A few minutes with...Randy Murphy

The New Mexico Scorpions head coach talks about his team and coaching against Dan Wildfong's Brahmas

Randy Murphy is now in his second year as head coach of the New Mexico Scorpions. Last season, the Scorpions finished with a record of 34-24-6. They lost to the Arizona Sundogs in the playoffs.

Murphy, 36, previously served as an assistant coach for the Scorpions during the 2006-07 season and was a player/assistant for three years with the Elmira Jackals (UHL) from 2001-2004.

Over a 11-year professional playing career the Elmira College graduate appeared in 751 games racking up 895 points (328 G, 567 A). He played in the SHL, UHL, AHL, ECHL, WPHL and CHL.

Murphy wore the Scorpions sweater for 199 games from 1998-2000 and 2004-05.

In addition to the Scorpions Hall of Fame, “Murph” has his hockey stick inside the Pro Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. On December 31, 1999 in a game versus El Paso, he scored the final professional goal scored in the millennium.

I spoke with Coach Murphy during his recent visit to the NYTEX Sports Centre.

Q:How do you feel about the performance of your team thus far?

A: You know what? To sum it up in one word, I would say inconsistent right now. There's a lot of good signs. I like the core of guys that we have. It's just a matter of building and getting better day-to-day here. If we can get better every day, then we're on the right track.

Q: Rookie center Torren Delforte has been really dynamic. Are you surprised, or is that what you'd expected of him?

A: Torren's really been a great edition. We probably didn't expect as much of an offensive outpouring from him this early on but he's certainly grasping the pro game pretty quickly. I'm real excited to see a guy like that who's a first-year guy with that much work ethic and talent combined into one package.

Q: At this point in the season, coaches are still trying out their systems and see where everybody is at as a team. With where you're at and what you've seen so far, in what area would you like to see the most improvement for your team?

A: I think definitely our D-zone coverage. Play in our end has to get a lot better . It's something that we work on every day in practice. It seems to be taking us a while to grasp it. Part of that's my problem to fix and part of it is the guys. I like to think of it as somewhat like a marriage. You know, give and take a little bit. Both sides have to understand that we're trying to come to a common ground and that's overall improvement. Right now it seems to be a bit of a struggle for us. We don't really have a problem scoring goals but you don't want to be a run-and-gun team. They don't seem to last very long in this day and age in the pro hockey game. We'll try to keep the puck out of our net and hopefully our goaltending gets to the point where they're at their best and our defense are at their best and our forwards are committing their own end.

Q: You've played against Dan Wildfong. Would you rather play against him or coach against him?

A: I'd rather coach against him (laughing). He wasn't a lot of fun to play against. That's for sure. He was a competitor, a tough guy. You know, I wish I had a couple of Dan Wildfongs. He's a guy who really brought it every night and tried to help his team win every night. I respect Dan. Dan and I have a pretty good relationship when it comes to the off-ice stuff and he's done a tremendous job over there.

Q: What do you think, in preparing against the Brahmas, what are you looking at mainly?

A: They've got a great team. Their personnel is tremendous. They've got some real big forwards. Our key is to try and neutralize their bigger guys up front and try to just control them. If we can do that, I think we'll be OK.

Q: What did you think when you heard that Jordan Cameron came back from Germany?

A: I wasn't really very excited about that (laughing). He's a good player. He's not unlike a lot of their other guys. Obviously he's got a great scoring touch. He's just one of the other guys we have to key on.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith