Wild's Evason baffled after Leafs' Murray knocks net off moorings 3 times
Wild head coach Dean Evason wasn't pleased that Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray never received a penalty despite knocking the net off its moorings three times during Minnesota's 4-3 defeat Friday.
"You can't knock the net off three times and not get anything out of it. It doesn't make any sense," Evason said postgame. "We have offensive time in there, sustained time, we could get more opportunities, and all of a sudden, boom, it's stalled out, the momentum's gone and whatever.
"I don't understand it. It's hard to ask (the refs), you don't want to yell at the refs all the time, but it didn't make any sense how a goaltender could knock it off three times and there's no repercussion."
Here's a closer look at the trio of incidents:
Here's the three instances today where Matt Murray had the net mysteriously dislodge on him from overhead (r @RussoHockey) pic.twitter.com/lap6pbIzhP
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) November 25, 2022
Murray maintains there was no intent and believes the issue may lie with the equipment.
"I don't know what was going on there," Murray said, according to TSN's Mark Masters. "I use the net to push off all the time and, for whatever reason, tonight it just came off a little bit easier."
Murray came under fire for a similar play during Wednesday's 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. The two-time Stanley Cup champion dislodged the net and broke the moorings after the Devils had built up sustained pressure in the Maple Leafs' zone. It took several minutes to fix the issue, but he wasn't handed a delay-of-game penalty.
"(Wild goalie coach) Freddy Chabot said it's a trend with that goaltender," Evason added Friday with a shrug.
Murray made 25 saves on 28 shots against the Wild, including a stop on star Kirill Kaprizov in the dying seconds of the game.
Maple Leafs winger William Nylander's third-period tally stood as the game-winner after Minnesota forward Mats Zuccarello drew the pressing Wild within one goal with 3:34 remaining.
Murray sustained an adductor injury shortly after the Maple Leafs' season-opening loss to the Montreal Canadiens, but he's been strong since his return, going 4-0-1 with a .934 save percentage and 2.20 goals-against average.
The Maple Leafs improved to 12-5-5 on the season following Friday's victory, while the Wild dropped to 9-9-2.