The Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Matt Murray played well in his debut on Wednesday night.
Though the Toronto Maple Leafs ultimately lost to the Montreal Canadiens, Matt Murray played a decent game and was in no way to blame, despite allowing four goals.
It was expected that he would suit up against his former team, the Ottawa Senators, for tonight’s game, but he has injured his groin in practice and likely will miss the game.
As far as I can tell, it isn’t for sure yet that he will, but it does seem likely.
Now raise your hand if you are shocked?
Toronto Maple Leafs: Nothings Shocking
Three years ago, Matt Murray was the Next Big Thing. Just 25 years old, he had 2 x Stanley Cups, and a career save percentage bordering on ridiculous.
Since then he’s barely played, due to a series of injuries. Three years ago he played in just 38 games, then two years ago, just 27, then last year, just 20.
He is still 28 and still has the potential to be a top goalie in the NHL.
But in order to do that, he has to stay healthy.
And making it just one game into his Toronto Maple Leafs career is not him doing that.
Is he injury prone or is it just bad luck? Well today he hurt his groin, and it seems to me that every goalie is injury prone to groin injuries at all times.
Personally, just based off the first two games, I’d be tempted to start Ilya Samsonov tonight anyways. IMO the best way to handle to non-star goalies is to just play whoever wins.
The bigger concern is that Erik Kallgren was injured last night in the Marlies game, appreatently. Additionally, Ian Scott retired, and Joseph Woll is also on the I.R.
That means that if Murray is out, the Leafs don’t really have a back-up.
Cue the chorus of Dubas Haters.
But while the usual suspects will seize on this and twist it to fit their already established beliefs, the Leafs didn’t do anything wrong here.
The odds of two goalies getting hurt in 12 hours are pretty low. The odds of having three of the top four goalies go down at once are also low. Just how many goalies are you supposed to have?
Even if the Leafs are forced to dress a no-name goalie tonight, the odds he actually ends up playing are also very low. And if he does, and the Leafs lose 2 points, so what? At the end of the day, if you need five coincidences to maybe lose two points, is it something to rage-out over?
The Marlies and Leafs both play today, and three of the starting four goalies are hurt. I am pretty sure if you are going to blame Kyle Dubas for that, you should also blame him for inflation, Y2K, and Marcy’s Playground breaking up.
Michael Hutchinson, wherefore art though?