Pittsburgh Penguins: Don’t Worry About Matt Murray When There’s Marc-Andre Fleury
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray suffered an injury prior to game one against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. As a result he is out indefinitely.
With this injury, the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves without their number one goalie and clutch playoff performer from last year’s post-season.
Luckily though, Marc-Andre Fleury was ready to take his place and he performed excellently. Why should we worry about Matt Murray when Fleury is ready to shine?
No Regrets
Rewind to the trade deadline really quickly. A lot of fans and critics wanted the Penguins to trade Fleury for a while. After all, his NTC makes it so that he cannot be left unprotected in the expansion draft. This in turn would force the Penguins to leave Murray unprotected. This ultimatum means leaving Murray open for Las Vegas’ picking, an outcome that could still likely happen.
When the Penguins didn’t trade Fleury, many people were upset, including myself. I mean, yes the Penguins have two amazing goalies going into the post-season, but it comes at the cost of potentially losing an elite young goaltender. Many thought we were better off with just Murray, who could hold down the playoffs on his own like he did last year.
Well now we can look back and give Jim Rutherford some props. Nobody expected an injury to Murray this post-season, and well, that’s exactly what happened. But it’s OK, because Rutherford decided to keep Fleury.
Imagine if we didn’t have Fleury at this time. We’re still a very strong team, but we wouldn’t be as solid in net. A solid goaltender is arguably the most important factor on a Stanley Cup winning team after all. Not trading Fleury is looking like a pretty smart decision now.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Past Playoff Performer
Matt Murray may have stole the show last post-season, but let’s not forget how impressive Marc-Andre Fleury has been in the playoffs. In fact, he has been the backbone of many deep Stanley Cup runs by the Penguins.
Let’s just take a quick look at the 2008 and 2009 playoffs, which of course saw the Penguins go to the Finals twice and ultimately win the Cup in 2009. In these two playoffs respectively, he put up a .933 save percentage and a .908 save percentage.
More recently in the 2014 playoffs, Fleury played in 13 games and held a .915 save percentage. The Penguins may have lost in the second round but this shows that Fleury still has it in him to perform well.
Let’s not ignore Fleury’s presence on this team just because a new guy stepped in. He’s still only 32 years old and is capable of being a number one goaltender. Yes, he may come with a contract that’s less attractive than Murray’s, but he’s still an important factor on this team.
His Time to Shine
After all the criticism he faced this season from fans and analysts regarding who should be number one in Pittsburgh, Fleury should be embracing this opportunity. All season he has played behind Murray and has been compared to him. Now he can finally step up and prove himself at the most important time.
If Fleury plays strong here and helps the Penguins have another deep Cup run, perhaps his destiny on this team will be re-evaluated in the offseason. For now, he should focus on his game and try to shine in the spotlight that was taken away from him for quite some time.