text: Metzer: Penguins goaltender debate heating up early in the season
  The Penguins have two world-class goaltenders and we all knew that the debate about how to use them would carry throughout the season. It wasn’t as strong during October due to Matt Murray’s injury, but right now his battle with Marc-Andre Fleury is on and the youngster might be in the lead.
  Fleury carried the load in October and did yeoman’s work in getting the Penguins through stretches of inconsistent play. He made timely save after timely save and helped the team to a 6-2-1 record over nine straight starts.
  His individual statistics didn’t look spectacular, but then again, neither did the team in front of him. He faced 34 or more shots in five of those nine starts — now six of 11.
  Fleury has a 6-3-2 record, a 3.06 GAA, .910 save percentage and more time on the bench than one would have expected. It seems the stats might mean more than his record and coach Mike Sullivan said as much when asked if team performance plays into goaltending decisions.
  “We evaluate all of our players on their own individual games, regardless of what’s going on around them,” Sullivan said last week.
  Murray served as the backup at the end of Fleury’s nine-game run. He made his first start of the season against the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 2 and posted a 32-save, 5-1 victory.
  He’s since started four of six games and looked very sharp, going 4-0-0, with a 1.25 GAA and .961 save percentage.
  “I felt I had been sharp at times and other times had been a little bit shaky,” Murray said. “I felt pretty shaky the first game back in Anaheim and I felt really good in San Jose, and a little shaky early against Edmonton. I don’t really try to predict whether I’ll be sharp coming off an injury, I just try to stop the puck. That’s really how I look at it.”
  The team seems to play a bit better in front of Murray, at least so far. The Penguins have allowed just 32.3 shots per game with him in goal, while Fleury has faced 33.4.
  Defenseman Ian Cole, who is averaging 18:20 minutes per game, said that the team tries to play the same no matter who is in goal.
  “Well if there is, there shouldn’t be any difference,” Cole said. “We try to pride ourselves on playing a consistent team game. Obviously it doesn’t happen all the time, but we certainly try to regardless of who is in net or who is on the ice.”
  General manager Jim Rutherford has long said that he hopes to keep both of these goaltenders long-term, though it is starting to make less sense to do so. It is a very long season, but Murray seems to be taking control of the position.
  Add that Murray’s GAA and save percentage are significantly better than Fleury’s and it might make more sense to make an in-season move.
  Moving Fleury is a debate that will be discussed later.
  Today, according to Sullivan, the team will continue to roll with the goaltender that is performing, even if he admits to having a predetermined usage schedule.
  “We have a game plan that we always do on where we pencil our goaltenders in,” Sullivan said last week. “It’s always subject to change. Ultimately performance will always be the dictator.
  “We’re fortunate. We have two really good goaltenders that we know are going to give us a chance to win. We’re going to do our best to keep them both in the mix. We’ll go from there. These situations always have a way to work themselves out. Inevitably performance is always the dictator.”