Hello The Rat Trick

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Hello The Rat Trick Family,

My name is Anthony Murphy and I am the new Editor here at the website. With Pat McGrath moving on to working for the actual team website, I realize that I have some big shoes to fill, but I believe big things are coming here to the site.

Let me first tell you a little bit about myself. I am coming over from the Pucks of a Feathers website (Anaheim Ducks), where I was the Editor there as well. Due to me being on the East coast, and having a job that requires me to be up early in the morning I felt I could not handle the late starts anymore, as it was affecting both my writing and my work.

I am the oldest of four kids, and growing up I split time between Pennsylvania, Florida (Orlando), and Virginia – where I am currently a resident. I have been a hockey fan since I was about ten, likely earlier but the first hockey season I remember distinctly was the 1998-1999 season.

I played roller hockey for a couple seasons as a defenseman, and because of that I have a severe bias towards the position and find myself locked in on the defenders when watching hockey. Some don’t believe me but I once had my own ‘Fulton’ moment from the Mighty Ducks, where when I took a slap shot the goalie moved out the way. I believe I hit him in the helmet the time before, but being such a ‘thick’ kid I had a lot of momentum working for me.

A Pittsburgh Penguins fan as a kid, I grew to love the sport as a whole – living by my own motto of why limit myself to one team when there is a whole league I can watch? Other than Jaromir Jagr my favorite players weren’t even Penguins – Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Mike Modano and Pavel Bure.

For as much hockey I watch, I realize that I don’t know everything about the sport, and am always open to comments, questions or just talking hockey. I pretty much eat, sleep, and dream the sport – so never be shy to drop me a line if you want the talk hockey.

When I’m not writing here, you can find my other work on TheFarmClub.net – where I am an editor there as well and cover the rest of the league as well as baseball.

I am really excited about coming here and covering the Panthers, giving my insights on a team with such a bright future. I try to stay as unbiased as possible when I watch the game (even with my Penguins), but I am such a big fan of Jonathan Huberdeau and Alexsander Barkov (article I wrote on Barkov after draft), I am beyond excited to start my coverage of them. So If I start talking too much about them, let me know.

If interested in just talking sports or are interested in taking up a staff writer spot here on the spot, hit me up by email amurphy540@pullinamurph.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @AMurphyTFC. I look forward to my time here and hopefully from hearing from you.

Thanks for the time to read,

Anthony

Editor

The Rat Trick