CHICAGO – After Matt Murray practiced in his first full-squad, full-contact practice in nearly a month, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday afternoon at Chicago’s United Center that the goalie is “getting really close” to returning to the Pittsburgh net.
How close? Murray spoke with the reporters Tuesday for the first time since he was surprisingly placed on injured reserve. That was on Thanksgiving, about 12 hours after Murray watched from the bench as Casey DeSmith had another strong game in a win over the Dallas Stars.
Murray explained that his injury, which the Penguins have only said is of the lower-body variety, had been bothering him for a while. “I was playing on it for a few weeks, and it was fine and then just tweaked it one day there,” he said. He tried to play through it.
The soreness and discomfort increased over time, as did Murray’s goals-against average, until he met with team doctors the morning of Nov. 22. Murray said the collaborative decision made then, for Murray to go on IR and rest his injury, wasn’t a surprise. Well, to him at least.
“The thing I was dealing with was just kind of lingering and getting a little bit worse and worse but still not enough to come out,” said Murray, who has missed the past nine games. “Eventually it got bad enough where you say you just need some time to rest it.”
Murray, to his credit, said he wasn’t going to use the injury as an excuse for his poor play this season, though it is worth nothing that Sullivan said the day that Murray was placed on injured reserve that the nagging injury might have been a factor in the goalie’s ongoing struggles.
Murray was pulled three times in his last six starts, including his last one, a Nov. 17 loss in Ottawa. In the process, his goals-against average spiked to 4.08 and his save percentage dropped to .877. Both of those marks remain among the worst in the NHL.
Sullivan said Tuesday that being sidelined gave Murray a chance to hit the reset button.
“I think so,” the coach said. “I think when you get away from it a little bit and get to work on your own game, you get healthy, your body gets an opportunity to recover both mentally and physically… It will give him a great opportunity going forward to just have a fresh start and help this team win. We know he’s very capable.”
Murray on Dec. 3 was spotted on the ice for the first time since going on IR when he did individual drills before the Penguins practiced at PPG Paints Arena. His activity level has ramped up since then, leading to return to full-team practice Tuesday.
While acknowledging that DeSmith, who played well in another win Monday against the New York Islanders, has “had a strong start” to the season and “won a lot of games for us,” Sullivan again said, without prompting, that Murray is ideally his “Number 1 goalie.”
And so, with the Penguins amidst a stretch of 10 games in 17 days, they hope to get Murray back between the pipes as soon as they can.
“We need two goalies to participate to help us. And Matt’s obviously an important part of this team, so we’d like to get him involved as soon as we can. We know that when he’s at his best, he’s our Number 1 goalie,” Sullivan said. “We’re encouraged that he’s as close as he is.”
Murray seems encouraged, too. While he can be intense during practices, perhaps too much so at times, he goofed around with teammates a couple of times Tuesday, including putting one of them in a bear hug.
“It feels good. You kind of take for granted how much fun it is to be out there with the whole team rather than just yourself with no pucks, stuff like that,” Murray said. “It gives you a big boost of energy for sure to get back out there with all of your teammates.”
Murray said after the practice that he isn’t sure if he will suit up Wednesday when the Penguins play the Chicago Blackhawks here. He still had yet to chat with the doctors at that point, but feels “the progression is there.”
Putting on the gear on game day is one thing, though. Getting starts is another story, especially with DeSmith on a roll.
“You want to be in there as much as you can, but at the end of the day, that’s not up to me,” Murray said. “All I can do is just compete in practices and games, do my best in the weight room to get stronger, do every little thing I can to be prepared.
“And when my name is called, I’m ready to go.”
Cullen returns to practice, too
Murray was not the only injured Penguins player to return to practice Tuesday.
Veteran center Matt Cullen, who suffered a lower-leg injury when he got hit with a puck in the Nov. 17 loss in Ottawa, returned to practice with no restrictions. He mixed in on the bottom line along with Derek Grant, Garrett Wilson and Jean-Sebastien Dea, and Sullivan said he is also “really close” to returning.
“It’s getting a lot better,” Cullen said. “It’s a few weeks out from the injury, so it’s coming around. It’s nice to be out with the group and getting things back up to speed.”
Cullen said it’s still a bummer to be isolated from teammates while rehabbing an injury.
“You think it’d be easier [later in a career]. It’s not any easier. I think when you get older, you probably make better use of your time away whereas when you’re younger, I know I did, I would feel sorry for myself for two weeks,” he said. “There’s nothing you can really do about it. Once you’re hurt, you’re hurt. So you try to take advantage and work on other things.”
Penguins pump breaks on Hornqvist
When Patric Hornqvist suited up for practice Saturday in Ottawa and assumed his spot on the second line and in front of the net on the power play, it sure looked as if the winger wouldn’t miss a game after an injury knocked him out of Thursday's win over the Islanders.
But the Penguins held him out of the lineup Saturday and then Monday in Long Island, too. Hornqvist, who Sullivan said has an upper-body injury that is not related to his recent concussion, did not practice Tuesday and isn’t expected to play against the Blackhawks.
“We were hoping he was going to make more significant progress but he hasn’t,” Sullivan said. “Right now, he’s status quo. He’s day to day with an upper-body injury.”
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: December 11, 2018, 9:34 p.m.
