SAN JOSE, Calif. – Picking Matt Murray to start over Marc-Andre Fleury on Saturday against the Sharks at SAP Center represents the first difficult decision Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has had to make regarding his goaltending situation.
Sullivan wanted Murray to see some game action from the bench, so he backed up for three games. That delayed Murray’s 2016-17 debut until Wednesday in Anaheim, when Murray stopped 32 of 33 shots in a 5-1 Penguins win. Fleury started the next night in Los Angeles, knocked a puck into his own net, lost and ceded three goals in the process.
So Sullivan’s going with Murray as the Penguins return to the scene of their Stanley Cup celebration for the first time since June 12.
“We have a game plan that we always do on where we pencil our goaltenders in,” Sullivan said after the Penguins’ morning skate here. “It’s always subject to change. Ultimately performance will always be the dictator.
“We’re fortunate. We have two really good goaltenders that we know are going to give us a chance to win. We’re going to do our best to keep them both in the mix. We’ll go from there. These situations always have a way to work themselves out. Inevitably performance is always the dictator.”
Sullivan’s next decision will come Tuesday at home against Edmonton. Expect Murray’s performance to play a part. If he’s good, it may be tough for Sullivan to make a move. The Penguins’ next set of back-to-backs run Nov. 18-19, in Brooklyn and Buffalo.
The Penguins, for whatever reason, have seemed to play more structurally sound hockey in front of Murray than Fleury, as evidenced by Murray’s eight-game regular season winning streak and, of course, his piloting the Penguins to the Cup.
But Sullivan did reiterate that any evaluations won’t necessarily be team-based.
“We evaluate all of our players on their own individual games, regardless of what’s going on around them,” Sullivan said.
Sheary to return
Conor Sheary skated on a morning skate line with Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr, and Sullivan confirmed Sheary will return from a seven-game absence because of an eye injury suffered Oct. 18 at Montreal.
Although Sheary figures to start on that fourth line, Sullivan hinted that he could move Sheary up and down the lineup. Sheary, who had one goal and three points in the first four games of the season, was playing on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist when he was hurt.
“We want him to play his game and do what he does best that helps this team win,” Sullivan said. “He’s got good hockey sense. He’s quick. He’s elusive. He can force turnovers. He’s a good player.
“Regardless of which line we use him on or how we use him throughout the course of the game, we believe he’s a guy that makes us better.”
Sheary said he’s been focusing on his conditioning after practice and feels back to where he was before the injury.
“I’ve had about a week now of practice,” Sheary said. “I feel ready to go.”
Staying positive
Tom Kuhnhackl can’t possibly like California.
After setting up Fehr’s game-winning goal Oct. 25 against Florida and picking up another assist last Saturday, Kuhnhackl has found himself a healthy scratch the past three games, the first two to get Tom Sestito into the mix and Saturday with Sheary’s return.
Sullivan’s message to Kuhnhackl is essentially to stay positive and find some consistency.
“Tommy Kuhnhackl’s a good player,” Sullivan said. “He’s brought a lot to the table here. I told him that. At the end of the day, the question we ask ourselves is, ‘Which players are doing what that helps us win? What’s your impact on the game?’ Within Tommy’s respective role, we would like him to have a more consistent impact on helping our team win. Him and I had that conversation the other day.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: November 5, 2016, 7:48 p.m.