When it comes to his decision-making process, Dan Muse is all hockey.<\/p>\n
But when Washington visits PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins coach needs to have a sense of the occasion and start Sergei Murashov.<\/p>\n
The Penguins\u2019 goaltender of the future has arrived earlier than expected because Tristan Jarry got hurt. Murashov will make his NHL debut either Thursday night or Saturday on the road vs. New Jersey at 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Penguins fans won\u2019t remember what happens mid-day at Newark. Nobody does, unless Tony Soprano gets whacked.<\/p>\n
Indulge a little showbiz. Create a little hype. Give a moment an opportunity to materialize.<\/p>\n
It could be like Marc-Andre Fleury\u2019s NHL debut Oct. 10, 2003 at Mellon Arena. Fleury was 18.<\/p>\n
The Penguins lost 3-0 but Fleury made 46 saves, including a penalty shot. He was the game\u2019s No. 1 star.<\/p>\n
Fleury announced to Pittsburgh who he was and what he was going to do. It was an indelible event for the 16,986 who were there.<\/p>\n
Give that a chance to happen again.<\/p>\n
If it doesn\u2019t, so what? If Murashov gets lit up, too bad. No risk it, no biscuit.<\/p>\n
The Penguins\u2019 average home attendance is 15,014. That\u2019s just 81.7% of capacity. That\u2019s second-worst in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Starting Murashov might not sell many extra tickets on the night.<\/p>\n
But something could happen that could bring those attending back.<\/p>\n
A sidebar: Washington\u2019s Alex Ovechkin had 899 career goals heading into the Capitals\u2019 home game vs. St. Louis on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
If Ovechkin doesn\u2019t tally against the Blues, Thursday\u2019s moment becomes even bigger \u2014 especially if Murashov plays. Old Russian vs. new Russian. I\u2019d like to see a 5-1 Penguins win and Ovechkin nets No. 900.<\/p>\n
Muse\u2019s goalie rotation has worked, with Jarry and Arturs Silovs both playing well. (Until Jarry allowed four goals on 20 shots in a calamitous loss at Toronto on Monday, anyway.)<\/p>\n
But that rotation and its success shouldn\u2019t be so sacred as to veto a chance at something special.<\/p>\n
Muse is smart.<\/p>\n
But to not start Murashov on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena would be stupid.<\/p>\n
Ask owners Fenway Sports Group what they think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to his decision-making process, Dan Muse is all hockey. But when Washington visits PPG Paints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-274171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}