, it’s the loudest building in hockey, I’d actually love for you and Bob to come and call a game their sometime…
…it’s crazy, it’s the loudest building in hockey and I’ve been in some really loud buildings and it’s just crazy and we’ve never lost a recruit that’s come on to watch a game at Lawson Arena, when they see the atmosphere and what it’s like, they truly get excited.
Hey Andy!
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I still have fond memories of his time coaching the Kings. Hopefully the college enviroment will prove to be a good fit.
At least the players won’t be surprised by the pop quizzes.
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CB14 Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
@Jon G, Nice one!
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Seems like college would be a great fit for Andy’s coaching style.
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Finally, the owners make much more reasonable concession(s): http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=412368
Players best take this one or something darn close to it.
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CB14 Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
@KC23, When are the funerals for the 30 owners who all died on the 5 year term limit hill that Bill Daly referenced?
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Lake Forest Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
@CB14, John Lu @JohnLuTSNMtl
Breaking: Hill the NHL would die on downgraded to speed bump which merely induced collective lower body injury. Length of injury: 2 weeks.
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luc20rules Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
@CB14, They should stay away from hills.
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Goring 19 Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
@KC23, Fehr will still probably demand more just to much it up…
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Met Andy Murray at one of the Frozen Fury games in Las Vegas. Classy guy who would make any hockey team a contender.
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Another story with NHL offer details. Unless they have some hidden catch the players should vote 100% for this offer. It even has a built in 10% year to year salary variance, which would mean a built in circumvention of the cap. Ex: yr 1 $10mil, yr 2 $9mil, yr 3 $8.1mil, yr 4 $7.29mil, yr 5 $6.56mil, and yr 6 $5.91mil for a cap hit of 7.817mil/yr. Not as obvious as before, but signifigant if the player is only expected to play 4 or fewer years.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8786610/nhl-offer-boosts-contract-length-limit-player-source-says
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Only thing that players won’t like is the buyout that is taken out of the players share of revenue. So basically players not playing will be given money at the expense of those that are.
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New CBA proposal has a change to the Draft Lotto. All non-playoff teams will have a chance to win the top pick, so it is basically modeled after the NBA Draft Lotto.
http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-on-hockey/21464625/nhl-lockout-nhl-proposes-draft-lottery-for-all-non-playoff-teams
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Andy is in the right spot. College kids only play 48 games or less and are able to recover from bag skates, and tough practices much faster than pros in their 30s playing 82 games in a year. Still he got alot out of a lot of the Kings players despite the terrible injury toll the Kings had. Best of Luck Coach.
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Is it Christmas yet?
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luc20rules Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
@DesertKing, If the NHL starts up in January 2013 its just a late Christmas for me.
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Forum Gold Reply:
December 29th, 2012 at 8:01 am
@luc20rules, Any Kings hockey is better than no Kings hockey. A mini season is not what we all wanted, but our love for our team will bring us back to that great anticipation of every game we all experience. As a fan of the NHL I can not express my displeasure of the fan treatment more but some things will never change and I just have to accept it. Raising the Stanley Cup banner in January works for me,
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I still like Murray even though he didn’t learm his lessons the first time the Kings lead the league in man games lost due to injuries (when the Kings set a record). Not only did he lose even more the next season (a kings record) his track record, which lead to him being fired, followed him to St.Louis where dispite some brilliant coaching, lead to him being fired there for the same thing. Still…Murray was one of the best coaches at making in-game adjustments and is still one of my all time favorite Kings coaches. Good to see him at the helm again and I’m sure he’ll do a great job there. Just take it easy with any Kings prospect you might come across in the future
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DesertKing Reply:
December 28th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
@Dominick,
So if we combined Andy with Terry then we would have had the perfect “Coach Murray”?
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So last night I went to my first “professional” hockey game of the year. Yes folks ECHL hockey. The Ontario Reign were in town and Trevor Lewis had just signed with the Utah Grizzlies. This opened open for a night of missing the game we love so much. As I sat there I could not help but miss the action of professional hockey. Granted these were not the best players in the world, but you could tell these kids were out there playing because they love the game. Even Trevor looked as if he was having fun just to be skating again. He scored a goal and had an assist, but that was not the story of the night, the story came from the fact that kids still love to play this game and it’s a crying shame that the “rich” can’t seem to put together some kind of agreement. I know both the owners and players do a lot to bring us the game we love to watch and yes, it hurts when you can’t watch the best players, play. But let us all remember that hockey the last I checked was still a game. A game where kids go out and skate and pass around a rubber puck thing trying their damned best to make it pass some very small goal post. Will I ever get rich “watching” a hockey game… Probably not!! Actually I’m poorer because of hockey because I have spent just in the last few years tons of money on Kings hockey. Winning the Cup last year was epic, yet bittersweet! I still have not seen the banner raised, nor rings passed out. I wait thinking that this lockout crap will be over with, yet still nothing. The players who make up our league are scattered all around the world playing the game they love. Part of it has to do with greed and part of it has to do with our desire to watch and pay for professional sports. It is a shame where we live in a country where a person can barely get by, making ends meet, paying bills and going without, but still finds a way to make it out to watch a player play. This from his all time favorite team for yes get this 25.00 payed for awesome seat. And still have as much fun as if he payed 150.00 to watch the Sharks get beat at the Staples Center. Look all I’m trying to say is… There are still some of us that want hockey back, but just want to see the “rich grow up” and act like adults, not greedy little kids who are so rich they don’t want to share. Yes folks we live in a world of the haves and the have nots. Get comfortable with it.
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