BUFFALO, N.Y. — Every summer, usually toward the end, Mike Buckley hosts the Penguins goaltenders for a week near his offseason home in New Hampshire. There’s on-ice work, off-ice training, plenty of conversation and even some fun.
This year’s session ended only a couple of days ago, and Buckley left Penguins netminders Matt Murray, Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry with important instructions, steps the Penguins goaltender coach wants them to take this upcoming season.
The headliner there, of course, is Murray, the Penguins goaltender of the present and future and the one who suffered through an injury-plagued and inconsistent 2017-18.
Taking stock of Murray’s season in between periods of the Prospects Challenge inside Buffalo’s Harborcenter, Buckley understands why his top netminder struggled some — and he’s not pinning it solely on the death of Murray’s father in January.
No, this has more to do with the side-of-a-skyscraper trajectory of Murray’s career and the gigantic change this past season represented.
“Coming off the success he had, it’s unprecedented,” Buckley said. “It’s a lot. It really is.
“Matt’s very accountable. He wants to take the team on his shoulders. He wants to be the guy. As hard as it was, this year was very good for him. He knows that.”
Here’s another way of saying that: Murray put too much pressure on himself.
To play well. To prove himself a worthy and capable replacement to Fleury. To own poor performances and serve as a voice of reason for his teammates. To win games, especially in the playoffs.
Murray helped do plenty of that stuff, and he’s extremely capable. But Buckley’s point is that it doesn’t all have to come at once. Chill out and grow.
“His next step is accepting the fact that he’s the guy now,” Buckley said. “I think at first, with so much success so fast, it’s almost hard to believe — ‘This happened to me. Wow. I was just in the American League and now I’m a two-time Stanley Cup winner, I’m taking over for an icon in Marc-Andre Fleury.’ — and under those circumstances, you always feel like maybe you have to prove yourself, do more than you should.
“The next step for him is to take it all in and enjoy it. ‘Hey, I’m the guy now. I can accept that. I don’t have to be Marc-Andre Fleury, but I can be tighter with my teammates and really open up to them.’ “
It’s tough to talk about Murray without bringing up injuries.
Asked whether there was anything the Penguins have done or could do to keep Murray healthy, Buckley praised Murray’s work ethic and said some injuries are simply unavoidable.
What Buckley didn’t do was provide a recipe for eliminating all the injuries, presumably because there isn’t one. Not until Murray goes out there and proves he can stay healthy for an extended stretch.
“In terms of how he takes care of his body, he’s meticulous,” Buckley said. “The problem is the things that you can’t control. A concussion, for example. Someone coming down and landing on you the wrong way. There’s really very little you can do about that.
“The good thing about him, though, is he takes such good care of his body. He’s in tune with himself. He comes back pretty quickly.”
Murray wasn’t the only goalie Buckley addressed. The Penguins also have an impending competition for the No. 2 job behind Murray.
While much of the fanbase — and perhaps rightfully so — expects DeSmith to keep the job he had at the end of last season, Buckley insisted it’s up for grabs.
“It’ll be a very good and very healthy competition between the two of them,” Buckley said. “Either one of them could have that job. They’re both very valuable goalies. They’re both very good goalies.”
Call it even all you want, but technically DeSmith is the incumbent, the returning starter to the backup role, and there’s a reason.
Because of his age — 27 years old — Buckley said DeSmith handled some of the nerves and pressure better than Jarry.
“I think he dug in a little bit more in tougher circumstances,” Buckley said.
It also came down to making sure that Jarry got regular work.
“It wasn’t just about who was the better of the two,” Buckley said. “It was, ‘How can we develop both of these guys so we have two really good backup goalies?’”
The Penguins signed Jarry to a two-year contract this summer. It’s a two-way deal this year and a one-way pact in 2019-20, hence why many expect him to start in the AHL and DeSmith in the NHL.
If Jarry is to spoil those plans, he’s going to have to have another tremendous preseason, which he did last year. It also sounds as if both goaltenders are gearing up for competition.
Jarry in particular, Buckley said, found a way to somehow scrape 20 pounds off his 6-foot-2 frame.
“His next step is having a good work ethic day in and day out at practice,” Buckley said. “You can see when he does, it creates a lot more consistency in his game. He’s worked really hard. He’s lost almost 20 pounds this summer. … He’s really shredded up.
“They both know it’s going to be a battle, and they worked their butts off.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: September 9, 2018, 12:42 a.m.
