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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: PENGUINS VS SENATORS

May 18, 2017

Matt Murray

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Practice Day

Q. (Inaudible) get out of here?
MATT MURRAY: I hope so. We'll have to do single file to get out of here.

Q. When you went into the game last night, is it in your head that you're trying to regain the starting job at all?
MATT MURRAY: I'd say no. You're just playing. You don't have time to think at that point. You just kind of jump in and try to stop the next puck. That's all I focus on.

Q. Have you been told anything about Game 4?
MATT MURRAY: Even if I had, I wouldn't tell you guys about it.

Q. Obviously, you're hoping to start again in this series?
MATT MURRAY: You know, I don't really like the word hope. I have no expectations. Either way, I have to be ready. That's how I kind of, like, look at it. I'll be ready to go either way whatever coach's decision is, but I'm not really hoping one way or the other. It's out of my control, so I don't really think too much about it.

Q. I mean, it's a strange year for you because I remember at the World Cup, it was going really well for you when you had the (inaudible) injury. And after that, you had a couple others. Ever been through a crazy year like that?
MATT MURRAY: No. I've never had an injury until this season that kept me out of the lineup. It's definitely frustrating in that regard, but it's a long season. You're going to have ups and downs, and that's definitely what happened this year. But I think I persevered well through it. You know, each time I've gotten hurt, I've come back stronger. I think that's all you can do. So that's what I'm working on.

Q. How do you approach the situation when you're supporting Marc and he's playing and you're backing him up?
MATT MURRAY: I do exactly that. I just support him. You know, goalies are kind of like a brotherhood. It's a different mental mindset, I think, than the rest of the players on the team. Just comes with the position. So we know it a lot better than the other guys do. So we know how to help each other.

I said it before, it's just knowing when a guy needs a pat on the back or needs some reinforcement, or you just need to stay out of the guy's way and let him do his thing. I think goalies are pretty good at knowing when to do which, and I think that's what we've been pretty good at all season long. When we're not in there, we're supporting each other and helping each other. At the end of the day, it's just about winning, so we support each other.

Q. Do you feel like you knocked the rust off that you needed to last night that you could be ready to go for Game 4 if you get called upon?
MATT MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it felt good to get back in there for sure, but at the same time, I'm not going to sit there and say, yeah, I need to knock the rust off to be good. You don't need to play all the time to be good. It's not necessary. So like no matter what happens, you've got to be able to kind of adapt and give your team the best chance to be successful.

So, sure, it was nice, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. You might not get that chance. So you've got to be ready no matter what.

Q. Is there any aspect that's different when you haven't played in a while?
MATT MURRAY: I mean, when it happens like that, you just kind of get thrown in there and you're not really thinking much about it. So for me usually, like puck handling is probably the one thing that takes a little while. But you just try and play everything and just kind of get the feel back a little bit. But like I said, you don't want to kind of feel your way into it. At the same time, you want to just jump in there and feel like you haven't missed a beat. That's what I try to do, just play with no hesitation and no fear.

Q. Did your injury take longer than you expect when it happened, or did it pretty much go like you thought it would be?
MATT MURRAY: No, it was actually a lot shorter than we expected.

Q. You thought you'd be out a lot longer?
MATT MURRAY: Yeah.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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