PITTSBURGH – Now for the toughest decision of the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ season.
Do you stick with Marc-Andre Fleury or turn the crease back over to 21-year-old Matt Murray with everything on the line?
There is no easy answer, no obvious answer. The danger in giving Fleury his first start in more than seven weeks on Sunday was that he might deliver an uneven performance that left the Penguins one loss away from a summer of regret.
That’s where they find themselves now after blowing 2-0 and 3-2 leads before Tyler Johnson had a shot go off his pants and in for the overtime winner.
Fleury was far from the only reason Pittsburgh fell behind the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in this Eastern Conference Final, but he did acknowledge feeling rusty. He stopped just 21 of 25 shots on net.
“It wasn’t the best I’ve felt in a game, but still though I’ve been practising a lot,” he said. “I should have been better, especially on that first goal (by Alex Killorn). That was stupid. Tough to lose.”
All night it felt like a game the Penguins were going to win.
They built a 2-0 lead with a Brian Dumoulin goal at 19:59 of the first period and a Patric Hornqvist goal at 1:30 of the second. Those early- and late-period markers are usually back-breakers for the opposition.
Even after seeing the Lightning tie it, veteran winger Chris Kunitz scored 50 seconds before the second intermission to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.
“For most of the night we were a pretty good hockey team,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.
His team hadn’t lost a game all year when leading after 40 minutes. It hadn’t dropped back-to-back games since Jan. 12 and 15.
Both of those impressive stats are now history after Nikita Kucherov scored his second of the night with 3:16 to play in regulation and Johnson gave the Lighting a 4-3 victory 53 seconds into the extra period.
Tampa is a resilient group that came within two wins of lifting the Stanley Cup last spring. Those players know how to keep their nerve. The talk on the bench as the minutes wound down centred around getting as many pucks on Fleury as possible.
“We knew he didn’t play for a while and you obviously want to shoot more and we saw he was struggling a little,” said Kucherov. “At that point of the game, you’re just trying to put the puck on the net and get some chances.”
Sullivan must now determine who gives them the best chance to get this series back here for a Game 7.
The Penguins have had good stretches during this series, but they’ve been consistently outplayed by Tampa’s own 21-year-old goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Murray and Fleury have surrendered 15 goals on 131 shots while Ben Bishop and Vasilevskiy have given up 14 on 196.
A lot of discussion and dissection will have to go into determining who gets the next start.
“I’m not going to assess his game right after the game,” Sullivan said of Fleury. “It’s obviously a disheartening game we just lost. I’d rather digest it a little bit before I jump to any conclusions.”
While Fleury is the sentimental choice, Murray might make the most sense given how much more action he’s seen in April and May.
It was clear that the Penguins were excited to see the veteran back in the crease on Sunday, with several teammates clowning around with him during warmup and then diving in front of virtually every shot once the game started. They had blocked 20 attempts by the second intermission.
But the Lightning pushed on, and eventually found some cracks in Pittsburgh’s armour.
“We never gave up,” said Tampa defenceman Victor Hedman. “We gave up two goals late in periods and we still found a way to battle back. That’s playoff hockey right there … I think that’s the biggest mindset and the biggest lesson we get from last year: It’s always going to be a roller-coaster ride. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be very, very tough.
“It’s the toughest league and the toughest trophy to play for.”
If the Penguins want to remain in the hunt, they’re going to need the game of their lives in Tampa on Tuesday night. They’re also likely going to need a goalie that can weather the storm at some point during Game 6.
A day that began with so much optimism ended with Fleury sitting alone at his locker stall, staring into the distance. He slammed his shoes against the wall after eventually taking off his equipment and exiting the room.
“I was really, really excited (to play),” said Fleury. “It’s been a while since I played. I was really looking forward to it, you know I’m just disappointed it ended the way it did.”
Now the end of a once-bright season could be closer than any of them care to think about.
