Murphy gaining all-important confidence during opportunity with Wild

SAN JOSE -- To a professional athlete, confidence is the fuel that keeps him among the best in the world at his profession. Without it, a player once drafted highly or paid handsomely can find himself at a crossroads.
Ryan Murphy was one of those players.

The 12th overall pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2011 NHL Draft boasted talent and metrics that had scouts drooling. The season before he was drafted, Murphy scored 26 goals and had 79 points for Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League.
Murphy is a defenseman, remember.
Even after being drafted, Murphy had 11 goals and 54 points in 49 games with Kitchener before departing for professional hockey the following season.
Proficiency in the American Hockey League with the Hurricanes organization wasn't a problem, either. He scored 22 points in his first 25 games at that level and had 41 points in 57 games there over the next two seasons.
But something wasn't right in Murphy's first few cups of coffee with the parent club.
The playing time was never consistent (he never skated in more than 48 games with Carolina in a single season in his career there). As part of a young team trying to build, Murphy never showed the kind of big offensive upside scouts saw in major junior hockey.
Last season, his last with the Hurricanes, Murphy scored two points and was a minus-11 in 27 games. He was traded to Calgary in June and bought out 24 hours later.
His fuel was gone.
"I've struggled with confidence and my identity the last couple years, being in and out of lineups, being healthy scratched," Murphy said. "So to come [to Minnesota] and for them to have trust in me to go out there and play those minutes, it's a really good feeling."
Murphy scored the Wild's first goal in a 4-3 overtime win over the Sharks, his first goal in 69 games in the NHL. He later added an assist for his first multi-point effort at this level in nearly three years.

After beginning the season in Iowa, where he had one goal and 11 points in 18 games, Murphy was recalled the same day defenseman Jared Spurgeon missed his first game; Nov. 27 in Winnipeg.
While Spurgeon's injury wasn't the reason for the call-up -- the Wild felt Murphy had earned an opportunity anyway -- his play since the recall has helped ease the burden of playing without one of Minnesota's best defensemen.
"The biggest thing with Ryan is getting out of the American League way, and I was there for my whole life. And what it is, is things don't happen as fast," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said earlier this month. "Good players can control the game just by slowing down the game. In the NHL, everything is faster, so you can't be slowing down the game."
Boudreau noticed, especially in Murphy's first few games, that he lacked confidence. Each time, however, Murphy's level of play has gotten better deeper and deeper into games.
Lately, Murphy has begun to play with confidence from the opening puck drop, something that was certainly evident on his goal just over four minutes into Sunday's game.
In a sign of Boudreau's confidence in Murphy, he's even seeing regular power play time on the team's second unit.
Six games in, and Murphy is turning heads.
He's been a minus in just one of those games while posting a plus rating in four others. He's also seen 18-plus minutes of ice time in four of six games.
Slowly but surely, one can see the moxie that once made Murphy a prized product oozing back into his game.
"You can tell he's not a first-year guy," Boudreau said. "He plays with poise, which is really, really good."