Amazingly, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was not asked about his goaltending situation after the team’s practice Wednesday afternoon.
He probably would not have said much. Something about “two great goaltenders” and, if really pressed, a reminder that the team’s practice all year has been to announce the starting goalie the day of the game.
If anything, Sullivan’s conference call on Tuesday was a reminder that it’s probably not his favorite subject to talk about.
“We haven't lost games because of our goaltending,” he said then. “That's my thought.”
OK, then.
Really, it seems like the question of Matt Murray or Marc-Andre Fleury has only cropped up because, well, these are the 2017 Penguins and it’s been more than a week since it last came up.
Murray was certainly less than excellent in the two games down in Nashville, but Sullivan is also right. If you were to make a list of why this series is now tied, the Penguins’ goaltending isn’t even the most relevant goaltending category (see: Rinne, Pekka).
I fully expect Matt Murray to be in the starter’s crease tomorrow morning, the first goalie off the ice after the morning skate and — as the flurry of identical tweets based on those first two will tell you — the man in net for Game 5 Thursday night.
The reasoning is pretty simple, and the same one from before Game 4 against Ottawa (when Fleury had a much better case as the incumbent starter). Time and time again this season, whenever there has been any uncertainty about who would start in goal, Sullivan almost always goes with Murray.
The one argument that would sense for Fleury is if Sullivan felt the series was slipping away from the Penguins, and — since there’s only so much deck-chair rearranging he can do on the blue line — a goalie swap is the one card he has to shake things up.
But Sullivan said Wednesday he “really liked” the Penguins’ Game 4 performance. He is, above all else, a logical coach, with a lineup determined entirely based on which players give his team the highest percentage chance of winning. Almost always this season, that has come back to Murray.
For their parts, both goalies spoke after practice Wednesday, and both stuck to the company line.
“It’s out of my hands,” Fleury said. “For me, what I have to do is just try to stay ready with practices. If they need me, I’ll be there.”
“What people are going to say is what people are going to say,” Murray said. “I have no control over that. I have no control over who the coach decides to play. That’s really not something that takes up any space in my mind, to be quite honest with you. I’ve said it all along, I just go about my business, just kind of do my thing and when I play, I’m ready to play.”
Murray was also asked directly if he knew who was starting Game 5.
“Even if I did, I would not tell you,” he retorted.
He went on to say he felt he played pretty well in the Penguins’ 4-1 loss in Game 4. As he said after the game, Victor Arvidsson’s breakaway goal midway through the second, which put Nashville up 3-1, is the one he would most like to have back.
“Obviously not great, but I thought I was pretty good in Game 4,” he said. “I thought if I make a save on that breakaway, then it’s a different game. All in all, I thought I played pretty well.”
Specifically, he disagrees with the assessment that his glove is an issue. Of the eight goals Murray allowed in Nashville, five beat him glove side, including Arvidsson’s.
“If they want to shoot glove, then I say, ‘Go ahead, shoot glove,’” Murray said.
The Predators probably will continue to do just that in Game 5, it’s just a matter of whether Murray (not Fleury) can stop them or not.
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG
First Published: June 7, 2017, 10:16 p.m.
