"When Bryan Murray walked into the press conference room on Feb. 17, he looked like he'd lost his best friend. "I just traded one of the good guys and most respected players on this hockey team," said the Senators' general manager, referring to centre Chris Kelly. Of all the deals Murray made in this year's house-cleaning, which included trading Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev, Chris Campoli, Jarkko Ruutu and Brian Elliott, it's likely none hurt as much on a personal level as moving Kelly. We used to tease Murray, when he was head coach of the Senators from 2005-07, that Kelly was the coach's pet — never criticized, frequently praised for his ability to step onto any forward line, in any situation, without adding to a coach's stomach ulcers. Because he wasn't flashy, didn't shoot particularly hard or skate especially fast, Kelly was easy to overlook among the more skilled Senators like Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza or Dany Heatley. Kelly was a checking, third-line centre, often between such non-scoring threats as Chris Neil and Ruutu. As required, though, Kelly could fill in for Spezza on the top line, or shift to the wing to play alongside Spezza, Fisher or Antoine Vermette. At the trade deadline every year, as Murray moved into the GM position in 2007, he liked to remind us that of all the seasonal calls he received, Kelly was the one Ottawa player that rival GMs asked about most often. The Boston Bruins finally landed Kelly for a second- round draft choice, and probably would not be in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs today if they hadn't. (Nashville says the same about Fisher, a point-per-game player in Round 1.)" Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/hockey/ottawa-senators/This Chris Kelly tough/4692762/story.html
