Penguins goalie Matt Murray is week-to-week with lower body injury

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray’s injury is more serious than expected. After leaving in their last game, he has been diagnosed as week-to-week.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are arguably the deepest team in the NHL — it’s what you’d expect from a team that just won the Cup. But of all their key contributors so far, Matt Murray has been invaluable.

Following a season in which he guided his team to the Stanley Cup in his first year, Murray has fashioned a .928 save percentage and a 13-1-1 record. In their last game against the Carolina Hurricanes, he was well on his way to another spectacular performance when he recorded 27 saves through two periods. However, he left in the second and failed to record the win.

Even though Marc-Andre Fleury put up a 19-save shutout, allowing his team to come back, much of the focus following the game was on Matt Murray. Anybody hoping for some good news didn’t get it, when head coach Mike Sullivan announced that Murray was “week-to-week” with a lower body injury.

Obviously there’s not much to that, but all coaches like to exercise caution when disclosing a player’s injury. Week to week, though, means that it’s more serious than expected, and that Murray could be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines. The good news is that, following their game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Penguins have a week off before their next game, so he won’t miss as much action as initially thought.

While an injury like this would spell doom and gloom for other teams, the Penguins should be just fine without him. Fleury is a serviceable option who will want to impress the Las Vegas Golden Knights before he moves there. They also have the best player in the world in Sidney Crosby, who is now tied with Connor McDavid for the league lead in points despite spotting him five games.

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This is an injury that hurts Murray’s fantasy owners more than the Penguins. Repeating as Stanley Cup champs is becoming increasingly harder in this day and age, but the Penguins have the depth to do so. If they don’t end up missing a beat with Murray on the shelf, the rest of the league better watch out.