Backup goalies in spotlight for Penguins, Kings (Dec 16, 2016)
PITTSBURGH -- Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury likely will get back in the Pittsburgh Penguins' net in the next two nights -- a good guess would be Friday against the Los Angeles Kings at PPG Paints Arena -- with back-to-back games on tap.
That would leave Matt Murray, who has started a season-high four games in a row, to start the other of the two games, probably Saturday at Toronto.
For more than a decade, Fleury was Pittsburgh's franchise, go-to goalie. A concussion last spring opened the door for Murray, 22, who backstopped the Penguins to the Stanley Cup.
Now Fleury, 32, is learning something new: what to with down time. With coach Mike Sullivan seemingly in the mode of riding the hot hand, Fleury (8-5-2) has not played since Dec. 5 against the Ottawa Senators. It was his third consecutive start, but he got pulled for Murray in the second period.
"Marc's been great. He's a good pro," Sullivan said. "He controls what he can. He tries to do everything in his power to keep himself sharp, and that's all you can do as a player."
It is a different experience for the veteran.
"I don't know. It's tough to figure it out," Fleury said Thursday of not seeing game action for what would be 11 days if he starts Friday. "I just do little things with (goaltending coach Mike Bales) here and there, try to stay sharp, go over technical points, get on the ice early a little bit."
If it is weighing on Fleury, he isn't showing it. He was in a jovial mood after practice. Before practice, he went on the ice alone without pads and with a forward's stick, skating and shooting. He joked he was ready to fill in should Pittsburgh need an extra forward.
The Penguins, 20-7-3 and riding a seven-game winning streak, seem fine in the forward department. However, they will need to get by without top defenseman Kris Letang, who plays in all situations and has 19 points, including seven assists in the past seven games.
Sullivan announced Thursday that Letang will miss a few weeks because of a lower-body injury.
"It will be by committee," Sullivan said of replacing Letang. "We think we have capable people, and we'll sort it out. But he's a tough guy to replace."
The Kings (15-12-2) also are dealing with a goaltending situation, but it's not working out as well as the Penguins'.
No. 1 goaltender Jonathan Quick has missed most of the season because of a groin injury, and general manager Dean Lombardi said this week that Quick will be out until around mid-February. That has left the Kings just hanging around the playoff cutoff in the West.
Peter Budaj was asked to pick up most of the slack, perhaps too much of it. He started 25 of 26 games before former Pittsburgh backup Jeff Zatkoff started Thursday in Detroit. Zatkoff made 17 saves in a 4-1 victory to pick up just his second win to go with five losses.
Lombardi told the Los Angeles Times that he looked to trade for goaltending help.
"You're almost going down to the third man on the depth chart when you're talking to a lot of these teams, and then you also have the issue if you highlight a certain guy you have the realization that you have a No. 1 goalie (Quick) coming back, too, with (the) expansion (draft) coming," Lombardi told the Times.
"What are you going to give up for a two-month asset?"
Hanging around .500 -- 2-2-1 in the five games before the win at Detroit -- and being 5-8-1 on the road is frustrating for the Kings. The players held a closed-door meeting Tuesday after a 6-3 loss at Buffalo.
"A little bit of panic in our game right now," Los Angeles' Dustin Brown told the Times. "That's when you have to come together and support each other."
The Penguins expect the Kings to give them a tough game, just as the Boston Bruins did Wednesday, when Pittsburgh overcame a couple of one-goal deficits and won in overtime, 4-3.
"They're structured, just like Boston," Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby said. "They're comfortable playing in tight games, low-scoring games. We still have to play our game and try to produce, but understand that they're looking for turnovers, looking for mistakes, and we don't want to give that to them."
