The Pittsburgh Penguins were dealt an unexpected blow this morning on the injury front.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has a concussion.
Marc-Andre Fleury did not join the team on the trip to New York and is out with a concussion.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 2, 2016
Here is the troubling part of it
This is Fleury's second concussion this season.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) April 2, 2016
Not good. We all know that time tables with concussions are very open ended and can drag on for days, weeks, or months…
Here is where the concussion may have come from
The sequence following the Neal shot that hit Fleury. #Pens #concussion pic.twitter.com/fW4eBm2CjM
— THW Greg Thornberry (@Greg_Thornberry) April 2, 2016
Is this a devastating blow to the team? Very disappointing but claiming it as devastating is probably overstating it. Devastating would be losing Kris Letang or Sidney Crosby. There are no in house replacements who can come close to what those two bring. If Matt Murray comes in and gives the team league average goaltending (he has been much higher than that so far) the team will still be put in a position to succeed more times than not.
Fleury has been great this year as shown by the following evidence
5v5 adjGSAA/60 ("Mercad") thru 3/30 games. #Blues Elliott dominant post injury. Should play more, knee willing. pic.twitter.com/8JPnVbL4JH
— Nick Mercadante (@NMercad) March 31, 2016
Matt Murray doesn’t meet the 600 minimum minutes for Nick Mercadante’s metric but I’m certain he would fare well.
Edit 3:46 PM
@GunnerStaal +.665 in 162 5v5 shots. Really good. Tiny sample. I'm super high on him, though.
— Nick Mercadante (@NMercad) April 2, 2016
So far this year Murray has done an excellent job in the work he has been given.
Murray has played in eight games so far this year and seven of those games he has given the team a “quality start…. Murray’s last start was the exception to this and the team still won 5-4.
The sample size is much smaller here for Murray and I am not inferring these numbers are going to stay where they are (if they do he’s the best goalie in hockey). The point is that Matt Murray is solid in his own right and the Penguins are very likely to continue getting league average or better goaltending.
When the Montreal Canadiens lost Carey Price they replaced him with 30th ranked goaltending. This isn’t going to be the case in Pittsburgh and why people shouldn’t be throwing out the word devastating when talking about the Penguins chances without Fleury.
Losing Marc-Andre Fleury is disappointing. Losing Marc-Andre Fleury could see the Penguins suffer a drop in play at the position. Losing Marc-Andre Fleury also doesn’t have to mean it is the end of the season. Pittsburgh is lucky to have a goalie like Matt Murray in their system for a time like this.
Disappointing, for sure. Devastating? Nah.
Thanks for reading!