A former NHL goaltender comes to the defense of Matt Murray amid accusations of cheating to win games
A lot has been made of Matt Murray's recent perceived ''antics'' in the Leafs' victories against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday and the Minnesota Wild on Friday. There were several moments during the game against the Wild in particular where it seemed like Murray pushed the net off its moorings - perhaps intentionally, perhaps not - and it did not sit well with Minnesota Wild head coach, Dean Evason.
He mentioned how it's a trend that Murray follows and the Wild's goaltending coach made mention of it before their game. Murray seemingly did the same against the New Jersey Devils as well but you can be the judge of that.
Former goaltender Mike McKenna took to Twitter today and backed his fellow goaltender. He says that even though the video evidence doesn't help Murray's case, it's actually the plastic pegs that are at fault - pegs that have been in place since 1991. The instance against the Devils was explained as the peg not being fully inserted into the hole, so Murray pushing off with his upper body was going to knock the net off no matter what.
McKenna has taken to Twitter before in response to goaltenders being deemed "cheaters" as he came to the rescue of Thatcher Demko last year and last week tweeted about a play that Igor Shesterkin made that was rather similar to Matt Murray's. Upon heavier impacts, the pegs are designed to eject to help limit injuries. However, when the pegs are not in deep enough, it can make it seem like the goaltender is taking the net off in an attempt to stop a scoring chance. Goaltenders generally push off to go post to post, so it's really a grey area for many.
McKenna's solution is simple - and he believes the NHL should trend towards high powered magnets, keeping the Marsh pegs in place, rather than having the arena workers drilling holes. He said that "one current NHL goaltender thinks half of the NHL arenas do a subpar job at drilling out the post holes before the game and between periods. And it's why the pegs [don't stay] in place."
From one goaltender to another, he believes that what these netminders are doing is not intentional. Still, it's tough to try and convince the opposing coach of this idea.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 26 | 449 ANSWERS A former NHL goaltender comes to the defense of Matt Murray amid accusations of cheating to win games Do you believe that Matt Murray has been intentionally knocking his net off to prevent opposing scoring chances? | ||
| Yes | 155 | 34.5 % |
| No | 294 | 65.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
