Bobby Ryan's Mea Culpa & The Meeting That Never Was

It's been a while since we've heard from young, Mr. Bobby Ryan. Probably a good thing seeing as the last time he spoke up, he declared his days with the Anaheim Ducks were likely done. He was a jilted lover of sorts. He'd heard rumors that his 'first' was looking elsewhere and he was hurt. He acted out. Said things he didn't mean. Now is the unavoidable awkward part. Bobby is back in So Cal and skating with other NHL-ers in the hope the season will start sometime. Eric Stephens of The OC Register was lucky enough to get a few minutes with the Ducks forward.

What I took from the article was that someone (likely his agent) had a 'Come to Jesus' talk with BR. He needed to clear the air, on his own terms; that way he couldn't overreact to the inevitable questions that would come during training camp and the season. Ryan would tell the story the way he wanted to. He isn't devoid of emotion, though. He's passive aggressive when it comes to discussing the decisions of the front office. He doesn't see the need to discuss the situation any further with Bob Murray; although, his agent says otherwise.

There is one key element of the interview that I found incredibly intriguing. After Bobby made his original comments, there wasn't an immediate response from Murray. Instead, reporters had to wait until his conference call following the draft. Murray said this about his next steps with BR:

"I intend to talk to Bobby personally when we get back from the draft and clear the air a little bit."

My very first thought after reading that was, "oh to be a fly on the wall in that room when the meeting happens". I had no reason to believe the meeting wouldn't take place, right? I mean, he said it to the press. We did wonder if he would go up to Bobby's place in Idaho to Bobby would come back to Cali. Imagine my surprise when I read this from Bobby's interview with Stephens:

Having spent the majority of the summer at his off-season home in Idaho, Ryan said he figures that he'll have to meet with Murray at some point but it won't be him that broaches the session.

"I would assume that he would probably want," he said. "But it's not my job to reach out. ... At this point, nothing's happened. So I'm hoping we don't even need to."

Interesting, no? No texts? No emails? No posting on BR's wall? One has to wonder why Bob Murray never reached out to Ryan. Kind of odd considering Murray said he was going to do just that. Maybe he never made it home from the draft? Send the search parties to Pittsburgh!

**Thank you to reader Kid Ish for initially posting the most recent article by Stephens.**