Sheldon Keefe comments on Leafs G Matt Murray's play of late, absolves him of a lot of the blame for rough stretch
Matt Murray is 2-3 over his last 5 starts, including a 4-3 lost to Buffalo last night. It isn't his record that is concerning to many, but rather his underlying numbers. Over his last 5 starts, Murray has posted an average save percentage of .785, which includes a game against Florida where he gave up 4 goals on 8 shots. Without that game, Murray's save percentage isn't much better (.855) in the other 4 games.
Following the Leafs blowing a 2-0 lead in the second period and losing a 4-3 game, Sheldon Keefe commented on Murray's play of late saying, "I think he's been great. I know the numbers look terribleSometimes the numbers don't look great because we don't give up a lot of shots, but the quality chances tonight, we can't give those up."
Keefe makes a valid point about the quality of chances the Leafs have given up recently. Last night, there were a number of missed assignments in the defensive zone that led to Buffalo goals and Murray shouldn't shoulder the blame for that specific loss. Keefe also mentioned last week that both Murray and Ilya Samsonov would play a fair amount down the stretch, but with Samsonov not 100%, Keefe elected to give Murray his first set of back-to-back starts since January last night. With back-to-back games Friday and Saturday against Carolina and Ottawa we will likely see Murray one more time this week and we can assume that Samsonov will get one of the games as well, so long as he's healthy.
