Willis on the Welfare
02-06-2005, 11:47 PM
I have never met David Murray. He seems like a nice kid. He sits in the stands with his suit cause he's a healthy scratch. He does not have the arrogant swagger that many junior hockey players seem to have. He is not a well known player in the WHL. He is a two way player who works hard. At 18 he is playing with his second WHL team and it is likely not his last. He seems content, happy to be here and not even a little bit pissed off.
He should be mad. He is a good kid with class and he won't get pissed off, but he has a right to be. I'm just a welfare bum, mad at the world. I'll be mad for him.
David Murray has TWICE been screwed over by the suits in the WHL in the last two months. The WHL referees and execs are certainly making no secret of the fact that they have a two sets of rules. Rules for marquee players and rules for players like David Murray. As a Lethbridge Hurricane, Murray finished a hard body check on Trevor Glass. Murray got the elbow up a little high, but the damage was done when Glass lost his helmet and his head hit the ice. A lost helmet caused a two minute elbowing call to swell to five games suspended. Amazingly just months earlier in the same building Ryan Hollweg, a marquee player in the dub did pretty much the same thing and took a year off the career of Colin Stone. Hollweg was not even assesed a two minute minor, but Alex Lentowich got suspended for his emotional reaction to the situation. The tape of the Colin Stone hit was reviewed and one of the lines used by Richard Doerkson (the suit in charge of discipline) was "the video was inconclusive".
Back to the Murray situation. He sat out his five games and was promptly traded before he would ever play again as a hurricane. One of his first games as a Bronco sees him play the Kootenay Ice. As fate would have it Big Brother Jeff Glass plays for the opposition. He verbally assaults Murray during the pre-game warm up, and even gives him the lumber in the first period. Murray, trying to impress his new coach goes hard to the goal in the second period. What happened next has been the talk of the league for the last two weeks. Murray took repeated shots to the head as revenge for a hit he should have got two minutes for but got five games. Jeff Glass for his pre-meditated attack? Two minutes served by someone else. Richard Doerkson again saw the tape and guess what. "the video was inconclusive". Amazing how the camera picks up the star players of the WHL like they were the Loch Ness Monster, but saw David Murray and made an example out of him.
The silver lining in this situation? If David Murray could go back and not hit Trevor Glass, I'm pretty sure he'd change that moment and not finish the check. David Murray has become a better person for the mistakes of himself, the mistakes of the league and the immaturity of an All Star goalie. Jeff Glass has learned that there are no consequences for breaking the rules. In this life lesson, Jeff Glass has failed. It may not seem like much of a victory to some, but David Murray is a better person than Jeff Glass, whether the suits in the WHL office believe that or not.
Willi$
He should be mad. He is a good kid with class and he won't get pissed off, but he has a right to be. I'm just a welfare bum, mad at the world. I'll be mad for him.
David Murray has TWICE been screwed over by the suits in the WHL in the last two months. The WHL referees and execs are certainly making no secret of the fact that they have a two sets of rules. Rules for marquee players and rules for players like David Murray. As a Lethbridge Hurricane, Murray finished a hard body check on Trevor Glass. Murray got the elbow up a little high, but the damage was done when Glass lost his helmet and his head hit the ice. A lost helmet caused a two minute elbowing call to swell to five games suspended. Amazingly just months earlier in the same building Ryan Hollweg, a marquee player in the dub did pretty much the same thing and took a year off the career of Colin Stone. Hollweg was not even assesed a two minute minor, but Alex Lentowich got suspended for his emotional reaction to the situation. The tape of the Colin Stone hit was reviewed and one of the lines used by Richard Doerkson (the suit in charge of discipline) was "the video was inconclusive".
Back to the Murray situation. He sat out his five games and was promptly traded before he would ever play again as a hurricane. One of his first games as a Bronco sees him play the Kootenay Ice. As fate would have it Big Brother Jeff Glass plays for the opposition. He verbally assaults Murray during the pre-game warm up, and even gives him the lumber in the first period. Murray, trying to impress his new coach goes hard to the goal in the second period. What happened next has been the talk of the league for the last two weeks. Murray took repeated shots to the head as revenge for a hit he should have got two minutes for but got five games. Jeff Glass for his pre-meditated attack? Two minutes served by someone else. Richard Doerkson again saw the tape and guess what. "the video was inconclusive". Amazing how the camera picks up the star players of the WHL like they were the Loch Ness Monster, but saw David Murray and made an example out of him.
The silver lining in this situation? If David Murray could go back and not hit Trevor Glass, I'm pretty sure he'd change that moment and not finish the check. David Murray has become a better person for the mistakes of himself, the mistakes of the league and the immaturity of an All Star goalie. Jeff Glass has learned that there are no consequences for breaking the rules. In this life lesson, Jeff Glass has failed. It may not seem like much of a victory to some, but David Murray is a better person than Jeff Glass, whether the suits in the WHL office believe that or not.
Willi$