Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, the team announced on Thursday.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan says he will be out “longer-term” with the injury.
Penguins Matt Murray placed on injury reserve with a lower-body injury
#Pens HCMS: Matt Murray is going to be out “longer-term” with a lower-body injury. Been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks. Evaluated this morning by team doctors. “This was not something that we expected”
— Josh Getzoff (@PensJG) November 22, 2018
The Penguins recalled AHL goalie Tristan Jarry from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an emergency basis to fill in for Murray.
Murray, who has had his struggles as the Penguins number one goalie this season. Murray has a 4-5-1 record in 11 starts with a .877 save percentage a 4.08 goals-against average.
Jarry played 26 games with Pittsburgh last season, going 14-6-2 and leading all NHL rookie goalies in wins. He has a career save percentage of .907 and a 2.78 GAA in 27 NHL appearances.
The 23-year-old has a 4-5-2 record, 2.89 GAA and a .909 in 11 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season, and also scored a goal in a game earlier this month.
Analysis
It is never easy for a team to lose their number one goalie, even if he was underperforming. Pittsburgh now has the challenge of trying to win without Murray. With the past recent shakeups, Pittsburgh has little-to-no room for error. The trick for the team will be to score goals and hope that Casey DeSmith and Jarry can hold their own while Murray recovers.
With Pittsburgh being seventh in the Metropolitan Divison, the team’s playoff hopes seem to get slimmer and slimmer as time goes on. The next little while will test truly how good of a team Pittsburgh is in times of trouble.
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