COLUMBUS, Ohio _ Baseball people love to say there's no such thing as too much starting pitching. Similarly, Ben Roethlisberger wouldn't complain about having to keep four or five skilled receivers happy.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan can relate. For him, it's having to manage two elite goaltenders.
Whether it's Matt Murray or Marc-Andre Fleury starting is a question Sullivan knows he'll get a lot this season. When the subject was broached Monday, Sullivan smiled and joked, "How did I know that was coming?" Probably because he's been asked, will continue to get asked and will play the matchup game unless general manager Jim Rutherford receives an offer he can't refuse for Fleury.
But don't dare call navigating these two-goalie waters a problem. That's not how Sullivan views it.
"A lot of organizations would like that challenge," Sullivan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday. "With the two goalies that we have, they're both great people. The way they handled the circumstance through the course of the playoffs was first-class. I know they'll handle this situation the same way. And the reality is we're in a competitive business; performance is always the dictator, regardless of what position you play."
As expected, Sullivan didn't care to divulge how exactly the split will work, other than to say that it will be a staff-wide decision, one heavily reliant on goaltending coach Mike Bales. No decisions for the opener have been made, Sullivan said.
"We'll discuss that as a coaching staff when that starts to approach," Sullivan said, "but we've got a lot of hockey before that."
