THE GOALTENDERS: Fleury passes Cup, baton to Murray taken in Nashville, Tenn. (Stanley Cup)

Marc-Andre Fleury passes the Stanley Cup to Matt Murray. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Matt Murray had been magnificent. He'd just stopped all 27 pucks the Predators put his way in Game 6, this after another shutout in Game 5, and he wound up with 64 consecutive saves to close out the Stanley Cup Final.

It's as if he'd seen everything coming.

Except he didn't.

Minutes after the Penguins had punctuated their 2-0 triumph with Carl Hagelin's empty-netter and a mob scene behind Murray's net, the 23-year-old still-a-rookie with two championships already to his credit dutifully took his spot off to the fringe of where his teammates would take turns twirling with the Cup.



“My rank on this team's way down at the bottom," Murray flatly explained of his positioning. "We have a lot of experienced players. That’s just how it goes.”

And then, along came Marc-Andre Fleury, bearing the Cup directly his way after a 45-degree detour away from his fellow veterans, including Patric Hornqvist, who'd just scored the winning goal with 1:35 left in regulation.



All of the Penguins, including those waiting vets, broke into applause.

And Murray?

Well, this won't be easy to process given his relentless poise and avoidance of highs and lows, but he'd later well up with tears -- more than once, actually -- when asked to describe Fleury's gesture.

"He's been a really important mentor for me, just such a support person for me over the past couple of years," Murray said. "There's no way I'm able to play as freely as I do without him there to support me. He's meant everything to me."

He paused a moment.

"The fact that he handed me the Cup there says a lot about who Flower is. That meant so much to me, for him to do that. I don't know what made him do that, but I'm very thankful for having him around and to call him a friend and a mentor. He's a special human being."

What did make Fleury do it?

"I didn't have anything planned," he replied to the question. "I was out there with the Cup, and I saw Matt, and I thought it would feel right."

He was then asked if maybe this overall experience felt different than last year in San Jose, where he mostly kept to himself to the side of the rink and took only a brief, expression-free half-lap with the Cup. This time, of course, he played a vital role in the championship run by beating the Blue Jackets and Capitals, the top two opponents the Penguins faced.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about those games. They were a while ago. It's always different when you're out there for the last game, and you're sweating and battling for the Cup. But I'm happy to get a chance again to lift the Cup. Me and Matt, we did it together for the playoffs. I thought it would be nice to share with him."

He gave off a smile.

"We were a pretty good team, us two, right?"

Fleury, 32, almost certainly has played his last game for the Penguins after a 14-year career in which he set nearly every franchise goaltending record. The Las Vegas expansion draft June 21 -- that's the date the new Golden Knights' picks will be announced after a three-day selection process -- forces Jim Rutherford's hand, and upper management has already made known internally to all concerned that Fleury will be the one to go.

That awareness had some members of Fleury's immediate family visibly emotional while he was on the ice after this game.

"I'm trying not to think about it right now," he said. "I just want to enjoy this."

Rutherford declined to delve into any future dealings on the night his team won a championship, but he was effusive in praising both his goaltenders.

Of Fleury, he said, "Marc's probably the best team player in all of sports. We can debate it. Whoever you want to throw at me, go for it. But what he went through last year? He carried us at times this season. He carried us through two rounds of the playoffs. I talked about keeping two goalies. These guys did exactly what I'd hoped for."

Of Murray, he said, "He was in the zone the last two games. When he's like that, you can't score on him."

That, above all, is why he's the franchise's present and future.

He's 6 feet 4, 170 pounds, but he keeps the lanky build in a compact, technically smooth form. The legs can straddle out when needed, as he showed in stoning Colton Sissons on a clean breakaway in Game 6 ...

... but he's at his best with an economy of motion, such as this critical stop on a Nashville five-on-three in the third period:

The Predators move the puck all over creation, tee off ... and Murray barely budges. That's the source of his steadiness. It's why Mike Sullivan has praised how the Penguins perform in front of him more often than not, and it just might be the genesis of why Sullivan has displayed -- in word and deed -- such dedication to Murray.

"He's got such great poise," Sullivan would say once it was done. "That's what's always stood out for us. There's a calm there, and I think the guys feed off that."

Regular-season goals-against average and save percentage: 2.32, .925.

Playoff goals-against average and save percentage: 1.95, .928.

Yeah, he gets even better. And that's to say nothing of never having lost a playoff series.

“I think he deserves so much credit," Conor Sheary said, before referring to the attention Fleury's received for losing his starting job after Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. "I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for him this season, either. Then, he came in cold against Ottawa. And he played great. You can’t really say enough about him and how good he is.”

"Both guys were outstanding, really," Justin Schultz said. "We're so fortunate to have two guys like that."

It surely will be only one of them the next time around, but it'll be one who's earned exactly that status.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury, Game 6, Stanley Cup Final, Nashville, Tenn., June 11, 2017. – MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

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