Warren’s Piece: What’s new with Murray and Andersen, keeping tabs on Brannstrom, Brown and Galchenyuk
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Ken Warren 
Ottawa Senators goaltender Matt Murray. Photo by Candice Ward /USA TODAY Sports Article content
Ultimately, without strong goaltending, all the other fine details of the game fade into the background.
That’s why there was so much attention Saturday on the netminders who weren’t in the lineup — the Senators’ Matt Murray and the Maple Leafs’ Frederik Andersen — as the clubs met for the eighth time this season.
Murray was on the ice in Toronto Saturday morning, working with new goalie coach Zac Bierk. There’s no rush to get Murray back into the net until he feels 100 per cent comfortable mentally and physically.
“It’s an opportunity to work with him at length,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. “We don’t want to waste any days. We want him to be, by the end of the season, feeling good about himself and getting some camaraderie with Zac. It’s getting closer for him to eventually get a start here.”
Murray, who has a 7-12-1 record, with a goals against average of 3.84 and .880 save percentage, hasn’t played since March 10 due to an undisclosed upper body injury.
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With three years and $21 million remaining on his contract beyond the 2020-21 season, the Senators desperately need some return on their long-term investment.
Staying with the topic of mysterious undisclosed injuries, Andersen remains out of the Maple Leafs lineup while Jack Campbell continues to earn raves for his stellar play and his shining personality.
“I think the easiest way to describe it is there’s no timeline to (Andersen’s) injury,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said Saturday. “It’s just really a matter of Fred being comfortable with where he’s at and how he’s feeling.”
Andersen hasn’t played since suffering a 4-3 loss to Calgary on March 11 and Campbell has picked up the puck and run with it, entering Saturday’s game with a perfect 10-0-0 record, 1.58 average and .944 save percentage.
It’s worth a reminder here that Andersen has yet to win a playoff series with the Maple Leafs.
IT’S A SMALL WORLD
Turns out that Campbell and Senators centre Mike Amadio, who played his second game with the Senators on Saturday following the trade that sent Christian Wolanin to Los Angeles, were roommates for a season while in the Los Angeles Kings organization. “He’s a good guy, he loves to cook, he always had something ready for us for dinner,” Amadio said. As for finding a permanent home with the Senators, Smith is giving him Amadio every chance to get cooking with Tim Stuetzle and Drake Batherson on his wings.
“Once he gets his legs under him here after sitting for a week (in quarantine), I think he has the ability to make some plays,” said Smith, who gave Amadio 18:23 of ice time in his Senators debut Thursday against Edmonton. “He’s playing with puck possession guys and I think he complements them. We’ll give him a chance and see how it goes.”
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With yet another centre, Shane Pinto, due to come out of quarantine and get his first shot at the NHL and with Clark Bishop clearing waivers Saturday, it will be intriguing to see if the Senators can move Chris Tierney before Monday’s trade deadline.
Incidentally, Wolanin played 15:24 in his first game with Los Angeles Friday, finishing with no points, one shot on goal and an even plus/minus rating in the 5-2 loss to San Jose.
ANOTHER LOOK FOR BRANNSTROM
Erik Brannstrom, trying to lock down the third pairing left side defence spot that Wolanin could never secure, played his second consecutive game Saturday after sitting out three games as a healthy scratch after being recalled from Belleville of the AHL. “I wanted to focus on the defensive zone, try to play harder with the stick and be more … just play harder, that was what I was trying to do (in Belleville),” Brannstrom said.
Smith says the latest trip to the AHL was a confidence-boosting experience for Brannstrom. “He was real good (Thursday), he made some passes, he had some shots, was active, just continues to get better,” he said.
Brannstrom and Connor Brown, however, crossed signals in the third period Thursday, leaving Edmonton’s Devin Shore all alone to deflect the game-winning goal past Anton Forsberg.
BROWN BETTER LATER?
Brown went into Saturday’s game with a franchise-tying six-game goal-scoring streak and everyone’s looking for theories for his sudden success.
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Maybe he’s just a slow starter?
He didn’t score his first 10 games this season and had only six goals after 35 games. Looking back at 2019-20, Brown had no goals in his first 10 games, two goals in his first 28 games, but closed out the season with five goals in his final nine games. With Toronto in 2018-19, he had one goal after 14 games and in 2016-17, he netted only one in his first 16 contests. The one exception to all of the above was in 2017-18, when Brown charged out of the gate with eight goals in his opening 21 games.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
With the news that the Vancouver Canucks will come out of COVID-19 lockdown on Sunday and the resulting re-juggling schedule, a pair of Senators games have been changed. The Senators’ game versus Calgary, originally scheduled for April 20, has been moved to May 9. The May 10 contest versus Toronto is now scheduled for May 12.
IN PRAISE OF GALCHENYUK
Alex Galchenyuk, who ended up in Toronto after being traded from Ottawa to Carolina, is earning rave reviews from the Maple Leafs organization. Smith offered nothing but compliments for Galchenyuk’s work ethic while he was with Ottawa, but said he was a victim of the Senators “being jammed” with left wing prospects. It remains a curious off-season signing, especially since the move created a situation where Rudolfs Balcers was lost on waivers and Filip Chlapik opted to leave for Europe. Balcers has six goals and seven assists in 24 games with San Jose.
kwarren@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren
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