The NHL hosted the last three Stanley Cup-winning goaltenders -- Matt Murray, Braden Holtby, and Jordan Binnington -- on a group video call on Monday.
Murray is currently staying in his lake house just north of Toronto, having gone home just after the season shut down in March because of the home gym he has there.
Murray said he's been able to "stay in pretty good shape" with his home gym, but since he isn't able to be on the ice, the closest thing he has to being able to make actual saves is throwing a tennis ball off the wall to himself.
"I'm just trying to keep the body in shape and make sure that my body is ready for when we start back up again," he said.
With these three goaltenders being on the call, there was a lot of talk about their Stanley Cup memories ... or lack thereof.
"There was definitely times where I would think to myself for a second how lucky I was to be in that position and get to experience that so early," Murray said of his rookie season. "But also at the same time, looking back now, it was definitely a blur. I feel like my whole career up until this point has been a bit of a blur. It went by so fast."
Although it's a bit of a blur, Murray felt that he greatly benefitted from being able to play through two Stanley Cup runs so early into his NHL career.
"When I take a second to look back at it, I feel fortunate that I got to play in big games early in my career," he said. "I learned a lot of valuable lessons about playing in big games, and I feel lucky to have been a part of such a good team so early in my career and be a part of those two runs."
A lot of those lessons came from his partner in net during those two runs, Marc-Andre Fleury.
"He was a big help for me, for sure," Murray said of Fleury. "I leaned on him a lot during those first couple of years, just looking for advice. He's the perfect guy for that. He was a great mentor to me, and a great teammate to everybody. I can't say enough about what he meant for me in those first couple of years, just getting to watch him day in and day out. How he carries himself, how professional he was, and how good he was. I was lucky in that regard to have a guy like that."
Binnington, who became an NHL regular in 2018-19 after five seasons in the minors, said he looked up to Murray over the past few years.
"Murray, when you were in Wilkes and you were just putting up unlimited shutouts a year, I remember you had like 12 one year," Binnington said. "I was in Chicago in the minors at the time. I was like, 'This guy, I don't understand how he's doing it.' He made his run, won a Cup, had a great start to his career. It kind of opened my perspective in my eyes to what it takes. You have to dominate at the level below before you can move up."
The conference call had some fun moments, too. Each goaltender was asked which teammate is the most likely to "buzz" a puck right past his head during warmups.
"There's not one guy in particular," Murray said with a smile. "I know (Brandon) Tanev's gotten me a few times early in practice. He'll probably have a good laugh about that. He might be doing it on purpose."
The three goaltenders were talking about hard shots to stop from their own teammates, and the host asked Murray if he's figured out how to stop Sidney Crosby's backhand in practice yet.
"No," Murray said. "The thing about that is he shoots it on his backhand just about as hard as he shoots on his forehand. It's definitely the best backhand I've ever faced or I've ever seen, and I get to see it a lot in practice. It's just amazing. Honestly, everything he does is amazing to watch in practice. That's why he's one of the best players to play the game. He's so well-rounded and he works so hard in practice. He's fun to watch. Not so fun to go up against."
Murray was then asked if Patric Hornqvist is as much of a pain in practice as he is for every other goaltender in the league, and Murray laughed.
"Probably not as much as he is to other goalies," Murray said. "He's definitely always at the netfront during practice on the power play, making your job difficult. But he's not really trying to get under your skin as much in practice."
Holtby, nodding, chimed in.
"He apologizes after he does it every time," he said with a laugh.
"Yeah, he's the nicest guy ever," Murray said. "But that's just part of his thing. He likes to go to the net, he likes to make the goalie's job difficult. That's what makes him dangerous out there."
To continue reading, log into your account:
