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Wednesday Night Hockey: Murray close to returning to Penguins’ net

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The Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins have won three Stanley Cups a piece over the last decade, bringing a championship pedigree to this week's Wednesday Night Hockey matchup.

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues as the Pittsburgh Penguins visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday Night Hockey at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

(UPDATE: DeSmith will get the start vs. the Blackhawks and Murray will back up.)

Another injury to Matt Murray once again complicated matters in the Penguins’ net. But as they did last season, the duty to help keep things afloat rested on the goalie pads of Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith.

Since Murray exited the lineup with a nagging lower-body injury that he tried to play through, it’s been DeSmith taking the No. 1 reins and helping the Penguins earn points in eight of his nine starts. A .920 even strength save percentage has also helped them stay in the Eastern Conference playoff mix when things were looking down just a short while ago.

Complicating matters regarding Murray’s return has been the lack of practice time. With games just about every other day, the Penguins don’t have more than one full day off until the Christmas break, a period where no practices are allowed. Factor in travel days as well and it’s been tough to get him regular work.

“Logistically it makes it a little bit more of a challenge because ideally we’d like to get these guys into a team setting before we put them back into game scenarios,” said Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan after Monday’s morning skate on Long Island. “In this instance, based on the realities of our schedule, that’s going to be a little bit more difficult.”
[WATCH LIVE - COVERAGE BEGINS 7 P.M. ET - NBCSN]

Murray participated in a full practice Tuesday at United Center as the Penguins prepared for Wednesday’s game against the Blackhawks. He’s been skating for a week and did not rule himself out of starting in Chicago, citing a good amount of progression in his recovery.

“The thing I was dealing with was lingering and getting worse and worse, but still not enough to come out,” he said. “Eventually it got bad enough where you just need some time to rest it. I’m not going to use it as an excuse. I was sore, but it was nothing to come out of play. I was playing with it for a few weeks and it was fine. I just tweaked it one day. It didn’t hinder many parts of my game. It’s a specific place. Just giving it time to heal is the biggest thing.”

The fact that Murray has missed so much time to fully heal and not continue to play through injury is encouraging to Sullivan, who is confident the 24-year-old netminder’s season will only improve now.

“Sometimes when you have the opportunity to get away from it a little bit and get a fresh start, I think from a mental standpoint it can be refreshing for a player,” said Sullivan. “Physically for Matt, he’s going to be in a much better position to be at his best.”

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.