After facing the cameras and answering all the questions Saturday night, Matt Murray tugged on the bill of his ballcap and slid deep into his locker stall.
"That was fun," Murray said, a smile finally creasing his face.
Easy for him to say.
After being away from the game for nearly a month while dealing with a lower body injury, any game would have been fun for the 24-year-old goaltender. Of course, Murray later admitted, it didn't hurt that the Penguins won.
Phil Kessel put an end to a wild night at PPG Paints Arena with his 4-on-3 power play goal with 1:01 remaining in overtime, handing the Penguins their second win in as many nights with a 4-3 victory over the Kings.
For reasons both good and bad, that the game had to go even that far had a little to do with Murray and a lot about the defense in front of him. The goalie, much like his team, had an uneven night.
First, the positives.
Matt Cullen scored the Penguins' second short-handed goal in as many games after they had scored none in the previous 30.
Bryan Rust scored his fourth goal in three games and, yeah, he probably could have scored a few others.
Tanner Pearson, who'd gone AWOL the previous nine games, came back to haunt his former team with a highlight-reel goal in which he absolutely posterized a pair of All-Stars.
Kessel's goal gave the Penguins their first win in overtime since Oct. 23 in Edmonton.
And last but not least, Murray stopped 38 of the 41 shots he faced, including four in overtime. That, of course, would include this beauty on Tyler Toffoli 20 seconds into the 3-on-3:
"I thought Matt was really good," was Mike Sullivan's assessment. "For the first game back, I thought he was really sharp. We gave up a couple of breakaways in overtime and those were huge saves for us."
No, the Penguins didn't exactly ease Murray back into the job. They took two penalties in the first 5:22 of the game and allowed 13 shots in the first 10 minutes.
Murray said he had a case of the butterflies -- "Feels like forever since I played" -- and it showed. He looked shaky on the first puck that he saw, a Toffoli wrister at 1:46. But those early penalty kills, in particular, forced him to bear down.
Midway through the opening period, Murray got a shoulder on this Michael Amadio shot:
You can't teach 6-foot-4. Perhaps if the 6-foot Casey DeSmith is in goal, that shot finds its way under the crossbar.
"They were throwing a lot of pucks on net early in the first," said Murray, who had been pulled in three of his previous six starts. "I think they had 12-13 shots in the first eight or nine minutes. Seems like that was part of their game plan, to throw pucks from everywhere, and that's what they were doing. So I had to be careful with rebounds. (The defense) did a really good job of boxing out and eliminating those second opportunities because those are the ones that hurt you."
All of the above is true, but now the negatives.
For the second game in a row, the Penguins let a two-goal lead slip away.
Not only that, they let it slip away against a team that entered the night with the fewest points in the NHL (24). The Kings also average the fewest goals per game (2.15) by a wide margin. And Los Angeles' power play ranks 28th in the 30-team circuit, clicking at a measly 13.7 percent.
Yet the Kings were able to overcome that deficit thanks to more defensive lapses from the Penguins.
Trailing 3-1 midway through the second period, the Kings tied the game when Jack Johnson took himself out of position to stand up fourth-liner Austin Wagner at the blue line. Instead, the defenseman who has been solid of late got nothing but air. Then, Wagner picked the pocket of Evgeni Malkin -- who continues to struggle mightily -- allowing Michael Luff to score from between the circles:
Could Murray have come out of the net a little more to take away the angle and make himself bigger? Sure, but you can't blame the goalie after two defensive breakdowns.
With 8:30 remaining in the game and the Penguins nursing a one-goal lead, Garrett Wilson took an ill-timed hooking penalty. Predictably, a minute later, the puck was in the back of the net after Alex Iaffalo one-timed a shot from the right dot:
Sure, the shot goes under the arm of Murray and needs to be stopped, but how does Adrian Kempe slide a soft one-touch, cross-ice pass through the Penguins' box?
If the Penguins are defending like that, against a team like this, it really doesn't matter who is in net.
With three games coming up over the next five days against teams that figure to be playoff contenders (the Ducks, Capitals and Wild), Cullen says the Penguins know they have to tighten things up:
Still, despite some of Saturday's negatives, there is something to be said for winning. At 15-11-6 and a point behind the Blue Jackets for second place in the Metro, the Penguins will gladly take wins any way they can.
“Good teams find ways to win when they’re not at their best,” Sullivan said. “I also think we have to be better in order to get consistent results.”
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Phil Kessel
Penguins right winger
The game-winning goal in overtime. An easy pick.
2. Bryan Rust
Penguins right winger
Scored one goal, and led the Penguins in shot attempts with six.
3. Tanner Pearson
Penguins left winger
Lit up his former team with a highlight-reel breakaway goal and four shots.
THE INJURIES
• Kris Letang, defenseman, is out day to day with a lower body injury suffered in the third period of Friday night's win over the Bruins.
• Patric Hornqvist, forward, is on Injured Reserve and missed his fourth game with an upper-body injury. He is eligible to come off IR at any time. Sullivan said Friday he is still day-to-day and making progress.
• Dominik Simon, forward, is on IR with a lower-body injury. Sullivan described his status for the first time as "week-to-week."
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, is on long-term IR, out until February with a fractured leg.
THE GOOD
Pearson out-muscled Drew Doughty to force a turnover, drove to the net and held onto the puck until Jonathan Quick was down on the ice, then easily lifted it over Quick's pads:
"I think with as much skill as (Doughty) has, you want to put as much pressure as quickly as possible on him," Pearson said of his former teammate.
Pearson's four shots were tied for the team lead, and matched his season-high total for a single game. When his efforts were rewarded with the goal, he celebrated appropriately for such a big moment.
"I've slowed down a bit lately, it's been nine games since I scored," said Pearson. "It feels good to get one going again." -- Taylor Haase
THE BAD
The Penguins blew a 3-1 lead for the second consecutive game. The Corsi game-flow chart tells the story of a team that came flying out of the gate, but let up in its shot attempts as the game went on:
Sullivan was not entirely pleased with his team's effort.
"We have to be better in order to get consistent results," said Sullivan. "I think when you look at the last couple of games, we've got some wins, but I don't think we were as difficult to play against. I think we've got to make more of a concerted effort to play away from the puck and defend. ... It starts with our own puck management and making sure we don't turn the pucks over when we're late in shifts or in the wrong areas of the rink."
The Penguins were credited with 12 giveaways -- twice as many as their opponent. The giveaways were not centered around a single line or unit's poor play, it was a team-wide problem. Sidney Crosby and Jamie Oleksiak led the team with two giveaways each. Kessel was credited with a giveaway only 14 seconds into a power play.
The Kings are the league's worst team. This game shouldn't have been as close as it was. Only three days prior, the Penguins fell 6-3 to the league's next-worst team, the Blackhawks. The Penguins need to be more consistent moving forward. -- Taylor Haase
THE PLAY
The Penguins had a lot of open ice to work with on their 4-on-3 man advantage in the extra frame, and they made use of it in quick fashion.
30 seconds into the man advantage, Kessel skated through the open ice up high and passed the puck to Malkin at the bottom of the right circle. Malkin's attempted pass to Crosby was blocked by Derek Forbort. Malkin poke-checked the puck away from Forbort just as he was able to get a stick on it, and the puck slid to Kessel in front of a wide-open net.
Sullivan thought the Penguins' power play performed well in Letang's absence, and called the 4-on-3 unit's play "huge for us".
THE CALL
This one was a no-brainer.
At 16:40 of the first period, Toffoli scored what would have been the Kings' first goal of the game, cutting the Penguins' lead to one.
Immediately, Sullivan could be seen on the bench listening to the speakers they wear on their arm. It was video coach Andy Saucier calling from his perch in the press box to alert the coaches behind the bench that Drew Doughty was offsides on the play, and that the goal should be challenged.
Sullivan challenged the goal, and the call on the ice was overturned. No goal. The Penguins are now 4-for-6 on challenges this season.
"I think 'Sauce' is an all-star," Sullivan said of his eye in the sky after the game. "He's really good at what he does, he's terrific at breaking down those situations. We don't get a good enough look on the bench ... I have the utmost faith and trust in Sauce and what he sees. I just think he's an all-star."
Is Saucier available to work on the North Shore on Sundays? -- Taylor Haase
THE OTHER SIDE
The Kings fall to 11-20-3, ranking last in the league. The loss was the final game of a four-game road trip in which the Kings posted an 0-2-2 record.
Jonathan Quick, now 2-8-2 on the season with an .892 save percentage and 3.34 goals against average, was heated after the game.
"We lost," Quick said. "F------ effort’s not enough, you know? That’s a given. Effort should be there every f------ night. We lost, so that’s how it works."
While Quick may not be happy with his team's effort, the Kings rallying from a two-goal deficit and forcing overtime was a positive takeaway. The Kings outshot the Penguins 41-36, outhit the Penguins 36-28, and had only six giveaways to the Penguins' 12.
Kings coach Willie Desjardins was pleased with his team's reaction to the loss.
"They'll refocus again for the next game," he said. "It's way better that they're in there upset than if they're in there feeling that everything's great. We got a point. It's good to see them upset."
The Kings will return to Los Angeles and host the Jets on Tuesday night. -- Taylor Haase
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have an off day on Sunday. They'll be back in action Monday at 7 p.m. against the Ducks.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Kings, PPG Paints Arena, Dec. 15, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS