Perhaps Bryan Murray and Tim Murray are smarter than their critics in Ottawa think.

They’ve made believers out of the people in Binghamton.

The Murrays are the builders of the 2010-11 AHL champions, a team that captured the Calder Cup in Houston Tuesday and, within 19 hours, brought it back home to hospitalized assistant coach Steve Stirling, then to downtown Binghamton for a parade that ended at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

As his uncle’s assistant in Ottawa and GM of the B-Sens the past three seasons, Tim Murray wasn’t the most popular person to step foot in that building. But this season the team finally made the playoffs — and refused to be beaten.

“It’s our job to put a good team on the ice,” said Murray, admitting a sense of vindication. “So there’s no extra pats on the back for that. I just think our lack of depth, and everything down there when we got here was not recognized as much.

“Sometimes fans in that league assume you can rebuild quickly, and you can’t. You have to have a pipeline. I think we knew we could do it, but in some circles I guess we weren’t very popular. That’s fine. Right now, if somebody wants to criticize me and they’ve got a good point I’ll listen, but I don’t know that I’d agree.”

What does it all mean for Ottawa? That down the road, some of the Senators will have experienced what it takes to win a championship at the pro level. But the fact is less than a dozen of Binghamton’s players will play in Ottawa.

It also suggests the Murrays know what they’re doing.

“I hope people see we have players coming and that we can do the same job in the NHL,” said Murray. “You have to create a certain culture and I think that will translate up into the NHL. I hope they believe this wasn’t a fluke, that we did it the right way, and we can continue to do it.”

Murray said the organizational plan doesn’t change for Robin Lehner, the 19-year-old goalie who won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP.

“Going into the playoffs, our plan was for him to be the starter (next season) in Binghamton and get a lot of games,” said Murray. “I don’t think that’s changed with this win. I think having Craig Anderson aboard (in Ottawa), that solidified our goaltending up top. Robin is still only 19. It was a big accomplishment, but personally, it wouldn’t hurt me if he had to ride the buses for a year and play a lot of games.

“I think we’ve had lots of discussions about what’s best. I think there’s a real trust factor now, after he saw what transpired here.”