BUFFALO, N.Y. — Matt Murray appeared as much as the scoreboard above him, counted down the seconds as they disappeared and at last pumped his fist.
It had been 638 days since Murray final felt the sensation washing over him.
Bilateral hip surgical procedure compelled the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie out of all the 2023-24 season, the ultimate of a four-year contract. There was no assure the oft-injured Murray would play within the NHL once more. A one-year contract supplied him a lifeline to proceed grinding far out of the highlight within the AHL, with just one objective.
And over a yr and a half later, Murray was again to the place he had fought to be: within the NHL win column after stopping 24 photographs in a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“An extended highway. An enormous mountain to climb. However I saved this second within the entrance of my thoughts on the times it felt robust,” Murray stated.
The 30-year-old’s eyes grew extra purple with each phrase he spoke after the sport. His voice quivered.
“An enormous launch,” he stated, struggling to seek out the phrases to place almost two years away from the NHL into perspective. “A rush of feelings.”
The everyday goalie hugs with teammates after the win have been tighter, longer. In a bodily recreation the place a participant’s profession can activate a dime, Murray’s return resonated much more closely than the two factors the Leafs additionally added on the day.
“It’s good to see (Murray) smiling,” Steven Lorentz stated, “as a result of you recognize he’s again doing what he loves.”
Within the dressing room, Max Domi instantly handed Murray the staff’s WWE-style wrestling belt as participant of the sport. Murray’s up-and-down efficiency was secondary.
“He was getting that factor, one hundred pc, he deserved it,” Domi stated. “The flexibility to keep it up mentally, out of all these days that I’m positive he had quite a lot of doubt, it’s a protracted highway to restoration. We’re all tremendous happy with him.”
It’s straightforward to quantify simply how lengthy Murray’s highway again to the NHL was in days: 628 of them between his final two appearances.
It’s far harder to precisely describe simply how arduous that highway is.
Accidents have dogged Murray all through his profession after successful back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in his first two seasons within the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins. His video games performed tapered off each season from 2018 to 2022. After he was traded to the Leafs in summer season 2022, he struggled by way of his first season. It was honest to wonder if hip surgical procedure can be the ultimate dagger in his NHL profession.
However Murray would nonetheless cling round teammates on the Leafs’ follow facility throughout his rehabilitation final season, feeling so shut however so far-off from the league he as soon as conquered.
“The truth that he’s simply on his method again right here says quite a bit about his character, his dedication to the sport,” Lorentz stated.
Murray saved a stall stuffed with his gear at that facility that was by no means used. An vital and humane gesture from the Leafs group, however nonetheless a reminder that Murray was not enjoying NHL video games.
Even after re-signing with the Leafs on a one-year, $875,000 deal, he felt just like the group’s No. 4 goalie. When the Leafs wanted a netminder to interchange the injured Anthony Stolarz, they referred to as up Dennis Hildeby. The lanky Hildeby is seven years’ Murray’s junior.
How might Murray not wonder if his NHL return would ever come?
“There have been undoubtedly occasions when it felt actually troublesome,” Murray stated. “However every time I felt like that, I had an incredible group of individuals round me. That’s the one purpose why I’m right here.”
All Murray might do was work his tail off, far-off from public sight, quietly hoping for the return that lastly got here Friday night time.
“The feelings have been excessive right now,” Murray stated.
These feelings maybe ran highest earlier than the sport. The sometimes stoic Murray allowed himself to cease and respect how far he’s come.
“I used to be capable of take a second in warmups and in the course of the anthem and go searching and respect the lengthy journey that it’s been and consider all of the individuals who helped me get right here,” Murray stated.
It was the sort of recreation that reminded onlookers of the fragility of an NHL profession. Only a few brief years separated Murray from being a Stanley Cup winner to being largely written off from the NHL, all basically earlier than the age of 30.
“You are feeling for a man like that as a result of he works so laborious and he needs it so unhealthy,” Lorentz stated. “We’re all rooting for him.”
Murray moved nicely sufficient in his return. He swallowed a lot of the 27 photographs the Sabres threw at him, trying each bit the veteran he’s. Murray had two targets in opposition to referred to as again upon video assessment. His sprawling save on Sabres ahead Alex Tuch was a reminder of the athleticism he can present now that he’s absolutely wholesome, too.
They’re all qualities Leafs followers might need forgotten. However they’re qualities which are nonetheless entrance of thoughts for Murray’s Leafs teammates.
“It hasn’t been forgotten in my thoughts what he’s achieved on this league in his profession,” Leafs ahead Max Pacioretty stated, himself no stranger to debilitating accidents that threaten a profession. “It’s laborious to virtually bear in mind what you’ve carried out, what you’ve achieved as a result of it looks like all of the noise is all the time within the second, whether or not it’s the harm or what has occurred these days.”
Maybe the Leafs win might have been predicted forward of time. Certain, they have been enjoying a reeling Sabres staff that has now sputtered by way of 12 losses in a row. They usually have been buoyed by an upstart, white-hot line of Max Domi, Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson. They’re the third line in title solely: The trio mixed for 3 targets and 6 factors in opposition to the Sabres.
However the opponent shouldn’t denigrate what was entrance of thoughts not only for Murray but in addition for the Leafs in Buffalo. They wished to do proper by a participant who has carried out every little thing in his energy to return to the NHL. You didn’t should squint to see a defenceman like Jake McCabe throwing Sabres out of Murray’s crease with a little bit additional gusto.
“It offers you some incentive to go the additional mile as a result of you recognize (Murray) has gone that additional mile simply to get again to this place to the place he’s at proper,” Lorentz stated. “It’s not like he half-assed it to get again thus far and he anticipated to be right here. Surgical procedures and accidents like that, that he went by way of, that may stunt your profession for a very long time. You may by no means be capable of recuperate to your previous kind.”
However Murray is engaged on getting again to the Matt Murray of previous. And the Leafs’ want for Murray gained’t finish after they head north on the QEW again to Toronto.
The earliest Stolarz will doubtless return from a knee harm shall be mid-to-late January. Hildeby doesn’t precisely have the complete confidence of the Leafs group proper now after permitting just a few mushy targets throughout a current call-up in opposition to the Sabres at house, mixed with a less-than-stellar AHL season to this point. He’s doubtless going to be an NHL participant down the highway, however there’s room for him to develop and develop extra confidence in his recreation.
However Murray has what no different goalie within the Leafs group has: expertise. And that issues to Brad Treliving and Craig Berube: Each worth video games performed and would quite lean on veterans every time doable.
They’ll lean on Murray due to every little thing he’s carried out, and gone by way of, in his profession.
After Friday night time, that profession appears to be like drastically totally different.
“In actuality, you’ve obtained to take every day because it comes and also you by no means know when it’s going to be throughout,” Pacioretty stated. “So that you don’t wish to take days as a right.”
After Murray had dried his eyes and slowly taken off the kilos of goalie gear heavy with sweat, he sat on his personal within the dressing room. The Leafs gear workers all stopped unloading luggage from the dressing room to provide him a quiet pat on the again.
Murray appeared as much as see a notice written on a whiteboard within the dressing room. The Leafs bus can be leaving in 20 minutes. There was one other NHL recreation on the horizon.
He might smile as soon as once more realizing it actually gained’t be 628 days between having the ability to do what he liked.
(Prime picture: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Pictures)
