A second chance: in his return to Boston, Glen Murray has emerged as one of the league's top scoring threats

Hockey Digest, March, 2003 by Jeff Goodman

WHEN GLEN MURRAY RETURNED to Boston a little more than a year ago in a deal that sent disgruntled center Jason Allison to Los Angeles, Bruins fans didn't exactly welcome him with open arms.

Most still remembered Murray as a former first-round pick who was never able to fulfill expectations before being shipped to Pittsburgh before the 1995-96 season. Also fresh in their minds were the 95 points Allison had just put up the previous year.

But the 6'3", 225-pound Murray has turned out to be a far different player this time than he was in his first go-around with the B's. This is the new and improved version 2.0. Murray is much quicker, has more confidence, and, most importantly, regularly is finding a way to put the puck in the net.

Boston GM Mike O'Connell knew what Murray was capable of, having coached the forward when he scored 30 goals in 48 games in the minors a decade ago. However, it wasn't until watching Murray, then with the Kings, notch four goals in a playoff series against Colorado two years ago that O'Connell was sold on Murray as an elite player in the NHL.

"He's one of the top players in the league, there's no question about it," O'Connell says today. "He's in excellent shape, he's got a great attitude, and he's just so efficient. He never goes offsides, he very rarely takes penalties, and he's always open and always moving. Plus, he's a terrific penalty-killer."

But that wasn't always the case. Boston took Murray with the 18th overall pick in the 1991 draft, and things appeared to come easy for the Nova Scotia native when he scored a goal in his first NHL game, against Quebec on January 28, 1992.

After a five-game cameo in 1991-92, Murray made the team coming out of camp in 1992-93, but he was soon sent down to Providence. "It was really frustrating, but I had to push through it," Murray says. "It's real easy to get down on yourself, not work hard, and not get called back up. It happens to a lot of guys, but I worked hard, and looking back on it, it really helped me out to get to where I am today."

But Murray's first stint with the B's was filled with plenty of highs and lows. He finally broke into the everyday lineup in 1993-94 and scored 18 goals. But after the next season, in which he managed just five goals in 35 games, he was traded to the Penguins in a deal that brought Kevin Stevens to Boston

Murray's Pittsburgh stay was brief. He scored just 25 goals in almost two seasons before being shipped out in a deadline deal in 1997 to L.A. for veteran Ed Olczyk.

Murray displayed the same pattern of inconsistency while on the West Coast He scored 29 goals and added 31 assists in his first full campaign with the Kings in 1997-98 but slipped to 31 points the next season. He bounced back with what was a then-career-high 62 points in 1999-2000 before again slipping to 39 points the next season.

After scoring six goals and adding five assists in his first nine games last season, Murray got the word that he was headed back east to Beantown, along with teammate Jozef Stumpel, who also began his career with the Bruins.

"I was shocked," Murray says. "The season had just started, and you don't think you're going to get traded, but [the Kings] were looking to make a deal. The more I thought about it, I was happy to come back here and have a big role--a much bigger one than when I was here the last time--and it's been a great move for me."

Murray finished last season with a career-high 41 goals, playing the majority of the time on a line centered by Stumpel. He had never cracked the 30-goal barrier before, but he finished the season tied for second in the entire league with fellow Bruin Bill Guerin.

Heading into this season, Murray heard all the whispers that last season was a fluke, but he didn't listen to those that said he'd come back down to earth as he had after every previous breakout year in his career.

"I don't really read all that stuff, but everyone also said we weren't going to have a good team coming into the season," Murray says. "They said we weren't even going to make the playoffs, but I think we're proving a lot of people wrong. When you lose a guy like Billy [Guerin, who signed with Dallas] we knew it was going to be tough, but we've had a lot of guys step up."

The predicted dropoff in both the Bruins' fortunes [see sidebar, previous page] and Murray's play hasn't happened this year. In fact, over the first half of this season Murray has picked up right where he left off. He had 17 goals over the first 30 games of the season, which was right up there with the league leaders. Murray's play was one of the main reasons the Bruins are in contention to repeat as Eastern Conference regular-season champions despite the offseason losses of Guerin and goal-tender Byron Dafoe, plus a spate of early-season injuries.

Instead of playing with Stumpel on the team's second line, Murray has been elevated to the top line this season, taking Guerin's spot, skating with the dynamic Joe Thornton.

"A lot of guys don't get talked about in that elite class even though they belong in it, and Glen is one of those guys," Boston coach Robbie Ftorek says. "He's a great goal-scorer, but he also does great things on the defensive end. There's probably not a better back-pressure guy in the league. He plays off Joe so well. He's just a diamond."