Matt Murray plays the most difficult, if not most important, position in all of sports.
And he just makes it look so damned easy.
He has no nervous tics, no goofy quirks. Doesn't tap his goal posts for good luck. Hasn't, to anyone's knowledge, gone full Denis Lemieux after the first period of the Federal League championship, either.
Whether he faces 20 shots or 35, as he did in Thursday night's 3-1 win over the Kings, Murray's the picture of calm in net. He's been the rock upon which the Penguins have stood during their current run.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOEven when a rather large opponent raises the bar.
“They’re a good team with getting traffic to the net, trying to make the goalie’s job difficult," Murray said. "There was some contact there. There were some screens and tips. That’s a tough game for a goalie. I thought in the first, they got a lot of chances that way. But after that, our D did a great job of getting sticks and bodies in the way."
Since returning to the team following the death of his father, Jim, in late January, Murray is now 6-0-1. Over his past three games, he's stopped 97 of 102 shots for a stirring .951 save percentage.
Thursday, in career game No. 100, he recorded his 62nd win, the most by a goalie through his first 100 career games among goalies to debut since 2005-06. That would put Murray ahead of Vezina winners Braden Holtby, Carey Price, Sergei Bobrovsky and Tuukka Rask. And ahead of a Cup winner in Jonathan Quick, who was also excellent on Thursday, by the way.
After his early-season struggles, his play no doubt affected by his father's deteriorating condition, Murray is back near the top of the conversation regarding the NHL's top goaltenders.
"I feel good," Murray said. "I’m just worried about taking things one day at a time, get better as I go, keep my game going in the right direction. I made a couple mistakes here and there, but that’s hockey. I want to keep getting better."
So, what's been different of late?
I asked Mike Sullivan that question Thursday.
“He’s tracking the puck extremely well," the coach said. "When he tracks the puck the way he does, he’s such an intelligent goalie, he reads plays as well as any goalie I’ve ever been around. He tends to make the saves look easy. The pucks tend to hit him. That’s an indication when Matt’s really on top of his game. “
All right, full disclosure: It's 1 a.m. and I'm scouring through the tape of the Penguins' latest win to illustrate how good he was -- and has been -- and I got nothing.
OK, not quite nothing. There was this:
Drew Doughty rips a one-timer from the left circle that hit Murray in the mask. Unfazed, Murray tracks the rebound in the slot and falls over to make the stop on Michael Amadio.
See? He just makes it look too easy.
"He's getting back to where he wants to be and where we need him to be to go places," Carl Hagelin said. "It's fun to watch. He's got a lot of confidence right now. He's calm and composed. "