PITTSBURGH _ You don't have to look far to find one of the Penguins most relieved that Marc-Andre Fleury will be sticking around, at least through the end of the regular season.
"He's been my mentor since I got here," fellow goaltender Matt Murray said. "I'm thrilled to have him around. I think we have a pretty good relationship."
Which, on the surface, may seem strange, considering Murray has supplanted Fleury as the Penguins' starter.
But Murray and Fleury are unusually close for two goaltenders who rightly see themselves as starters. Go to any Penguins practice, and it's not hard to see them laughing with coach Mike Bales.
Or "shooting the breeze," as Murray called it.
The two talked regularly throughout the run up to the trade deadline, when Fleury had an idea that he wouldn't be traded but never really knew for sure.
Speculation is natural. However, the two goalies didn't talk about it.
"I don't think it really benefits anybody to talk about trades or anything like that," Murray said. "We just do our thing. Everything will take care of itself."
What do they talk about?
"Whatever's going on in the world," Murray said. "Friendly conversations. A lot of goalie talk. A lot of talk about the other team. What certain shooters like to do, stuff like that."
To basically anyone who asks, Murray can't talk enough about Fleury.
In many cases, a relationship like this goes sour, the search for playing time spoiling it.
Not with Fleury, one of the game's warmest personalities.
"I've said it a lot," Murray said. "He's been huge for my development. If I didn't have a guy like that to learn from coming in as a rookie, I probably wouldn't have done as well."
Murray also recognizes how unique the relationship might seem. He credits Fleury for not only making it functional but enjoyable.
"It's because of how good of a guy he is," Murray said. "He definitely took me under his wing when I got here. I'll be forever grateful for everything he's done for me."
Murray had a solid night Friday in a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at PPG Paints Arena. He stopped 27 of 29 shots to improve to 24-8-3, tying Gary Inness (1974-75) for the most wins by a Penguins rookie.
"Bit of a weird one," Murray said of Friday's game. "They came out pretty hard. They had a couple chances early.
"For a while there in the second, the puck didn't come in our end zone. We carried the play for the majority of the game, especially in the second period.
"I think we did a good job of staying up in their face, not giving them too much time and space coming in on the rush. I thought we played a really strong game."
The Penguins outshot the Lightning, 15-8, in the second period, when Evgeni Malkin gave them a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish by scoring a pair of goals.
As a result, Murray improved to 7-2-2 in his past 11.
Adam Erne's goal to open the scoring was actually a pretty decent play, but Murray wasn't happy about allowing Nikita Kucherov's power-play marker at 1:10 of the third period.
Not only because it nixed what was almost a perfect night against the NHL's No. 2 power play but because he could see the puck and should have had it.
"That goal was probably on me," Murray said. "I probably need to stop that. Other than that, we were lights out on the PK, especially early in the game, when it's important to get those kills."
