Kovacevic: Why the worry over Murray vs. Fleury?

Brief and to the Point ...

The Penguins perform better as a group in front of Matt Murray than in front of Marc-Andre Fleury.

It's not a myth, and it's not some narrative: They've got a 7-1 record with Murray, 6-5-3 with Fleury. They allow 1.75 goals and 28.6 shots per game with Murray, 3.38 goals and 33.3 shots per game with Fleury. And if you want to go all fancy-stats on the process, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, they command 64.8 percent of a game's high-danger scoring changes when Murray's playing, 53.2 percent when it's Fleury.

Pretty powerful evidence there, I'd say.



But in the same breath, I'd say it's all mostly immaterial. For now, anyway. Because the comparison point that's the most stark in the broader equation is that Fleury has played twice as much: 14 starts to Murray's eight, 871 minutes to Murray's 445.

That's really it.

One of Fleury's appearances was a five-goal relief barrage in that 7-1 bloodletting at Washington, a game in which Murray was forced out for concussion protocol. Over the next four months, somehow, somewhere, that'll happen in the reverse.

A couple of Murray's victories required riveting comebacks after he'd allowed three goals, those against the Oilers and, just this past weekend, the Devils. Over the next four months, somehow, somewhere, opponents will cling to those leads.

I could do this all day, just as I could repeat -- emphatically -- that Murray absolutely has outperformed Fleury to this quarter-pole of the season and that the team has performed better in front of one than the other. But it won't change the cold fact that we're talking about the quarter-pole of an 82-game season or that so much can and will change over that course.

Case in point: Saturday night against New Jersey, Murray wasn't sharp:

https://vimeo.com/193483176

He fairly pointed out afterward that Vern Fiddler's shorty, the second of those goals, "hit a patch of ice and skipped a foot in the air," but we've seen enough of his best to know that wasn't it. I'd bet anything he'll be better in his next start.

To the point, on that one night alone, it wasn't just the standard statistics that began balancing out. It's that the Penguins collectively weren't great in their own end, despite whipping up 49 shots at the other. They conceded a whopping eight high-danger scoring chances against, raising the season total when Murray is on the ice from 43 to 51. And in the process, their season average for high-danger scoring chances against Murray soared to 6.1, not all that far from the 7.3 when Fleury plays.

One really, really good chance. That's it.

Bottom line, as far as I'm concerned: This debate, compelling as it can be, means so very little at the moment. They're both going to play, neither of them will wilt or want out, and Mike Sullivan has a decision to make not now but next February or March. He'll know a ton more by then.

• No, Fleury won't want out.

I know what he told Josh Yohe, and I know some of the hints I've picked up myself. But I also know that his legacy in Pittsburgh is extremely important to him. Even if he's aware he won't be here forever, the last thing he'd want is to leave on any negative terms or burn bridges in the mold of a couple of other franchise greats, Jaromir Jagr and Tom Barrasso. That's just not him.

Of this I'm dead certain, based on multiple conversations with both men: Murray and Fleury want the same thing in 2016-17, and that's to win another Cup. How they arrive there isn't nearly as important to them as whether they arrive there.

As Murray told me the other day, "You see Sid and Geno, even Mario, and you know you only get so many of these chances."

Exactly.

• Yes. A thousand times yes.

• It probably shouldn't go unappreciated that Sullivan shows such a fine touch when it comes to potentially touchy personnel matters.

There are a million ways he could have handled Brian Dumoulin's healthy scratch the other night, and he chose honesty. Both with the player and the public. If you missed it, this was the thrust of it: "Listen, Brian Dumoulin’s a good player. He’s going to be a big part of this team. But we felt as though it was an opportunity for him to maybe take a step back, hit the reset button. So when he does go back in the lineup, maybe he’s got a little bit of a different perspective. I just think it’s part of the learning process, and that’s what the coaching staff decided to do tonight."

Magnificent.

This is how players stay loyal to a coach through tough times. Sullivan has given Sidney Crosby linemates against his wishes. He reamed out Evgeni Malkin on the bench during the playoffs. He benched Patric Hornqvist, for crying out loud, during the Washington series. He regularly pokes and prods Kris Letang. He's pulled aside Phil Kessel.

But there's no fuss, no muss, mostly because he's honest with them and, as he deems necessary, with all of us.

• The most positive outlook for the Penguins at the quarter-pole is that they're 13-6-3 with a plus-1 goal differential. That's a whole lot of timeliness, my friends. It means they scored their goals when they were most needed. And it means -- and be sure this is what's driven Sullivan nuts at times -- they can pump it up when they feel like it.

Just wait until they feel like it more often.

• Why, why, why do sports franchises come up with names that they know even their most passionate supports will never use?

Vegas Golden Knights?

'Hey, son, where you going?'

'Headed out to the Golden Knights game, Dad!'

It's like the Wild and all the others that were part of that singular-entity fad. It probably takes place in some glass-walled conference room, where a bunch of marketing types with zero feel for the common fan come up with some crazy concoction they think will get them mentioned in some industry journal.

And that's to say nothing of the pointlessly cutesy shortening to 'Vegas,' easily the most contrived city-based designation in sports since the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

Ugh. Bring back the Nordiques already.

• Apropos of absolutely nothing, the Penguins have the NHL's Nos. 10-12 scorers in a row right now -- Malkin, Kessel and Crosby -- sandwiched between Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov and Nos. 9 and 13.

Hey, a subscription's a measly buck-eight-three a month, OK?