Rozner: Ducks' Murray, Yawney were doomed in Chicago
When you get to the conference finals, there is already contempt with no need to breed.
In this case, there is also familiarity.
It starts with Anaheim general manager Bob Murray, who was the assistant GM and the brains behind the scenes when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007 — and since taking over for Brian Burke as GM seven years ago, he has consistently made the most of a small-market operation.
The former Blackhawks defenseman is one of only four players with 1,000 games played for Chicago and is among the all-time Hawks leaders in assists, shots, total goals on-ice for and power-play goals on-ice for.
After retiring, he worked in the Hawks' front office and was groomed to succeed Bob Pulford, who let Murray have the job in title for about two years, but in reality much less than that.
When Murray took over in the summer of 1997, Pulford had already built the roster for the next season — and what a roster it was. By the time Murray got his first real opportunity in the summer of 1998, the team needed a complete overhaul.
The best players from the 1995 team that was a bounce or two away from going to the Stanley Cup Final were all gone, and Pulford had done nothing to replace Jeremy Roenick, Bernie Nicholls, Joe Murphy, Denis Savard, Dirk Graham, Steve Smith, Murray Craven and Ed Belfour.
Murray was ordered to fire Craig Hartsburg when they missed the playoffs for the first time in 29 years in 1998, and hire yet another coach with no NHL experience.
Graham had to have his arm twisted to take the position, when no one else would take it for the money offered. The Hawks missed the playoffs again in 1999, Graham was fired and Murray had to go cheap again with Lorne Molleken.
Early the next season, Pulford fired Murray and took over yet again as GM and coach.
It took Murray years to repair his reputation, a familiar spot for players, coaches and GMs that were undone by Bill Wirtz and Pulford.
But now he's the GM of a team that finished with the best record in the West the last two years, and he'd like nothing more than to get the Stanley Cup Final by taking out Chicago.
Just as interesting is the number of players who played for ex-Hawks coach Trent Yawney in Norfolk and now play for Anaheim, where Yawney is an assistant coach and runs the defense.
Yawney is one of the best developers of talent in hockey and players like Duncan Keith are effusive in their praise of the work Yawney did getting them ready to play in the NHL.
“Yawns was captain of the Canadian Olympic team. He's a hero in Canada,” Keith said the night the Hawks won the Cup in 2010. “He taught me a lot about hockey and how to play defense and all that, but really he taught me to be a man and to be a pro.
“He kept me in Norfolk when I wasn't sure it was the best thing for me. You think about those people when something like this is happening to you.”
Yawney was the Hawks coach for a total of 103 games, hired and fired by Dale Tallon, who in Florida has allowed coaches the same short leash. Peter DeBoer got 82 games, Kevin Dineen 146 games and Peter Horachek 66 games.
The Hawks were unprepared for the new NHL coming out of the 2004-05 lockout and signed several free agents that were too slow for the new game. Yawney paid the price as Tallon had to serve up a scapegoat for a demanding Wirtz.
In his final game as head coach in November 2006, these were Yawney's forward lines: Bryan Smolinski, Tuomo Ruutu and Carl Corazzini; Patrick Sharp, Tony Salmelainen and Radim Vrbata; Denis Arkhipov, Martin Lapointe and Michael Holmqvist; and Craig MacDonald, Jeff Hamilton and Karl Stewart.
On defense, he had veterans Lasse Kukkonen, Jim Vandermeer and Jassen Cullimore, and youngsters Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and James Wisniewski. His goaltender was Brian Boucher.
It was a decent AHL team.
Like Murray, Yawney spent years trying to repair his reputation, and now he's part of a coaching staff with a chance to win the West and get to the Cup Final.
They were once defensive partners in Chicago, but now Murray and Yawney are part of a Ducks team trying to deny the Hawks a chance at their third title in six years.
Let the games begin.
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