GM admits he overworked his star goalie, says he 'still isn’t back to normal.'

He was maligned by the fan base at times this season, but something tells me that this recent confession from his general manager may drastically impact the perception of veteran Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson.

Listen, there's no question that the Anaheim Ducks had a very crappy season especially by the standards of an organization that has been a perennial contender in recent years. That being said though most of the fingers have been pointed at that organizations aging roster as well as the organizations apparent inability to move on from players who have clearly long since past the primes of their careers, however Gibson himself was also a target of criticism after a bad stretch of play in mid season. That however may not have been particularly fair as, although fans have no way of knowing what goes on behind the closed doors of an NHL franchise, it appears that Gibson was severely fatigued from overwork and that the organization continued to ask more of him in spite of that. 

This week Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray openly admitted that the team overworked Gibson to the point that they had made him seriously unhealthy. In fact perhaps the most worrying part of Murray's comments is that, in spite of the fact that Gibson showed some very bad signs, the team has continued to go back to Gibson in dead end season in spite of the fact that he still has not fully recovered.

“Let’s face it, we were pretty bad and he was carrying the load and he got overworked,” Murray said as per the Orange Country Register. “We’re going to have to be very cognizant of that. He lost a lot of weight. He was carrying the team and we can’t allow that to happen again.

“That’s why we haven’t run him out there in every game and played him every other game (recently). His weight still isn’t back to normal, for Pete’s sake. That’s how far he’d gotten run down.”

It's a disturbing look into the behind the scenes of a team that completely fell apart this season, eventually firing their head coach and putting the general manager in his place. It is even more disturbing for a 25 year old goaltender who was put through hell for a team that realistically never had a chance of competing for a championship this season.