CHANGES GALORE FOR SENS GOALIE, ON AND OFF ICE
New teammates, new baby in family, but Murray confident he'll be ready for season
Matt Murray doesn't need to be a saviour for the Ottawa Senators, he just has to make the saves at the right time.
As the Senators prepare to open the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 15 at the Canadian Tire Centre, a new face that may have one of the biggest adjustments to make at this shortened training camp is the 26-year-old Murray, who was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in October.
Not only is Murray a new father — his wife Christina gave birth to the couple's first child, a baby girl, on Saturday — he's also trying to adjust to a new life on the ice after winning two Stanley Cups with the Penguins and being brought here to help stabilize a net Craig Anderson held for a decade.
This is different because there won't be any exhibition games.
“It's important to treat practice as if it were a game, almost,” Murray said in a Zoom call from the Canadian Tire Centre this week. “We're going to have some scrimmages here coming up. You've got to take advantage of the time that we have. It's a new situation, but it's the situation that we're in, and everybody is in the same boat.
“We've just really got to take advantage of our practice time and go from there.”
Murray has been in town for a couple of months. He left his home near Huntsville in November to get himself set up in Ottawa and start working with goalie coach Pierre Groulx. A good relationship between the coach and the netminder is paramount if Murray is to have success in Ottawa.
Groulx, who also worked with Carey Price in Montreal and was with Jacques Martin in Florida, returned to Ottawa in June 2016 and is one of the most respected goalie coaches in the NHL. Following the trade to Ottawa and Murray's subsequent signing of a four-year, US$25-million deal, they mapped out a plan of what they wanted to work on.
“We wanted to get settled with the baby on the way, but we wanted to start building relationships too with (Groulx),” Murray said. “It's been an awesome relationship thus far and we keep building it. He's been a pleasure to work with, and it's been nice to spend some time with him here before we get started.”
Life has changed for everybody with the world in the midst of a pandemic. Though Murray did participate in the NHL restart with the Penguins before they were eliminated in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens in the bubble in Toronto, the off-season gave him a chance to hit the reset button.
“It's been pretty smooth. The guys have welcomed me here from top to bottom, and I think that's been a huge help,” Murray said.
He looks at the opportunity as a good one. He's confident the club has put the pieces in place to get this ship turned around. He finished last season in Pittsburgh with a 20-11-5 record in 38 games and had a .899 save percentage.
“It's been a big transition for me, moving here and becoming a father, it's been a real blessing,” Murray said. “It's been something I've really enjoyed and something I want to continue to enjoy. I can't say enough (about his time here). I'm really enjoying it and I'm looking forward to getting started here.”
There's little question the Senators will lean on Murray heavily during this shortened 56-game season, but how he'll be used is something coach D.J. Smith has to sit down with Groulx and discuss. The Senators want to make sure backup Marcus Hogberg also gets his chances to play.
Getting the top goalie ready without exhibition games presents a challenge.
“It's hard. It's not like usual, but it's like usual for anyone else, either,” Smith said. “We're going to have (two) more scrimmages before the season starts so (Murray) will get some periods. When the season starts, we'll measure the workload to see if he's tired or how he's playing.
“We feel (Hogberg) is very capable and needs starts, as well. We're certainly not a finished product. We're a young team that's trying to get better, and we have to develop a guy like (Hogberg), as well.”
When you've played with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang for as long as Murray did in Pittsburgh, a move like this means you have to get used to your new surroundings. Former goalie Curtis Joseph noted when he moved from Toronto to Detroit a big issue was communication with his defencemen.
Nope, it's not just about stopping the puck.
“A big thing is puck handling,” Murray said. “That's the one time where the goalie, the defencemen and, of course, the forwards have to be on the same page. A lot of times it's not always verbal communication, it's kind of reading off each other and knowing what each other likes to do out there and knowing what different guys like and where they want the puck.
“That will come with time and just getting to know each other and spending some time together. We had a day where we focused on that and talked it through.
“Like I said, once we start doing some more (repetitions) that will stuff will come.”