CSI Toronto: Matt Murray is innocent of knocking the net off deliberately

Mike McKenna
Mike McKenna(MikeMcKenna56)
CSI Toronto: Matt Murray is innocent of knocking the net off deliberately

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Matt Murray is an innocent man. He is not gleefully kicking the net off whenever his team needs a whistle.

Things happen in hockey that can make a goaltender’s blood boil. And one of them is being deemed a cheater.

How so? Well, just over three minutes into Wednesday night’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils, Murray slid into the post and dislodged the net. And predictably, outrage ensued. The hockey world at large accused him of doing it purposefully.

Murray doesn’t slide into the post with any extra force than usual. He’s using the shin of his pad and upper body to eliminate open space on the short side. It’s a routine integration that the post should have no problem withstanding.

But the optics are bad because Murray’s arm extends outward. The entire sequence looks suspect because he does, effectively, push the net off.

So how do I know it wasn’t on purpose? Simple. The flexible plastic pegs, which have been standard in the NHL since 1991, failed..

It’s pretty clear to me that after the ice was resurfaced between the second and third period, the Prudential Center staff didn’t clear out the concrete cavity enough for the peg to be fully inserted.

That’s why the ice crew member has to skate out and use a drill – he’s trying to get the hole deep enough for the peg to stay in place. He even has to use a turkey baster to remove moisture from the cavity. The entire situation was a classic example of ‘do it right the first time, every time.’

In this case, it wasn’t done right the first time. Murray didn’t damage or break the pegs. He didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. But when Murray impacted the post for the first time in the third period, it broke away.

Why? Because when the peg isn’t fully inserted, minimal force can cause it to shift upward and eject. And once the peg comes out of the hole, it’s all over.

This needs to be very clear: it was the impact with Murray’s pad that dislodged the post. It wasn’t his arm. The damage had already been done.

Goaltenders use their upper body to push off the post in these types of post integrations. And that’s what Murray was trying to do with his arm. Except the post was no longer anchored.

I get it. It looked bad. But it wasn’t intentional. And puck stoppers are getting fed up with rink crews who aren’t doing a good enough job.

Pretty much the same thing happened with Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko last season. I even wrote about it at the time. But these instances keep occurring.

One current NHL goaltender told me that he thinks half of NHL arenas do a sub-par job of drilling out the post holes before the game and between periods. And it’s why the pegs aren’t staying in place.

“What I find happens is if the rubber peg lifts up, (and doesn’t) actually settle back down into the designated hole: it’s impossible to know that during play,” he explained. “Next time you do your typical post type of movement it comes off without batting an eyelash. Happens a lot.”

It’s enough of a problem that NHL GMs discussed it at their latest round of meetings.

“We said, ‘Is that a trend – the goalie, when he’s under pressure, knocking the net off – and if so, how do you want us to deal with it?” NHL Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell said. “Do you want us to give a penalty? They might want us to give him a penalty now, until it happens to them.”

What I do find encouraging is that the NHL knows the nets are coming off too often. And there has been internal dialogue on how to address the problem.

“How’s (the net) coming off?” NHL Director of Officiating Steven Walkom said following the GM meetings. “Is it coming off at a higher frequency? Is it the result of how goalies are playing, or does it have something to do with the technology in the pegs? So we’re monitoring that for discussion in March.”

As it stands, the status quo isn’t working. A better solution to anchoring the nets has to exist.

But until that’s found, people need to stop shaming the goalies when a post fails. Just like Murray against the Devils on Wednesday, I promise you it’s not on purpose.

He’s innocent. Please believe me.

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