Matt Murray loves to play.
Ask the Penguins goaltender about his heavy workload of late — he’s started 17 of the past 18 games — and you’re bound to get some variation of that response.
Posing the question to Murray’s teammates, however, produces a much different response.
“Seeing him play so consistently and playing every other night here down the stretch in these playoff-type games, it’s fun to see his game elevate when he does that,” Matt Cullen marveled after Murray stopped 37 of 38 shots to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-1, on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
“It’s worked for him. It’s served us well. It’s been good for all of us.”
It certainly has.
Especially when you consider all that the Penguins have been missing of late:
• They’re without Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, who are out with upper-body injuries. Malkin may return for a game or two before the postseason, Letang will be lucky to be ready for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
• Sidney Crosby has been terrific for much of this season and should garner serious consideration for the Selke Trophy. Maybe the Hart, too. He plays an elite 200-foot game, makes his linemates better and does a ton to help the Penguins win, but he has gone without a goal in nine straight.
• Phil Kessel went all of February and March without an even-strength goal, a total of 29 games.
Yet Murray has been a rock and has been among the best in the league at his position since taking on more work. Since Feb. 23, Murray ranks tied for second in wins (11) and fourth in goals-against average (2.27) and save percentage (.931).
His teammates have taken notice.
“He’s one of the most competitive guys in this locker room,” Marcus Pettersson said. “He wants to play every game. He wants to save every shot.”
Having a goaltender who gives his team a chance to win night in and night out can do wonders for any team. Even if the offense might be lacking or there’s some mishaps on defense, a hot goaltender can keep the game competitive.
Murray has absolutely done that for the Penguins, and he only seems to be getting better with the heavier workload.
On March 2, coach Mike Sullivan made maybe his biggest goaltending decision since choosing to start Murray over Marc-Andre Fleury in the 2017 Eastern Conference final against Ottawa by starting Murray on back-to-back nights in Buffalo and Montreal.
Since that date, Murray’s goals-against average is 2.06, his save percentage .939.
“I think he likes being counted on every night,’ Jack Johnson said. “He’s a hell of a goalie. He’s in great shape. He’s not getting tired. Why not [keep playing him every night]?”
There’s an interesting link here that actually serves as a stronger link to Fleury and how Murray has long been jealous of the Penguins’ former franchise goaltender.
The summer after Murray won the Stanley Cup for the second time, he said someone was interviewing him for a Stanley Cup-related book and called him the answer to a trivia question — Who was the only goalie to win the Cup twice as a rookie?
“I was like, ‘OK. I don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question. I want to have a career like Flower did — the guy who has been so successful for so long,” Murray told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that summer in his native Thunder Bay, Ontario.
What resonated with Murray was how the Penguins knew they could count on Fleury when there were other breakdowns or parts of their team game that lacked. Murray, who’s still a young kid, wants to be that guy.
And he’s seemingly taken a gigantic step toward becoming that over the last little while.
“He’s really embracing the challenge that we’ve given him here,” Sullivan said. “He’s another big reason why we’ve had some of the success we’ve had [in March]. He’s made timely saves for us. He’s been at his very best in this last four or five weeks.”
“I think he wants the net.”
At the beginning of the season, Sullivan said he and his assistant coaches sat down and mapped out the number of games they’d like to have Murray play. Around 50 was what they figured.
With 46 starts this season, Murray won’t get to 50, but that’s OK with Sullivan. At this rate, Murray should be plenty ready for when the games matter the most.
“Our objective going into training camp this year was that if we could keep Matt somewhere in the 50- to 55-game range, that’s going to give him the juice that he needs when playoff time comes,” Sullivan said. “From that standpoint, his overall body of work is within a reasonable number.”
Lately, of course, Murray has been playing like a bona fide No. 1, almost like Washington’s Braden Holtby — one of Murray’s favorites around the league — has done throughout his career.
Whether Murray can maintain this pace next season and beyond remains to be seen, but the Penguins are nothing short of thrilled with the current results.
Sullivan has also looked for strategic pockets of the schedule where Murray can get a couple of extended breaks to rest and recharge.
The most recent was the three days between games last week where they monitored how many shots Murray faced at practice, relying on Mike Chiasson — the Penguins’ manager of youth hockey and a goalie development professional at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex — to spell their starting netminder.
“We were looking for those windows to try and get him the recovery that he needs so that he can continue to be at his best,” Sullivan said. “But he’s been terrific.”
In the process, Murray has become something that has always been important to him: The guy who his teammates know they can count on, the consistent drumbeat of the Penguins.
“As much as anyone I’ve ever played with, he’s a gamer,” Cullen said. “He seems to elevate his play when the team needs him the most.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: April 1, 2019, 12:00 p.m.