After the Penguins’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils Friday night, Patric Hornqvist stopped at his goaltender’s stall on his way out of the locker room and offered a few words of encouragement.
He told Matt Murray he played great, and assured him the defeat wasn’t on his shoulders.
Murray was a bit harder on himself. When asked to assess his 30-save performance against the Devils, he replied simply, “Average.”
What about his game was average?
“Pretty much everything.”
Murray certainly wasn’t the main culprit in the Penguins’ loss — that honor could probably go a dismal second period, too-frequent defensive lapses or a struggling penalty kill — but he still felt there was plenty of room for improvement as the Penguins’ season turns towards the playoffs.
In his two games since returning from a concussion, Murray has stopped 66 of the 73 shots thrown his way. On the one hand, 36.5 shots per game is certainly way more than the Penguins would like Murray to face on any given night, especially at this time of year. But, especially in a game like Friday night, just one more save can be the difference between a win and a loss.
“It’s tough to evaluate right after a game like that,” Mike Sullivan said. “It’s an emotional game. I thought he made some timely saves when the opportunities presented themselves. But certainly, when you don’t win, everybody’s got to take some ownership, right?”
Murray specifically pointed to Will Butcher’s goal, which came on the power play and tied the score 1-1 early in the second period, as one he should have gotten in front of. Butcher fired a wrist shot from above the left circle, and Murray said he was just late picking up the puck.
“It was a moving screen,” he said. “I don’t really remember exactly what happened, but I didn’t pick it up until far too late. I’ve just got to make a save on that one.”
That goal opened the floodgates, and the Devils beat Murray twice more before the teams went back to the locker rooms. Murray admitted he didn’t quite know what went wrong for the Penguins in the second period.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it exactly,” he said. It’s just the intangibles, getting the job done. I thought we were dominant in the first and third periods. They were obviously kind of all over us in the second. It’s just about bending but not breaking. I think if we keep one of those out of the net, then we probably win the game. That’s a big turning point in the game, for sure.”
The Devils didn’t beat Murray again until overtime, when Taylor Hall, in on a breakaway, snuck a shot through his pads for the game-winner. Murray felt like he had a bead on Hall, but couldn’t quite come away with the save to extend the game.
“He’s got a couple of different moves,” Murray said. “But when he kind of slowed up, you figure he’s going to shoot then, because he’s not carrying speed and probably can’t beat you to the far post or whatever it may be. So you know he’s probably going to shoot there. Thought I was all over it and it just kind of squeaked through. That was a tough one.”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG
First Published: March 24, 2018, 2:56 a.m.
