Some of Penguins coach Mike Sullivan's decisions are so simple a sports reporter could make them.
Have Sidney Crosby center your top line? Sure. Give 25-plus minutes to Kris Letang? Yeah, really thinking outside the box on that one.
Who to start in net, however, is not a particularly easy part of Sullivan's day. Nor is it something he glosses over.
Sullivan will have Matt Murray start for the eighth game in a row Friday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and there's been debate and solid reasoning behind every one.
There's also been a direct effect on Marc-Andre Fleury, the longest-tenured member of the franchise who will be working on 21 days of rest assuming he starts Saturday in St. Louis.
"We feel like we have two really good goalies," Sullivan said following Friday's morning skate at PPG Paints Arena. "These decisions are very difficult. We don't take them lightly. We understand that both guys want to play. They're both very competitive guys.
"We felt as though Matt had gained a little bit of traction with his game. We wanted to try and ride it a little bit. That was a lot of the rationale behind the last couple of weeks."
Those weeks have not been easy for Fleury, who has a 3.23 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage. Not only has he not been playing, but he's been facing more and more questions about the trade deadline and how he's able to compartmentalize everything.
"I don't count days," Fleury responded to one inquiry about how long is too long between starts. "Just go one at a time. Try to have a good practice."
And is Fleury thinking about the March 1 trade deadline?
"That's a tough one," Fleury said. "I don't know if anything will happen. I'm just try to enjoy my days here and be ready if I have a chance to play. There's still a lot of hockey to be played before the deadline. I guess we'll see."
The Penguins have finished a stretch of eight games between back-to-back games, a season-long. They have six more instances of games on consecutive nights, starting Friday and Saturday.
Which means this should be the last prolonged stretch of inactivity for Fleury. Murray, who has a 2.41 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage, will have to sit some.
"Moving forward here, we have a lot of games coming up in a short period of time," Sullivan said. "We're going to need both of them to play for us. Without question, that's one of the challenges that we've had this year with our goaltending position.
"I guess that's a good challenge when you have two guys as good as we have at that position. I'm sure there are a lot of coaching staffs that would like to have that challenge."
