RE: Penguins Matt Murray and Misinformation

I started to respond to a reply our good friend Rick Buker wrote to my post grading the Penguins‘ Goalies regarding Matt Murray. Rick echoed a similar sentiment first voiced by our own Phil Krundle. However, it morphed into the following;

Rick wrote of Murray, “Yet he did seem to develop a nagging tendency to give up goals at precisely the wrong time. Someone mentioned that his save percentage when we held the lead in the playoffs was .000”

It is interesting how urban legends get started, someone says something and no one really checks to see how true that statement was, so that whatever was said starts to become fact in the collective memory. In today’s’ day and age, no doubt due to an effort to satisfy geeks like me, all sports, hockey included, are tracked in every possible way, so that we geeks can analyze and over-analyze to our hearts content. This afforded a Murray fan like me the opportunity to check the veracity of that anecdotal observation. So I did. I went back on the NHL channel to look at the play-by-play stats from the Penguins’ playoff games.

(I realize that these were off the cuff remarks and not really something, to which, I want to hold either Rick or Phil. I have heard others make similar statements.

After Erik Gudbranson’s opening goal in game 2
Devon Toews had a wrist shot blocked by Jack Johnson.
Brock Nelson took a 28′ wrist shot that Murray stopped.
Jordan Eberle followed that up seconds later with a 16′ wrist shot that missed the net.
Nick Leddy had his shot blocked by Phil Kessel.
Matthew Brazal had a 10′ tip-in shot stopped by Murray before Anthony Beauviller found a way to beat the beleaguered Murray.

The Islanders had 6 shot attempts 3 of which (half) made it on net, between goals. In that same time span our locals only managed 2 shot attempts, both by Bryan Rust.

That letdown looks to me as more of a team let down than a goalie let down. Yes it would have been great if Murray was super human but he had no support. Before we talk about Murray, we should be talking about why the Islanders controlled the play that much.

After Garret Wilson‘s opening goal in game 3
Sidney Crosby lost the ensuing face off
9s later Eberle took an 11′ wrist shot that Murray stopped and froze
Crosby then lost the defensive draw to Anders Lee
9s later Adam Pelech took a wrist shot that Brian Dumoulin blocked
8s later Eberle beat Murray with a 24′ wrist shot

Again before Murray ceded the tying goal the Isles had 3 shot attempts, 1 on goal, while Crosby lost 2 very important draws.

I am not getting down on Crosby, just pointing out that Murray haters see what they want to see, ignoring all the other breakdowns that led up to the goal

After Jake Guentzel‘s opening goal in game 3
Evgeni Malkin won the faceoff this time, actually won 2 NZ face offs (an offsides)
Tom Kuhnhackl missed the net on 31′ wrist shot.
Then the 2 teams exchange 4 hits
Nick Bjugstad got off a shot for the good guys
and then Eberle scored on a 17′ wrist shot.

Admittedly, we have seen Murray make those saves on 2 on 1 s like Eberle and I would have loved to see Murray stay focused unlike the rest of his team that had been just going through the motions for at least 3 games already, for a coach they had no respect. (despite what they may say publicly actions speak louder than words)

To sum it up, during the brief time our Penguins had the lead New York had 11 shot attempts of which 6 made it on goal in a 4 min and 52 second span of time. Murray didn’t have a great save percentage (50%) but it certainly was higher than 0.00. And what is more projecting those 11 shot attempts and 6 shots on goal out to 60 minutes, Murray would have faced 136 attempts with 74 shots on goal in a regulation game. This sweep wasn’t on the Goalie. The team let the Goalie down.

Maybe, had Murray made saves on those 3 goals, the Penguins may have won. But then again, with the way the team in front of him was getting out played when they were ahead, he may have only delayed the inevitable. He may have had to face those 136 shot attempts and 74 shots on goal in one game only to still lose.