“Just the facts ma’am“, I can still hear that monotone, deadpan voice of Sgt Joe Friday, aka Jack Webb, from the TV series Dragnet echo those words. Well, actually, apparently that memory is a culturally induced auditory illusion, a memory implant. Although I never back checked this assertion there are those who say that quote is one of those misquotes propagated over the years ala the child’s game telephone with the altered quote becoming ingrained in our collective memory, similar to Rick Blaine/Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca saying “Play it again Sam“.
Bogart‘s character actually simply says “Play it Sam“, that is all. (I am a Bogart fan so I have been well aware of this misquote)
Although I did watch Dragnet, I was very young when it was first on and the reruns have ran far less frequently than I Love Lucy, so I can’t know for sure if this is a misquote. I do remember and verified that Friday did once say “All we know are the facts, ma’am“.
Why such a long lead in, you may well ask?
Well, opinion and misinformation seems to be clouding the Matt Murray narrative and I chose to snoop out the alleged facts of Matt Murray.
Myth 1 Murray is playing badly.
There are those that say Matt Murray is having a bad season. The facts say he started the season off bad. He was 4-5-1 in 11 Games with pathetic 0.877 Save Percentage (Sv%) and a bloated 4.08 Goals Against Average (GAA), which had him ranked 65th in Sv% and 66th in GAA among the 75 goalies that had played through the first couple of months of the season.
Matt Murray has since improved his season record to 17-9-1 (35 of a possible 54 points, 0.648 Pnts%) in 28 games, boosted his Sv% to 0.916 and shaved his GAA to 2.82. Murray’s 17 wins is good enough for 17th place among goalies that have played at least 14 games (half as many as Murray). Murray’s 0.916 Sv% lifts the Penguin back stop to 14th among his peers and his 2.82 GAA lands him at 27th place. Wins and GAA are consider more of a cross-over stat where the full team can influence, while Sv% is used more as the normalizing stat to just look at the Goalies skill.
Murray made this dramatic improvement by posting an 11-2-0 record with a 0.934 Sv% and 2.14 GAA since coming back from an injury on December 1st. Murray’s 11 wins ties him for 3rd place. His 0.934 Sv% puts him in 8th place regardless of games played. Limiting the field to just Goalies who have played 5 games or more and Murray is in 5th place. His 2.14 GAA is good enough for all Goalies regardless of games played and 8th among Goalies playing at least 5 games.
I am not going to throw my opinion in here. You, gentle reader, can determine if an 11-2-0 record with a Sv% of 0.934 is good or bad. I won’t argue with you, either way.
As a point of reference I would like to show you these other facts. Former Penguin and Goalie whose name has been talked about, at least by some, as a trophy nominee, Marc-Andre Fleury has an overall record of 29-18-4 (62 of 102 possible points or 0.608), 0.908 Sv% and a 2.61 GAA.
Myth 2, Mike Sullivan is protecting Murray by playing him against weak competition.
Prior to last nights games the league average for Pnts % was 0.553. When averaging the Pnts% for teams that goalies played against the competition Casey DeSmith faced was 0.526 or 0.027 below the League average. Former Penguin Fleury’s competition also has been below the League average at 0.536 (-0.017). Matt Murray on the other hand has faced competition above the Pnts% of the league average 0.571 (+0.018).
Bad offenses with great goaltending can win games, so looking at the Pnts% really may not be all that revealing. Those that would flip the original like in the Telephone Game may try and argue that is the case for Murray here. However turning to look at the offenses faced by Goalies we find;
Shots faced
The League average for Shot per Game was 31.1 DeSmith has faced teams that have taken less shots 30.6. Fleury has faced teams that have equaled the League average and Murray has faced team that take more shots 31.3.
Quality of shooters faced;
The League average for Shooting Percentage was 0.097. DeSmith and Fleury have both faced shooters below the League average (0.096) while Matt Murray has faced shooters above the League average (0.099)
Looking at these facts, again I leave it to you gentle readers, do the facts support the contention of those that want to deride Matt Murray as facing weak competition?
Matt Murray is physically fragile
Statistics do say Murray has missed games several times due to injury but to say he is fragile is still opinion. Murray may very well be fragile but all that can be said when players miss games is that they have missed games; that is all the facts say.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to look at the league average for games missed by goalies due to injury and where Murray falls on that continuum to include here. At some point I will look into this, but I just wanted to get this much written.
I would also like to see if anyone charts number of times a Goalie gets hit by opposing players and the speed quality of those hits so we can better understand whether or not Murray is fragile or the team exposes him to far greater risk than other teams expose their goalies.
Who knows what the rest of the season will look like but at least for now, these are all the facts we know.
Murray is flat out bad . I can bet in a game or two he will be injured again from his poorly game. Defense do needs to better. Letang needs to go. Johnson needs to be scratched, on the bottom pairing and traded. Buy him out. Rudwedel and Dumoulin only look good on defense. Kessel cannot play LW. I don’t get it. Forcing someone that isn’t there. Johnson consistently with Malkin’s line is a recipe for disaster. Malkin and Kessel defending to much and not in the offensive battling at time. Schultz is bleeding with Johnson.
I’m sorry. Murray gotta go and defense paring needs to be better. I like Murray and a fan to a small certain extent. He isn’t the guy for team . Numerous times goalies are performing and battling better than him in game.
This is the real Murray…
Murray doesn’t look good either. Mike Sullivan has a chance to hold accountable for bad passing and defense to put Schultz on the powerplay. Luckily Crosby scored a beautiful down low after keep passing from low hockey iq Letang..
Penguins are mess. Letang is bad and he just all pass the puck to other team players all the time.
Dumoulin-Schultz
Limited minutes to Letang.
I just wanna say again and again Schultz means so much to this team. I can’t. I wish he will be pens permanent top power-play quarterback because puck only going through Letang and kessel is bad , Crosby doesn’t touch the puck and Letang make bad decisions on the power-play.. Penguins are more solid, cohesion and tired down defenders with Shultz.
I hope Sullivan keep still to his guns and smoothly transition Letang on limited minutes and powerplay. Give Schultz more time there after some games
I can get spit and chew for this. I really don’t care . Big , big Justin Schultz fan Schultz is a more valuable asset to this than Letang. I think Penguins well particularly Letang is afraid to give Schultz the rope more on this team I know Letang hate it and throw a lot temper tantrum for it. Letang need his minutes reduced and he just doesn’t play defensively at all. He just out of much . Like on that Flames goal. With other players. Dumoulin doing his job. I hate Letang game.
Schultz is just a smooth fast skater with awareness. Calm demeanor and effortlessly effective with transition game. Great shot. Very , very good defensively and offensively. He just defend like he supposed to and he doesn’t cheat. He’s just what Penguins need all time. I wish Prow could be up him.
It time to let Schultz take them lead and Jack Johnson should not be paired with him.
Kessel should not be playing on the LW . Second line is still out of sorts and pinned up..
Hey ToR,
I am going with all of them. Murray is not a quality reliable top #1 goalie for this team. ( League) I always felt this way about him. He shows good enough flashes of brilliance here and there.
I already knew this.
I stated to you many times before to your comments on here.
He can’t play reliable enough for more than 30-60 games.
Murray is injured prone. He’s always be that way entering the league.
Murray happens to play few good games , rest,bad games ,injuries, and good games.
Rinse. Wash.Repeat.
Murray might grow into something. Murray is ok good enough goalie that benefit from coddling and weak competition.
I really don’t see him not playing in this league very long.
Murray need a team to play defensive well in front him. He needs players to scarified their bodies. Block shots and beyond what he got during the B2b cups.
DeSmith, Fluery, Jarry have their weakness in games. They fight in the net. They give all got. They are ready and consistently want to fight in the net to give their team the best chance to win games.
Sullivan coddles him to much . He push Fluery out. IMO. Murray just do not have whatever it take to be the netminder for this team.
Jarry and DeSmith did show that are capable to play into net for this team. Team seems to play much better with confidence in front of them. (Most games)
Murray is seem to be always shaky, weak , and not tracking puck .. etc…
I truly believe Penguins needs to trade Murray for A decent return . Move on.
I wouldn’t mind Jarry and DeSmith with another 1A goalie. I think I would go after John Gibson from Anaheim that’s if he wants out of the team.
I would not sign him long term…
Penguins should’ve let Murray go with Vegas. Fluery stay with Jarry or DeSmith as backups. He mentoring them and get a short deal to stay another 1-3 years. I truly believe Fluery probably got Penguins all the way to finals last season. Fluery had his bad moments. Understandable. That’s hockey and human. ( same for Murray) Murray just isn’t capable to lead this team with coddling and injuries..
He was pretty good before he sustained a concussion 2016-2017 season.
IMO. DeSmith give them a better chance to win games. ( right now)Jarry deserves his chance. Jarry is better than Murray. People know that . I would take Jarry, DeSmith and Fleury over Murray every day of week.
I hope you can answer this. I went back to watch some old late games from last season and videos that I made.
I see that Penguins are a better much team with Dumoulin and Shultz playing their top pairing. Shultz being their top pairing D quarterback on top powerplay unit. Dumoulin is very underrated and steady with or without Letang. They both mature some much.
People are missing that. I believe Dumoulin is so much better without Letang. Dumoulin-Shultz transition game, breakouts, defense core lead and overall everything helps the this team.
When mike Sullivan started to limiting Letang minutes and not put him in crucial key situations on the ice. Take him of the top powerplay.
Penguins were just better off . When Schultz and Dumoulin are put in way to lead defensively and offensively Penguins just are a complete team. Their powerplay is just better and solid.
Letang is to much for this team. He just don’t listen on the bench. He’s too cute. He aggressively unaware and boneheaded on the ice all times. He turnovers the puck to much. He can’t lead and instinctively understand things not to do many things on ice that can hurt this team. He isn’t good defensively. Ok offensively. I just think Justin Schultz is better player to let take the fort with Dumoulin.
He can’t not play the shutdown role with offensively taking a step back that helps this team. He turns over the puck to much, ill- advised passes,great offensively weapon for teams among other things.
He only cares about points. He just isn’t the type to command the ice and do what it takes for this team , imo. It just to much times he hurt this team. He ride cock-tails. Dumoulin, Crosby and Malkin make him better than he is.
Overrated and overpaid
I just would like see Penguins give
Dumoulin- Schultz
Määttä-Letang
?-?
A look .. then trade Letang.. I would get RHD for Määttä or get Prow a chance he deserves up here.
Sullivan doesn’t know how to keep him accountable and to take his foot down to play Letang where he needs to be. Letang has had a lot bad games this season , again.. He can play bad all game. He gets a point then he’s the bests. He’s isnt..
I really happen to see Schultz back. It shows that Schultz us very valuable to this team. I hate that Sullivan and Rutherford keep playing Johnson in the top 4 ..
Do you agree? With that instance..
Hey Dee,
The Pens “D” or lack there of? Hmm.
The way Dumoulin is playing and the way Schultz has shown he can play makes that combo interesting.
Maybe not in a perfect world but in a world a little better than we have right now, I would have preferred to see Oleksiak still here and paired with Schultz. I would rather see a bigger tougher D partner for Schultz. But in the here and now, I agree, give that combo a try and try it sooner rather than later, otherwise there may not be a later. Despite the modest back to back wins the team’s playoff hopes are still hanging by a thread. Carolina is knocking on the door. They won again last night. We do have a 1 point lead and a game in hand but that still doesn’t leave much room for error.
The team wasted too many days with Grant, Sheahan, and Cullen rather acknowledging Blueger. They are still giving way too much rope to Simon, Johnson, Pettersson, and Riikola. (I do think eventually Pettersson and Riikola can be NHL defensemen but they aren’t there yet. At least not top 6, maybe woking in NHL time as a 7th or 8th but not a top 6)
I also agree, let’s see what Prow can do. He is having a heck of an AHL season. We know what Rhuwhedel and the others can and can’t do (90 shots against in 2 games?).
Regardless of how things play out this year I would trade Letang. The only question becomes when do I trade him. Part of me would want to trade him at the deadline when I could possibly get even higher value for him or right before the draft.
If I hold on to him until draft time, I may be able to work a deal to trade up in the draft and get a top 10 or even top 5 pick. I haven’t really looked to see who all looks to be in the top 10(5) and if there is a chance they could be in Letang’s acceptable range.
I appreciate all that Letang has done in Pgh (and what he has messed up), but his best value to this team is what the Pens could get back for him now.
As for Murray, most people know my thoughts so I won’t go into that. Also, when I wrote this article I promised myself not to engage in opinion when it comes to Murray, just facts and let the chips fall as they may.
Hey TOR,
Murray? I really don’t like getting into Murray that much . I would say this. I appreciate some of the things he has done. I’ve have seen from my eye test a lot times with some stats. Pens needs to move on from him. They needs to think about the future. Murray was never the future for this team, imo. I think Penguins should not waste no more time on him nor two beyond elite center for this team hopes for regular strong consistent wins and deep playoffs run. I really want Crosby and Malkin to get 1-2 more cups with reliable consistent 1a goalie. I would like to see the coach give other goalie behind him a better chance to play games before Murray.
Penguins do need better constructed D core. They need to let others get a chance. Stop babying Letang and centering everything around him. I believe it isn’t no such thing a player how to play over 2 0 minutes on defense for team. Letang can’t handle it. He never did. He’s hasnt do well with it at all . I like to see two – three players sharing that commitment on the ice. I hope to see Schultz grow into 20-22 minutes a game with top powerplay unit.
I would go after Pesce, Faulk, Pietraglo among other worthy defenseman.
Defense core needs to be retool around Määttä, Dumoulin, Shultz on this team. I see no problem with them stay with better partner. Dumoulin and Shultz can lead the way. I have no problem with Rudwedel. He always play solid and mature game with the right partner. He’s has play good with Määttä and Dumoulin. He did play good with Dumoulin before being scratched due to being weighed down by Jack Johnson.
Agree? Letang? Trading him is tricky because Penguins organization have to much blinders going on around him. I think if Schultz never go injury this season. Letang would’ve probably been first to go and very much more expendable to be traded. Schultz help keep him him this season . He’s having a decent season that isn’t Norris Trophy worthy that should help his value. Idk. TDL would be great . I believe probably during draft time . Maybe Next month. Either way it’s time to move on .
Dumoulin -Schultz combo did play pretty great over the last few seasons when they had a chance to play together. They were great together. I love Oleskiak Schultz too. Like I said.. they deserve more time together for long term. Schultz on the top powerplay is better for cohesion, better movement, and overall everyone touch the puck without hiccups. Schultz is better quality quarterback that serve better there. Letang is NOT a natural quarterback there. All I can say .. you give them both ways to lead the d core Penguins would be better off.
I’m confident that they can get the job. It just the coaching staff( Sullivan) is hindering it. They want to play Johnson with him. That’s very bad.
Agree. Pettersson and Rikkola on this team is nothing more than extras for injuries. I see that over and over again Sullivan continues to play players that are bottom replacement level in top 6 positions where they don’t belong at all. That’s a major issue . They should be playing in WBS
I also agree, Sullivan is giving to rope to players that don’t have no business on this team and short end of stick to players who fought their way on this team. He’s hurting this team a lot. I have long list to it.
Everything that is so simple for the Penguins is turning into something that doesn’t needs to go there.
They needs LW and Defenseman. Adam Johnson and Ethan Prow are available in WBS with this year left on their contract.
I have no fault to Martin and Gochar at all. I see the players respond well with them, big parts to Sid &Geno and they have the adjustments that Sullivan doesn’t want to follow to give this team urgency to win game. It’s to much to go into over and over again. Sullivan isn’t doing nothing lately and root of all self – inflicted wounds that have never been fixed with right utilization of player s objectively playing where they belong.
They do practice drills with players that needs to help in the game.
I have seen numerous times Gochar and Martin putting Letang in his place on the bench and skating where he doesn’t listen.
Letang thinks he’s on the same level as Crosby and Malkin. He isn’t .
Johnson, Riikola, Patterson, Pearson, Wilson , Simon , ZaR , Letang do not belong on this team. I have no problem with Cullen . He just blocking some youth and should play LW at times for Blueger .. I would rather see Blueger get his chance at 3C or 4C on this team . He shouldn’t be playing LW.
I repeat , repeat again Sullivan is one of thecPenguins biggest problem on this team.
Penguins are going through motions to much like ways from Johnston and Blysma days… Penguins are way worse than they were last season and from earlier this team. They are give up to much shots , stuck in their zone to much, one and donee, not shooting enough, to much lines shuffling, brutal line combos , bad structure D schemes, Coach is get out coach on the bench, care to much about matches that hurts to let players play, , players are over coached like either they can’t be themselves to get the job done with direction, players are miserable among other things..
Several times players ( Stars) are not responding well. They really dislike when Reechi and Sullivan lean down and pat them with communication. Sullivan message and way he does things is hurting players and things on the ice.
Kessel, Crosby and Malkin should know who they are playing with every game. Malkin and Kessel is going through same thing Crosby -Guentzel went through last season . They still go through it with they RW situation..
I give credit to Sullivan scratching Simon. Nothing else.
I believe most players with Sullivan will be gone after this season..
I’m happy to see Blueger up here. I would like to see Bjugstad get another crack with Crosby and Rust with Malkin..I have different ideas and see some positives that can help this team. Sullivan is hindering it. Penguins needs to be better and make sure they do not constantly try to win games and fall through playoffs.. Islanders doing better than them . I believe Penguins can get more points to finish first or second in the division. They need to get there issues together and sully needs to be better for this team sucess..