Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but there’s a goalie change coming in the conference final.
On Tuesday, Pens head coach Mike Sullivan announced that Matt Murray would be back in goal for tonight’s decisive Game 6 in Tampa Bay -- this after Sullivan opted to park Murray in favor of Marc-Andre Fleury for Game 5.
Sullivan: Murray has played extremely for us. Won big games. Made timely saves. Calming effect on group. Performance speaks for itself -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 24, 2016
Technically speaking, Murray’s been parked since the second period of Game 4. That, of course, was the one in which he allowed four goals on 30 shots, paving the way for Fleury to enter the third with Pittsburgh down 4-0.
And that’s when things changed.
The goalie switch seemed to spark the Pens, who scored three times in the final frame to make things interesting. While that was going on, Fleury looked sharp -- though not especially busy -- stopping all seven shots faced, as his mates nearly pulled off a remarkable comeback.
The decision was then made to start Fleury on Saturday night.
He played to mixed reviews in a 4-3 OT loss, making just 21 saves (for an .840 percentage) while appearing shaky on a number of occasions. Though he could hardly be blamed for the game-winning goal -- replays showed that Jason Garrison’s point shot deflected off Tyler Johnson’s behind -- Fleury just didn’t look right, which isn’t a shock.
It was his first start since suffering a concussion on Mar. 31.
As mentioned above, goalie changes have been a predominant storyline among the final four playoff teams. St. Louis has started both Brian Elliott and Jake Allen, and the Bolts were forced to go to Andrei Vasilevskiy after Ben Bishop got hurt in the series opener.
In that light, Sullivan’s questionable decision to start Fleury in Game 5 is somewhat mitigated because, hey, other teams are having goalie issues too.
It’s also worth noting Pittsburgh’s situation in goal probably has much to do with its situation on defense. There’s little coincidence the club has conceded eight goals over the last two games with Trevor Daley (broken ankle) almost entirely out of action, Olli Maata being thrown into action and Kris Letang shouldering gigantic minutes -- including a whopping 31:38 in Game 4.
#Pens D-pairs:
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 24, 2016
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Lovejoy
Cole-Schultz
Pouliot-Oleksy
-MC
Related: Rutherford says Fleury’s ‘absolutely not’ done in Pittsburgh, but logic suggests otherwise