ST. LOUIS — The dads were everywhere. So were the smiles.
All except one of each.
All weekend long, from takeoff in Pittsburgh to a team dinner in Dallas, all the hotel lobbies and skates and practices and games and all else that goes into the Penguins’ annual trip in which they’re accompanied by players’ fathers … that precious camaraderie that can exist only between a parent and child was being celebrated at every turn.
When the players took the ice for warmups here at Scottrade Center early Sunday morning, Dana Heinze, the enterprising equipment manager, arranged for the pucks to be set up this way:
Puck arrangement for warmups Sunday morning in St. Louis. – PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
And when the game wound up a riveting 4-1 victory over the Blues that was highlighted by Sidney Crosby’s 400th goal, Mike Sullivan invited all the dads into the locker room, where the players awarded the customary Steelers helmet to Troy Crosby, Sid’s dad, prompting a loud roar and applause from all concerned.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO
Matt Murray mostly kept to himself. The whole time. From what I’d witnessed over the trip, he was quiet, expressionless. He selflessly invested some of his Friday into a morning with a Make-A-Wish child facing a terminal illness, and he was palpably professional in all settings. But he also never stopped looking like he needed a hug.
Murray, of course, lost his father, James, a month ago.
But you’d better believe Mr. Murray still made this trip.
Because that exemplary young man he raised, that extraordinary athlete who’s already raised the Stanley Cup twice at age 23 … that son was performing with the same motivation as the rest of his mates. And that son rose to a level unseen all season long in stoning 32 of St. Louis’ 33 shots, several of those saves absolutely spectacular.
I had to ask Murray, once all the dads had cleared from the room, if this meant something special to him. I had to. And because his mind is still so much there, I didn’t have to elaborate.
“Yeah,” came the soft reply. “It means a lot.”
And then the tears.
“Yeah,” he repeated.
More tears.
I waited a while, then changed the subject a little. Started talking about Vladimir Tarasenko, the Blues’ world-class sniper, and how Murray had beaten him twice in rapid succession early in the third period …
… then again with this glove snap a couple minutes later:
He settled a bit. We were back to hockey now.
“Yeah, that felt good,” he’d say. “I had a blast out there. And it was cool to be part of Sid’s 400th. That’s a pretty special milestone, so I’m thrilled I got to be a part of it in some small way.”
There was nothing small about it.
“Muzz was good,” Crosby would tell me. “So, so good.”
He really was. And the saves above are no more than a sampler. He stood tall and square. He didn’t cut down angles as much as he eliminated them. He swallowed up high shots, smothered low shots. When the Blues went east-west, his legs jutted out like they were video-game controlled. And that glove, the one that had been getting beaten as one of his many early-season shortcomings, was … well, go ask Tarasenko.
Mike Sullivan’s always stood by Murray. We’ve seen that in the tensest of times, chief among them his choice of Murray over a brilliant Marc-Andre Fleury to finish out the most recent Cup run. But he’s standing by Murray now like never before, I can tell you, and that’s because he passionately grasps there’s more in play now.
“I’m happy for Matt,” Sullivan would tell me after this. “It’s been a long weekend for him. I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him.”
Right. That.
He’s standing by Murray in the hockey sense, too. And that hasn’t been easy. It might not be for a while moving forward, either. After three-plus months of struggling with inconsistency, injury and his father’s illness, Murray still isn’t all the way back. He can’t be. Not mentally. Not yet.
Still, Sullivan’s now started Murray in five of the team’s six games since he returned from his personal leave. That included both games on this trip, even though this one had an 11:20 a.m. Central time faceoff following a hard-fought 4-3 shootout loss Friday in Dallas. And you can bet everything Murray will be right back out there Tuesday against the Senators at PPG Paints Arena.
Sullivan’s shown real appreciation for what Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith have contributed to the current season. In particular, he seems to have real faith in Jarry’s future. But he knows, and everyone on every level of the organization knows, there won’t be any three-peat without Murray.
Meaning the Murray who played at his absolute peak on this day, heart and soul and all.
