Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray has been battling colon cancer since this summer. He sat down with famed hockey writer Michael Farber and shared some of the sobering details in his first interview since being diagnosed for TSN.
The Ottawa Sun transcribed some of the interview:
"There is no cure at this point for me,” Murray said in the powerful five-minute story that aired on TSN5’s pre-game show before the Senators-Oilers match last night. “The word is we’ll keep doing chemo and, hopefully, reduce the tumours and the effect and I’ll get some time out of that.”
A father of two, Murray said the doctors told him he may have had cancer for seven-to-10 years.
“The frustrating part — and I’ve said this to several doctors since then — is, ‘How come there were no signs?’ ” Murray said.
“When you hear that you’ve had cancer for possibly up to 10 years and there were no signs ... Obviously, because of the Stage 4, it had moved through my body.”
This is simply devastating news. Despite that, however, Murray is now taking the opportunity to try to help others. During his interview with Farber, a cancer survivor himself, Murray advocated for men to get a colonoscopy. Murray painfully admitted that it could have possibly saved him.
Murray is a hockey lifer. He started in the NHL with the Washington Capitals, taking over the team partway through the 1981-82 season. He also led the Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Senators as a head coach. He has been the Senators general manager since 2007.
Though his situation is dire, Murray described his outlook in the best way he knows how: with a hockey analogy.
More from the Sun:
Farber noted that Murray has never been a fan of the shootout, so his best bet is to push this battle to overtime.
“That’s all you can do — and I hate shootouts,” said Murray. “Let’s go to extra overtime and keep playing like the game that we played (against the Islanders) many years ago and it went to four overtime periods.
“Let’s keep it going as long as we can and be as healthy as we can for that time and enjoy what we have as we do it.”
In a signature show of hockey toughness, the soon-to-be 72-year-old Murray’s resolve remains unbreakable.
