Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray in action against the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal on Oct. 12.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
The Maple Leafs’ Matt Murray experiment entered a new chapter on Wednesday when the 28-year-old goalie returned to practice for the first time since he tore a groin muscle on Oct. 15.
While oft injured during his NHL career, an adductor strain was new to him. It occurred during a pregame skate before Toronto’s second game of the season.
“It was disappointing at first for sure,” Murray said after taking to the ice at the Ford Performance Centre. “It is an injury I have never had before. It kind of came out of nowhere so it was a little bit frustrating.
“I tried not to sit with those emotions for too long. I just tried to turn my energy and my focus to the rehab.”
When he was hurt, the team said it would take him at least four weeks to recover. Once he began to heal, the Maple Leafs hoped to have him back in the net on Saturday when the Vancouver Canucks visit Scotiabank Arena.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe is not ready to commit to that but allows that it might be an option.
“He is trending in the right direction,” Keefe said. “The plan is to give him another day [of practice] on Thursday and see how he responds. We are on track but we have to make sure we are smart about it and that Matt feels comfortable to play in a game after being out for so long.”
A two-time Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh, Murray was acquired from Ottawa in a trade on July 11. He started the season opener on Oct. 12 in Montreal and was injured three days later, hours before he was to start against the Senators.
Ilya Samsonov took over in his absence and played well, but then got hurt, too, and is also on the injured list. Erik Kallgren, the No. 3 netminder, has done as well as could be expected. Behind him now there is only Keith Petruzzelli, who was called up from the AHL. A year ago, Petruzzelli spent the season in the East Coast League.
Kallgren is slated to start on Friday at home against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins but that leaves Petruzzelli or Murray, if he is able, to get the nod in the second of back-to-back games.
Kallgren is 1-1-3 with his lone victory coming on Sunday in a tough road encounter with Carolina. He stopped several breakaways and several point-blank shots in a 4-3 overtime loss to Vegas on Tuesday. In that one, he was mostly undone by teammates’ turnovers.
“The results are sometimes a little up and down,” Kallgren said. “You can’t let your confidence be affected by it. You have to refocus quickly after every game. That is what I am doing here.”
At 21, Murray became the youngest goalie in Penguins history to start a playoff game and he won that one and the next in a shutout. The following year he became the fastest goalkeeper to reach 25 wins in league history. He won another Cup during that same campaign but since then there have been travails.
He has had multiple concussions and a broken hand and last season Ottawa shipped him out to its AHL farm team in Belleville, Ont.
Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas decided not to re-sign Jack Campbell and bet big on Murray in the off-season. So far not so good but it is still early. The Maple Leafs are 7-4-3 and could be a lot worse when one considers the injury issues in the crease.
Murray looked sharp on Wednesday.
“He made a really good glove save on me that I’m not too happy about,” said John Tavares, the team’s captain.
On his end, Murray was simply happy to be well enough to rejoin the team.
“I felt great,” he said. “Right now it is a day-to-day type of thing. We’ll see how I feel and keep testing it.”
Keefe said because of the nature of the injury and Murray’s position that he would not commit to starting him on Saturday unless both Murray and the club’s medical team are sure he is 100-per-cent healthy.
“He looked good,” Keefe said. “It is a positive progression and it seems like he got through it fine. He is an important part of the team and we haven’t been able to have him around. He is certainly our most experienced guy and it is good to see him back here a little ahead of schedule.”