Friedman: Matt Murray on the block?

[Clint Eastwood]

Should have moved him when his value was high and retained Fleury. It’s near impossible to move out a goaltender playing poorly unless they roll the dice on another tender straight up like Allen

Can you blame them? Would you rather keep the 20 year old with two cups at the end of his rookie season who played incredible or another great goalie who is 10 years older?

 

[heysmilinstrange]

Can you blame them? Would you rather keep the 20 year old with two cups at the end of his rookie season who played incredible or another great goalie who is 10 years older?

Another great goalie with a history of playoff meltdowns who was also coming off one of if not the worst season of his career. The revisionist history with Fleury on this site is incredible.

 

[Beville]

But...he won TWO cups!

Isn’t he meant to get the Vezina as well?

 

[airbus220]

Murray had 4 good games. In these 4 games he has .981 EVsv%. It's impossible to do that if you are not good.
Rinne has .990 in his best 4 games in that time frame, Holtby .991, Gibson .984, Andersen .984, Vasilevskiy .969

This is more a coaching problem, especially at the start of the season, especially when Murray is young.

 

[Critical13]

Another great goalie with a history of playoff meltdowns who was also coming off one of if not the worst season of his career. The revisionist history with Fleury on this site is incredible.

It’s all true, we just all love Fleury and didn’t like seeing him get done dirty like he did.

 

[Critical13]

Murray had 4 good games. In these 4 games he has .981 EVsv%. It's impossible to do that if you are not good.
Rinne has .990 in his best 4 games in that time frame, Holtby .991, Gibson .984, Andersen .984, Vasilevskiy .969

This is more a coaching problem, especially at the start of the season, especially when Murray is young.

Coaching gets blamed way too much around here. Sullivan is one of the best. Murray has just been bad.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Anyone who says the Pens should have moved Murray instead of Fleury are doing so based on hindsight and not reality at the time. At the time, it was 100% the right move to keep Murray and move Fleury to Vegas. Murray was younger and performing better than Fleury. What either has done after the move was made is irrelevant to the decision made at that time.

It would be like if someone asks the question: who do you take going forward, McDavid or Eichel? The answer is McDavid based on what we know *right now*. But if McDavid suffers a career altering injury a year from now and Eichel goes on to become the better player from then until they retire, it doesn't suddenly mean that the answer should have been Eichel.

 

[heysmilinstrange]

It’s all true, we just all love Fleury and didn’t like seeing him get done dirty like he did.

This isn't a thread about Fleury, so I'll keep my comments brief, but Fleury 100% did not get done dirty. He had an incredibly long leash with the Penguins and all he needed to do was outplay a rookie, which he couldn't manage. I really doubt there are hard feelings on his side, and the organization was extraordinarily accommodating of him during his last season with the team. It would be hard to find another team in the league who would have treated Fleury throughout his entire career as well as the Penguins did.

 

[Ugene Magic]

He wasn't though, this is pure hindsight speak. Prior to Fleury leaving, Murray was that good. He just fell off for whatever reason, him falling off after the 2017 cup doesn't mean that he was overrated before the cup. He was really, really good when he was still considered a "rookie".

I for one don't fall for that.

Murray having great success leading up to his initial small sample size stint for the first cup was a huge byproduct of him having that success and the team suppressing shots made him (I don't want to say overrated) maybe over confident when the team was that good. They kept that team together for a reason, and maybe a lot of fans were overconfident in him as well that, that was the future of Murray. I've argued this with @ColePens on the subject before, that, we should be lucky if he ends up no better than Fleury when the team gets where Fleury had to endure like now for many of years. Of course I didn't expect it to be as bad as it has gotten, but the team has taken a 180 turn as well. You can't keep that team together forever, and trying to reconstruct a team isn't always as easy as it came together when JR. first took over. One of the things I noticed of him was his frail looking body, his legs like toothpicks, but he has also had concussion issues.

It's a little of all of the above.

Murray was slightly overrated or fans were overconfident in Murray's ability of his own accord. The two cups are a over used salesman's pitch.
Injury prone.
His Dad passing.
The team's defense is one or two anchors too many.
Confidence in his team in front of him. That is a thing as well, it goes both ways. Just ask MAF.

In the end, it's not all on Murray, all he needs to do is his part and play confident by playing big in his net and not reach for plays. Any secondary stuff shouldn't fall on his shoulders as long as he makes the initial save. It is a team sport in the end.

 

[Fig]

Is it just me, or does it seem like MAF and Murray had a lot of concussions while playing for the Pens? Is there a specific reason why it seems like both guys took a floggin to the noggin? Systems issue? Play style?

 

[flamesforcup]

Is it just me, or does it seem like MAF and Murray had a lot of concussions while playing for the Pens? Is there a specific reason why it seems like both guys took a floggin to the noggin? Systems issue? Play style?

Even Malkin Letang and Crosby are always injured it seems like. I dont think there is a more injury prone core in the league.

 

[IamNotADancer]

How quickly a perennial choker turns into a "great goalie" and a "franchise goalie" turns into a melting hot dumpster fire.

Maybe be a bit more hesitant to crown the next best thing since sliced bread?

It's always the same, a goalie has 1, possibly 2 great season and he's "challenging Roy,Brodeur,Hasek, etc." Then shooters figure out their flaws or the goalies are unable to be consistent.

Really makes me appreciate consistently great goalies like Luongo and Lundqvist not any of these flavor of the season.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

He would look great playing behind Calgary’s D.