Moving on

We all know about “playoff beards” and the team camaraderie that they can build, but what can a coach do? Will Terry Murray pull out any motivational tactics in order to get his team fired up? Murray, perhaps the most even-keel coach in the NHL, grimaced a bit at the suggestion…

MURRAY: “I don’t buy that stuff. … I did all that in the early part of my career. All these motivational tapes and `Rocky’ and `Chariots of Fire.”’

As a defenseman, Murray appeared in 302 regular-season NHL games and 18 playoff games. I asked Murray if he remembered his first playoff game…

MURRAY: “No. (laughs) No, I don’t.”

How about as a coach? The Washington Capitals made the playoffs in Murray’s first season as head coach, in 1989-90…

MURRAY: “I don’t. It was obviously with Washington. We went to the conference finals, I remember, and beat the New York Rangers to get into the finals, but I don’t remember who the first series was against. I think it was against the New Jersey Devils. That’s when the Devils had a couple of the Russian defensemen there, Kasatonov and Fetisov, and it was a pretty hard series.”

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