Tim Murray, understandably, was peeved.
Since arriving in Buffalo last year, the Sabres general manager obse sing over wunderkindConnor McDavid. So you can forgive Murrayfor being a little down in the dumpsSaturday , against the odds, and leaptthe Sabres for the top pick and the right to inevitably sel ect McDavid, the draft's undisputed top prospect who po se ses probable franchise-altering talent.
MORE: | | PHOTOS:
Murray seemed a bit salty when addre sing the media afterwarddespite retaining the No. 2 pick, where the Sabres will still get Jack Eichel of Boston University, an uber prospect in his own right.
"I feel for the fans," Murraysaid, further expre sing hisdisapproval of the NHL's weighted lottery system. "I mean, we went through a tough year, and I think that they were extremely excited about Connor."
He went on:If you can pick 1 or 2, youre going to choose 1. ...Anytime you can get 1 vs. 2 in any walk of life, youre going to want No. 1. But we came up here with an expectation wed probably be picking No. 2 and were going to deal with it. Theres no i sue there.
Given the context and his public praise for McDavid in recent weeks, some perceived Murray's tone-ignorantcomments as a dig towardEichel I didall that tanking and all I got was this lousy T-shirt?But he felt the need to reconcile his comments and make certain that wasn't what he meant.
"People took my comments last night as an insult to Jack Eichel," ."That's the furthest thing fr om the truth.I love Jack Eichel.
"Do you want to win the lottery? I mean, absolutely. I mean, we haven't even had our (pre-draft)meetings yet. We haven't done our list yet. I wanted to win the lottery and pick who we pick. Maybe after we have our meeting in two weeks, maybe we have Jack Eichel at No. 1."
Eichel, for his part, withhis beer drinking. Hebrushed off Murray's comments Saturday, conceding,
Though he's considered an inferior prospect to McDavid, the difference is mild. Eichelwas, after all, the .
Being in position to draft Eichel should helpSabres fans sleep easy until the June 26 draft.
Murray is comfortable andthinks everything will be just fine, even without McDavid. ()
"To me it's not a consolation prize," he told ESPN. "There's two guys in the draft (who)stand out, we'd be extremely happy with either one of them. That's the way we came into the year and it hasn't changed one iota since.
"They're both great players. They're both impact players if they're not franchise players; I think they're both franchise players. But at worst, they're impact players. I've said that about both guys all year."
Since arriving in Buffalo last year, the Sabres general manager obse sing over wunderkindConnor McDavid. So you can forgive Murrayfor being a little down in the dumpsSaturday , against the odds, and leaptthe Sabres for the top pick and the right to inevitably sel ect McDavid, the draft's undisputed top prospect who po se ses probable franchise-altering talent.
MORE: | | PHOTOS:
Murray seemed a bit salty when addre sing the media afterwarddespite retaining the No. 2 pick, where the Sabres will still get Jack Eichel of Boston University, an uber prospect in his own right.
"I feel for the fans," Murraysaid, further expre sing hisdisapproval of the NHL's weighted lottery system. "I mean, we went through a tough year, and I think that they were extremely excited about Connor."
He went on:If you can pick 1 or 2, youre going to choose 1. ...Anytime you can get 1 vs. 2 in any walk of life, youre going to want No. 1. But we came up here with an expectation wed probably be picking No. 2 and were going to deal with it. Theres no i sue there.
Given the context and his public praise for McDavid in recent weeks, some perceived Murray's tone-ignorantcomments as a dig towardEichel I didall that tanking and all I got was this lousy T-shirt?But he felt the need to reconcile his comments and make certain that wasn't what he meant.
"People took my comments last night as an insult to Jack Eichel," ."That's the furthest thing fr om the truth.I love Jack Eichel.
"Do you want to win the lottery? I mean, absolutely. I mean, we haven't even had our (pre-draft)meetings yet. We haven't done our list yet. I wanted to win the lottery and pick who we pick. Maybe after we have our meeting in two weeks, maybe we have Jack Eichel at No. 1."
Eichel, for his part, withhis beer drinking. Hebrushed off Murray's comments Saturday, conceding,
Though he's considered an inferior prospect to McDavid, the difference is mild. Eichelwas, after all, the .
Being in position to draft Eichel should helpSabres fans sleep easy until the June 26 draft.
Murray is comfortable andthinks everything will be just fine, even without McDavid. ()
"To me it's not a consolation prize," he told ESPN. "There's two guys in the draft (who)stand out, we'd be extremely happy with either one of them. That's the way we came into the year and it hasn't changed one iota since.
"They're both great players. They're both impact players if they're not franchise players; I think they're both franchise players. But at worst, they're impact players. I've said that about both guys all year."