Bruins center Patrice Bergeron deflects a pass past Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray during the first period of their game in Boston on Jan. 14. Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Maybe it’s unfair to be alarmed about Matt Murray’s recent play in net for the Maple Leafs. Maybe not.
“Bang, bang, bang, bang!”
On Tuesday, the veteran goaltender was pulled after giving up four goals on just eight shots. If you include the four he allowed in Saturday’s loss at Boston, that’s eight pucks that have gotten away from him in his last 42.
To go back a little further, he is 3-3 in his last seven starts and has given up four goals three times and five goals once during that time.
Solid early play overshadowed the more recent blemish, but he’s starting to look more like the man who struggled in two previous seasons in Ottawa than the man who won the Stanley Cup twice in Pittsburgh.
Toronto rallied from a 4-2 deficit to beat Florida 5-4 in overtime on Tuesday. Ilya Samsonov came off the bench to save 11 shots — and the day — and will almost certainly get the nod against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
“He came in and calmed our team down and made some huge saves,” Mitch Marner said after the triumph over the Panthers. “It was great to see him go in there and kind of take over the game for us.”
Tuesday’s match was chaotic, grisly and full of penalties. Florida took nine, which coach Paul Morris called an “excessive share.”
“I don’t know what the hell those guys were doing,” Morris said with an insult to the officials that might hit him a little in the pocket. “It wasn’t friendly to the Florida Panthers.” At one point in the second period, the Panthers’ Sam Bennett was cited for interference and sent to the penalty box, only to have the call reversed and the Maple Leafs’ Timothy Lillegren given two minutes instead, also for intervention.
On the bench, Sheldon Keefe, the Toronto coach, was confused and furious and shouted a word that would be highly inappropriate in most places other than an NHL arena or Soprano dinner.
Keefe later said the explanation he was given at the time was that the foul involving kicking Samsonov’s dropped goal was misattributed to Bennett and then corrected.
Toronto went just 2-for-7 on the power play, but got so many chances that a couple eventually had to go in. Auston Matthews scored one on a man advantage with three seconds left in the second period to cut the Panthers’ lead to 4-3. That energized his teammates, who tied the game with a William Nylander goal in the third and then won it in overtime with another Nylander goal.
“It was a great job to fight,” Matthews said. “There are a lot of things we could have done better, but at the end of the day we have to go home happy.”
For his part, Matthews was charged with tripping Nick Cousins after the latter checked him three times in a matter of seconds.
They both went to the pit.
“Weird night,” Marner said.
The Maple Leafs are 27-11-7 – which is pretty good – but they came close to losing their third straight game against an Atlantic Division opponent. With Boston far ahead in the standings and Tampa Bay close behind, the crisis was averted for now.
Overall, Murray’s numbers are good – 11-5-2 with a .911 save percentage. The latter fell the more he played, which is true of all but a few goalkeepers.
So maybe he’s a little picky, but his recent backsliding has been noticeable.
Keefe attributed most of Murray’s problems Tuesday to the odd circumstances of the game — too many power plays and therefore little movement and rhythm in the game. He also picked it up in favor of Samsonov, who is now 13-4-1 and has saved nearly 92 percent of the shots he’s faced.
“You can’t give up four goals on eight shots, no matter how you shake it,” Keefe said.
Matthews credited Samsonov with the win, but also said he believes Toronto played better in front of him than they did in front of Murray.
For Samsonov, it was just another night at the office.
“Both goalkeepers have to be ready for anything,” he said. “Sometimes injuries happen, sometimes you have a bit of bad luck.
“Over 82 games, sometimes there will be bad ones.”
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