Stuart Skinner was sitting on the bench, serving as the back for Saturday’s game against the Panthers when a puck left the playing area and struck him in the face. It caused damage near his left eye to the point where he couldn’t play as scheduled on Sunday after swelling set in, as seen in the team’s post-game video from the lockerroom after Sunday’s win.
Skinner’s unexpected malady meant trouble for the Penguins in the short term – they physically couldn’t get their top AHL goalie Sergei Murashov to Pittsburgh to join the team in time for the Sunday afternoon game, following Wilkes-Barre playing at Lehigh Valley on Saturday night themselves. For a short-term patch the Pens played Arturs Silovs a second-straight day and had ECHL goalie Taylor Gauthier serve as the backup, since it was easier to make the quick 60-mile jaunt from Wheeling to Pittsburgh.
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The longer-term ramifications of that random, errant puck on Saturday could have bigger impacts. The Pens are off until Thursday, giving Skinner time to heal up. Silovs can always take the net on Thursday and if Skinner is good to go for the following game on Saturday against Washington, the incident could fade away as a minor footnote.
There’s another path available as well, as seen from this morning’s transaction to officially call up Murashov from the AHL. The Penguins were off yesterday after playing a ridiculous 20 games in 36 days, they’ll return to practice today, presumably with a new goalie out there.
The timing of Skinner’s fluke injury a few games before the playoffs looms large to potentially open the door for Murashov. At a bottom line level, the Penguins could use a goalie upgrade. Whether or not the 22-year old Murashov represents a boost in level of play is another topic, though it’s captivating to see it play out now.
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The Penguins’ goalies recently:
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Silovs posted a -10.26 GSAA over just eight games from March 5th to April 4th. He managed a 5-3-0 record, mainly because the explosive Pittsburgh offense was able to outscore the problems in net. Silovs had a 3.92 GAA and .842 save% in that eight game where Silovs surrendered up 4+ goals six out of the eight times. To his credit, Silovs was better when the Penguins needed him to play a back-to-back, managing 29 stops on 31 shots in Sunday’s game.
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Skinner hasn’t been much better, posting a 4-4-5 record since January 31st with a .870 save% and 3.54 GAA. It’s been tough minutes and games, as reflected by a -0.16 GSAA in this stretch, but he’s not stopping a lot more than the average expected and the team has only won four out of his last 13 starts.
The Pittsburgh offense has done a lot to paper over deficiencies in net, the Pens’ 3.96 goals/game since January 21st ranks first in the league. Their 3.58 goals/against is down at 26th. A team can’t count on winning 5-4 type of hockey games in the playoffs and in addition to defensive details that need to be cleaned up, it’s not a stretch (or exactly a new idea) that a change between the pipes could lead to an improvement for the club. Neither Silovs nor Skinner has risen to the occasion lately and Murashov is clearly a talented netminder who has proven his mettle at the AHL level to the tune of a 23-8-3 record, 2.13 GAA and .922 save% this season that ranks second in the entire league.
The Pens have had their share of surprise late-season goaltenders emerge for the playoffs, and it’s fitting this is the 10th year anniversary of Matt Murray working his way up from AHL goalie to NHL playoff stalwart, as well as the 25th anniversary of minor league journeyman Johan Hedberg coming out of no where to lead the Pens on a deep playoff run. Are the stars aligning to see Murashov get a chance to add a chapter to that story?
We may find out as soon as Thursday, dependent on Skinner’s eye situation and whether or not the Pens even play Murashov against the Devils or decide to let Silovs keep on playing in hopes of an upturn in performance. Suddenly, and in a most unexpected way, the Pens might have an opportunity to make a change in net that could drastically change their look for the playoffs if they want to give Murashov a shot in net.
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