"It's not about effort. It's never been about effort."
Those nine words from Matt Murray followed his 29 saves and the Penguins' 4-0 shutout of the Canucks on this Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. He was trying to describe for me the level to which his team is demonstrating real attention to real defensive detail.
I'll emphasize he was trying. It's not easy to explain.
"If anything, I think we've got guys coming back so hard that we'll maybe overskate a play and give up a chance that way," Murray continued. "But no, it's definitely not about effort, and it hasn't been about effort all season."
So what is it, then?
Sorry to be a broken Vine on the topic, but I'm not going to be convinced that these Penguins are about to embark on a Stanley Cup playoff run like those Penguins until this singular, striking shortcoming is smacked down with a sledgehammer. And all appearances aside, it most assuredly wasn't on this night.
But wait, wasn't it a shutout?
Yeah, watch how Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin answered my questions on the topic:
