Penguins' Matt Murray 'week-to-week' with lower-body injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins have one game left before their bye week begins, which is probably a good thing considering the news coach Mike Sullivan announced on Thursday.

Goaltender Matt Murray will be out “week-to-week” with a lower-body injury suffered in the second period of Wednesday night’s 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Marc-Andre Fleury, who relieved Murray for the third period and stopped all 19 shots he faced, will get the start Saturday against Montreal.

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This injury news comes a day after the Penguins announced they’ll be without defenseman Brian Dumoulin for 4-6 weeks after he took a puck to the face and broke his jaw Tuesday.

Since recovering from a hand injury suffered in the World Cup, Murray, who signed a three-year extension in October, has been the better of the two Penguins goaltenders with a .935 even strength save percentage in 19 appearances. But after a slow start, Fleury has rebounded in December, posting a .934 ESSV% in eight games, helping the team to a 5-0-1 record.

While the future of the Penguins’ crease remains unknown with the expansion draft on the horizon, Sullivan and GM Jim Rutherford are certainly appreciative of the depth they have in goal.

Along those lines, would this situation have any affect – especially if Murray misses time beyond their bye week – on whether both goaltenders are with the team through the playoffs? Rutherford’s going to explore all of his options before the Vegas Golden Knights start plucking players from rosters, but with the Penguins eyeing another Stanley Cup run, will the value of having two No. 1s on the roster beat out asset management?

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy