Murray’s Job in Jeopardy: Alberga Says Hildeby Deserves to Starts
Look, I’m all for a good success story, but right now, Matt Murray isn’t it.
In fact, it’s fair to argue that his pedestrian play may have cost the Maple Leafs two points on Saturday night against Washington.
At the end of the day, you’re not going to win many games when you score two goals. That said, I thought that building was rocking up 1-0 early in the first, and then Washington proceeded to score two ugly ones. Without question, that sucked the life out of the building. The crowd and the team never recovered.
Through two outings – his first NHL appearances in nearly two years – the two-time Stanley Cup champion has been very ordinary. He wasn’t great in Buffalo a week ago either, but thankfully, the Leafs outscored their crease problems that night.
Moving forward, even though he’s young and has looked like a mixed bag early on his NHL career, profoundly, Dennis Hildeby is far and away the better of the two options compared to Murray right now to spell Joseph Woll a night off.
Simply put, there’s no reason to give Murray another look. In fact, I think Hildeby has earned the opportunity to get more starts. Yes, it’s important to be careful with respect to how they deploy him, but you also don’t want to kill the team’s chances of winning by chucking Murray in there right now.
If they’re going to utilize somewhat of a three-goal system until Anthony Stolarz is good to return from injury, there’s no question that Hildeby should be ahead of Murray in the depth chart. For the record, I’m okay with sprinkling Murray in from time to time, but like they seemingly did against the Sabres, I would pick my spots. The Capitals are an elite team, and quite frankly, Murray had no business being out there.
Any way you slice it, the so-called insurance plan in between the pipes isn’t playing well right now. Murray’s lacking some serious confidence, and already, I think it’s negatively affecting the rest of the team.
Park this one for now.
