When You Warm Up Before a Game It's to Get in the Groove of Things, But When You Start Going All Out Someone is Gonna Hurt. And That's What Happened Before the Pittsburgh Penguins First Game of the Playoffs.
You see it every time before a game, teams warming up shooting rather light shots or doing some small stick handling techniques to the net to get in the groove and have their goalie focused, well the Pittsburgh Penguins thought it would be smart before their first playoff game on Wednesday to try and dangle goaltender Matthew Murray out of his equipment forcing him to slide across the crease. Now, this is absolutely foolish, you're in the playoffs, you have a solid number one since Marc-Andre Fleury has been shaky all year and the first thing you do is pull some fancy dangle and force your cold goalie to make a save on it?
Mar 21, 2017; Buffalo, NY, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray (30) against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
This resulted in Murray having to leave the warm up immediately with a lower-body injury, and if you watch it it's a groin injury which means he could be out this entire first round. But for the sake of the Pens, they need to pray that he's out for a game or two. Cause, in all honesty, they need him in net rather than Fleury. And don't get me wrong Fleury is solid, but not as solid as he used to be.
Matthew Murray has had a tremendous season with a record of 32-10-4 in 47 games with a .923 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against-average. Fleury, on the other hand, had a record of 18-10-7 in 34 games with a .909 save percentage and a 3.02 goals-against-average. Do you see now why you don't go all out in warmups? Because you're gonna lose someone important 10 times out of 10. And I'm sure the Pens faithful feel the exact same way, play smart, not aggressive.
Here's the video incase you missed it.
Matt Murray injured in warm ups #Pens pic.twitter.com/Kj9615X7nK
— Marina Molnar (@mkmolnar) April 12, 2017
[Via Twitter]
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