Sens coach Bryan Murray must beat a team he built

	Bryan Murray was named coach of the Mighty Ducks on May 25, 2001, and later added key parts of the 2007 Cup final team. AP
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Look closely at the Anaheim Ducks, proud Western Conference champions, and you'll see a thumbprint. It's smudged a bit, but still unmistakably relevant to what the team has achieved. The thumbprint belongs to Bryan Murray, who was coach of the then-Mighty Ducks in 2001-02 and the general manager for two more years, including 2002-03, when Anaheim impressively reached the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final against New Jersey.

It was Murray who snagged two blue-chippers with late first-round draft picks in 2003: Ryan Getzlaf at No. 19 and Corey Perry at No. 28. Murray was the one who picked up free agent forwards Dustin Penner and Chris Kunitz. That line of Perry, Penner and Getzlaf? All Murray. He also traded for forward Rob Niedermayer. He made J-S Giguere the Ducks' starting goaltender in 2001-02, when Giguere recorded a 2.13 goals-against average in 53 games.

As much as anyone, Murray is responsible for building the Ducks into the Stanley Cup finalists they are in 2007. Of course, in his new incarnation as coach of the Ottawa Senators, he desperately wants the Ducks to lose. The Ducks stand in the way of the opportunity Murray has been waiting for his whole life. Forget the joke about the Senators' long-suffering fans waiting for their first championship since 1927, when Jack Adams and King Clancy were teammates rather than trophies. Ottawa is a young franchise, re-born in 1992, that does not know true Cup-envy. But Murray does.

He started coaching in the high minor leagues back in 1979, leading the Regina Pats to a Western Hockey League title in his first season behind the bench. In 1981 he took over as coach of the Washington Capitals and won the Adams Trophy in 1984 as the NHL's coach of the year, but didn't win a Stanley Cup. In 1992-93, one of three seasons that Murray spent behind the Red Wings' bench, he guided Detroit to a 103-point season. At the time it was the best regular season in the storied franchise's history, but he again failed to win the Cup.

Murray moved on to Florida, where as GM of the Panthers he guided another team to the Cup final (1996), but fell short of a title there, too. At least this year he will know he was partly responsible for a championship regardless of who wins. But one more playoff series without a title and Murray will have 17 Cup-less seasons on his coaching resume, leaving him in a tie with the late Roger Neilson for second behind Pat Quinn (19) on the all-time list. And that doesn't even count Murray's near misses as GM.