BUFFALO, N.Y. — Matt Murray looked up at the scoreboard above him, counted down the seconds as it disappeared, and finally pumped his fist.
It’s been 638 days since Murray last felt a sensation come over him.
Bilateral hip surgery will keep the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender sidelined for the entire 2023-24 season, the final season of his four-year contract. There was no guarantee that the oft-injured Murray would play in the NHL again. The one-year contract gave him a lifeline to continue his efforts without the attention of the AHL, with one goal in mind.
And a year and a half later, Murray is back where he fought in the NHL win column after stopping 24 shots in a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“It’s a long road. A big mountain to climb. But on difficult days, I kept this moment in my heart.” Murray said.
The 30-year-old’s eyes became red every time he spoke after the game. His voice trembled.
“It’s a big release,” he said, struggling to find words to put his nearly two years away from the NHL into perspective. “A rush of emotions.”
The typical hug between teammates and goalkeepers after a win was tighter and longer. In an actual game where a player’s career can change on a dime, Murray’s return had far more resonance than the two points the Leafs added that day.
“It’s nice to see (Murray) smiling, because he’s back doing what he loves,” Steven Lorentz said.
In the locker room, Max Domi immediately handed Murray his team’s WWE-style wrestling belt as a player of the game. Murray’s poor performance was secondary.
“He earned it 100% and deserved it,” Domi said. “Of all the times he has had so many doubts, his ability to hold on mentally has a long way to go before he recovers. We are all very proud of him.”
It’s easy to quantify how many days it took Murray to return to the NHL. There have been 628 days between my last two appearances.
It is much more difficult to describe exactly how difficult the road is.
After winning back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in his first two seasons in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Murray has been plagued by injuries throughout his career. His games tapered off each season from 2018 to 2022. After being traded to the Leafs in the summer of 2022, he struggled during his first season. It was fair to wonder if hip surgery would be the final dagger in his NHL career.
But Murray still hung out with his teammates at the Leafs’ practice facility during his rehabilitation last season, feeling so close yet so far away from the league he once conquered.
“The fact that he’s just coming back here says a lot about his character and dedication to the game,” Lorentz said.
Murray stored cubicles full of equipment in a facility that was never used. It’s an important and humane gesture by the Leafs organization, but it’s still a reminder that Murray is not playing an NHL game.
Even after re-signing with the Leafs on a one-year, $875,000 contract, he felt like the organization’s No. 4 goalie. When the Leafs needed a netminder to replace the injured Anthony Stolarz, they called up Dennis Hildeby. The lanky Hildeby is seven years Murray’s junior.
How could Murray not wonder how his NHL return would come about?
“There were definitely times when it felt really difficult,” Murray said. “But whenever I had those thoughts, there were a lot of really good people around me. That’s the only reason I’m here.”
All Murray could do was quietly stay away from the public eye and hope he finally returned on Friday night.
“Emotions were at an all-time high today,” Murray said.
Those emotions were probably at their highest before the game. Typically stoic, Murray paused to appreciate how far he had come.
“During warmups and the national anthem, I was able to take a moment to look around, appreciate the long journey we have had and think of all the people who have helped us get here,” Murray said.
It was the kind of game that reminded onlookers of the fragility of NHL careers. In just a few years, Murray has gone from being a Stanley Cup winner to being mostly out of the NHL, essentially all before he turned 30.
“You like that person because he or she works so hard and wants it so much,” Lorenz said. “We are all rooting for him.”
Matt Murray earned his first NHL win in 638 days, stopping 24 shots in a 6-3 win over the Sabres. (Timothy T. Ludwig/Imagn Images)
Murray moved well enough on his return. He swallowed most of the 27 shots the Sabers threw at him and looked like a veteran in every way. Murray had two goals for the callback when reviewing the video. His huge save on Sabers forward Alex Tuch was a reminder of the athleticism he can offer now that he is fully healthy.
Those are all traits that Leafs fans may have forgotten about. But it’s a quality that’s still on the mind of Murray’s Leafs teammates.
“It’s not lost on my mind what he’s accomplished in his career in this league,” Leafs forward Max Pacioretty said. He himself is no stranger to debilitating career-threatening injuries. “Whether it’s an injury or something that happened recently, it’s almost hard to remember what you’ve done or accomplished because all the noise always seems to be in the moment.”
Perhaps the Leafs’ victory could have been predicted in advance. Of course, they were playing a stumbling Sabers team that was currently on a 12-game losing streak. And they were buoyed by a hot new line of Max Domi, Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson. They are third line in name only. The trio had three goals and six points against the Sabers.
But opponents shouldn’t disparage what was in their minds not only about Murray, but also about the Leafs in Buffalo. They wanted to do the right thing by a player who was committed to returning to the NHL. You didn’t have to squint to see a defender like Jake McCabe throw a saber out of Murray’s crease.
“It gives (Murray) a little bit of incentive to put in that extra effort because we know he put in that extra effort to get back in the right position that he’s in,” Lorentz said. “He wasn’t half-prepared to be back at this point and he wasn’t expecting to be here. The surgeries and injuries he suffered could hinder your career for a long time. “You may never recover to your former self.”
But Murray is trying to get back to being the Matt Murray he used to be. And the Leafs’ need for Murray won’t end when they head back north to Toronto on the QEW.
The earliest Stolarz would likely return from his knee injury would be mid to late January. Hildeby doesn’t have full faith in the Leafs organization after allowing a few soft goals in a recent call-up against the Sabres at home, coupled with a less-than-stellar AHL season thus far. He will likely be an NHL player in the future, but he has room to grow and gain more confidence in his game.
But Murray has experience that no other goalie in the Leafs organization has. And that matters to Brad Treliving and Craig Berube. Both take the games they play seriously and tend to lean on veterans whenever possible.
They’ll lean on Murray because of everything he’s done and been through in his career.
After Friday night, the career looks very different.
“You really have to take each day as it comes and you never know when it’s going to end,” Pacioretty said. “So you don’t want to take a few days for granted.”
Murray wiped his eyes, slowly removed his sweat-filled goalkeeping gear, and sat alone in the locker room. Everyone on the Leafs’ equipment staff stopped unloading his bag in the locker room and quietly patted him on the back.
Murray looked up to see a note written on the whiteboard in the dressing room. The Leafs bus is scheduled to leave in 20 minutes. There was another NHL game on the horizon.
He was able to smile again knowing that it would be less than 628 days before he would be able to do what he loved.
(Top photo: Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)
