Quoting: capsfan2121
Was Murray ever a top goalie in the league or was he overhype
Yes, he was absolutely elite from 2013 to 2019. He literally burned the AHL, came to the NHL and won back-to-back cups by the end of his rookie season and he wasn't just a passenger, he took the job away from a future HOF goalie, twice. Then he also had a few high end/elite regular seasons
He has had concussions and several injuries so it could have diminished him but can't really know as I am not a doctor and I don't have his file.
All that being said, Ottawa "team defense" has mostly been trash during his time here. There was 2 distinct stretches for Ottawa last season. It's like they suddenly turned on a switch and knew how to play NHL defense. Personnel decisions definitely helped but coaching probably changed a lot of things too.
From January 15th to March 15th 2021 :
Matt Murray 7-12-1, 3.84 GAA, 0.880 SV%
Marcus Hogberg 2-5-0, 4.34 GAA, 0.859 SV%
Joey Daccord 1-3-1, 3.35 GAA, 0.896 SV%
From March 16th to May 12th 2021 (end of season) :
Matt Murray 3-1-0, 1.37 GAA, 0.954 SV%
Filip Gustavsson 5-1-2, 2.16 GAA, 0.933 SV%
Marcus Hogberg 2-2-0, 2.53 GAA, 0.912 SV%
Anton Forsberg 3-4-1, 3.21 GAA, 0.909 SV%
Joey Daccord 1-0-0, 2.66 GAA, 0.905 SV%
And this season, defense was not NHL level once again. IIRC by game 20, they had the highest GA/GP of the last 25 years lol. And that's with any goalie playing. It has gotten a bit better in December but need a bigger sample size as it could just be a hot stretch
From October 14th to December 7th 2021 :
Anton Forsberg 4-4-0, 3.79 GAA, 0.895 SV%
Filip Gustavsson 3-7-1, 3.78 GAA, 0.893 SV%
Matt Murray 0-5-0, 3.26 GAA, 0.890 SV%
Very similar stats, no? Actually, Murray had significantly less goal support so he had no wins despite a better GAA. He got robbed of a win too when Kreider kneed him in the head with 5 mins left. Forsberg came in cold, gave up 2 goals and Sens lost.
Matt Murray was simply scapegoated so the worst NHL GM could buy a bit of time to save face. Murray's camp had all the reasons in the world to be mad.