On Larry Murphy

NHL.com has a good article about Larry Murphy written to commemorate his induction in to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, November 8th. It gives an overview of his whole career and is definitely a good read. I was always a big fan of Murphy when he was in Detroit. I never understood all the flak he took from other fans since I always appreciated his steady play, especially his knack for keeping the puck in the offensive zone (that's always stood out to me for some reason). I remember his time here fondly but that's probably more because the Wings won two Cups during that time than anything else. But since I was at that time really getting in to hockey and the Wings, Lidstrom-Murphy will always be the defensive pairing. To me anyway. It was sad to see him go on the decline in that last year and then to see him let go by the Wings and forced to retire. He never was a Rob Niedermeyer-like skater but he was noticeably slower in that last playoff series. Wow, it feels like so long ago for some reason, even though it was only 2001. Now we can only see him as an occasional guest color-commentator on Fox Sports Detroit. He shares the job of replacing Mickey Redmond on select road trips with Doug Brown and Pat Verbeek. Well, congratulations, Murph, on getting inducted. Some may say you don't deserve it but I say you do.