Murray recaps physical matchup with Rangers

Defenseman Ryan Murray was drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets second overall at the 2012 NHL Draft. He missed most of last season after sustaining a shoulder injury last November playing for the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League. Murray had two goals and 17 points in 23 games for the Silvertips prior to his injury that sidelined him nine months. The 6-foot, 201-pound left-hander has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com during the Traverse City Prospects Tournament this week in Michigan.

Hello again hockey fans!

Our game against the New York Rangers just ended and I'm happy to report that we came out on top [with a 4-2 victory].

On our off-day on Saturday, I didn't do too much. We relaxed a bit and did some mini-putting. I was playing in a foursome with Boone Jenner, Jake Hansen and Jeremy Langlois. Hansen won out of our group; I wasn't very good.

But back to the game, it was a pretty physical affair out there tonight. They are all really intense games and there were a lot of fights against the Rangers. There's a lot of emotion on the ice, so I'm not surprised that there are that many fights when there's a lot of physical play out there over the course of a game.

I was able to contribute to the offense with a goal. It was early in the game and I had some legs at that time. I started falling off a bit toward the end of the game, but did have an opportunity to jump into the rush early on and just kind of whacked at the puck a few times and it fortunately ended up going in.

Overall, our team has really come together. Boone Jenner has been awesome for us; he's just a workhorse for us out there each game. He's a pure heart and soul guy and someone who is fun to watch and learn from because he gives it 110 percent all the time. I've also gotten an opportunity to play with Thomas Larkin and Austin Madaisky out there the past couple of games and they are great defenders to read off and a real pleasure to play with them. It's awesome just to be able to give pucks and get them back and know I can jump into the rush because I know they'll be able to make a play with it.

So we'll play in the third-place game on Monday. It won't be in the final since we hurt ourselves with that loss in the tournament opener [against Buffalo]. But it still will be our last game of the tournament [against the Dallas Stars] so we're going to do our best to win it and finish on a positive note.

Thanks for reading!