Matt Murray doesn’t keep track of the numbers [url=http://www.authenticsdenverbroncos.com/cheap-bradley-chubb-jersey]Bradley Chubb Color Rush Jersey[/url] , which makes it easier for the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender to not get caught up in them.

His goals-against average? No clue. Save percentage? Nope. Pittsburgh’s record during an occasionally uneven regular season for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions? Give Murray a phone and he’ll probably be able to look it up but otherwise he’s just guessing.

”For a goalie, it’s not based on how many goals you let in or how many goals get past you or don’t or how many saves you make,” Murray said. ”It’s not about that. It’s about how you feel.”

And despite a physically and personally draining six months that included multiple extended absences because of injuries and the loss of his father Jim in January, the 23-year-old insists he’ll be ready when the Penguins open the first round of the playoffs against Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

”I still pinch myself every day I get to be a part of something like this,” Murray said. ”It’s so exciting. It’s like Christmas.”

Even if Murray’s first full season as Pittsburgh’s firmly established No. 1 goalie hardly felt like a holiday at times. He missed two weeks in November with a lower-body injury.

A concussion suffered after taking a shot off the mask in practice in February cost him another three weeks. He took a leave to be with his family following his father’s death, but returned eager to get back to the rink that he’s long considered a sanctuary.

Murray ended up starting just 45 games and appearing in only 49, the fewest by the Penguins’ top goaltender in a decade. His goals-against average ticked up (2.92) and his save percentage ticked down (.907), both the worst marks of his brief three-year career.

Yet the numbers don’t take into account the occasionally iffy play in front of him, particularly a penalty kill that finished a middling 17th in the NHL.

Yet it’s not the missed backcheck or the inability to get a clear that people notice. It’s when the puck goes in the net.

It’s also, however, why Murray declines to get caught up in his stats. Feel free to point them out. Just don’t be offended when he deletes them immediately. The only shot that matters isn’t the last one, but the next one.

”Every single play, every single shift, every single time somebody touches the puck, everything resets,” he said. ”What happened before doesn’t matter unless you allow it to.”

Something Murray rarely does, part of his preternatural maturity that led the Penguins to make the difficult but necessary decision to leave Marc-Andre Fleury – the winningest goaltender in franchise history and a wildly popular figure both in the dressing room and the city – exposed to Vegas last summer in the expansion draft.

Fleury and Murray took a potentially volatile situation in the spring of 2016 and turned it into part of the foundation that helped the Penguins become the first team in nearly 20 years to win back-to-back Cups.

Sending Fleury to the Golden Knights meant Murray entered this season without the specter of Fleury waiting in the wings should he falter. At times over the winter Murray flip-flopped between dazzling and dull, kind of like his team.

Yet Murray just shrugged his shoulders when asked if he’s worried about his play or staying healthy. He has no control over the latter – there are no guarantees when you make a living willfully putting yourself in front of a piece of rubber hurtling at you at various speeds from various angles – and he’s not concerned about the former.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has long placed value on Murray’s ability to not get overwhelmed by the stakes.

There’s a reason Sullivan turned to Murray at every opportunity in the 2016 playoffs – when the then-21-year-old took over after Fleury was diagnosed with a concussion on the eve of the postseason – and again last spring even though Fleury played brilliantly at times while filling in after Murray sustained a lower-body injury during warmups before Game 1 of Pittsburgh’s first-round series against Columbus.

Murray returned and after a wobble in the middle of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final against Nashville [url=http://www.clevelandbrownsteamonline.com/myles-garrett-jersey]Myles Garrett Browns Jersey[/url] , held the Predators scoreless in Games 5 and 6 . In the giddy aftermath, Fleury passed the Cup to Murray, in many ways a literal passing of the torch from one generation to the next.

There will be no debating this time around for the Penguins as they chase history. While Casey DeSmith picked up his first career shutout in the regular-season finale against Ottawa last Friday, Pittsburgh’s attempt to become the first team since the New York Islanders of the early 1980s to capture three consecutive Cups will depend largely on Murray.

And for all his downplaying of the numbers, Murray is well aware of what having his name on the Cup for a third time in as many years would mean to both himself and the rest of Pittsburgh’s superstar-laden roster.

”We know what’s in front of us,” Murray said. ”We know the opportunity is there for the taking. We’re here and now everything resets. For sure obviously we know what’s at stake.”

—

More NHL hockey: Morris Claiborne was in the middle of a walkthrough practice last summer when he got the call – finally – that he was eagerly anticipating.

It was time for his twin daughters to enter the world.

A New York Jets trainer had the cornerback’s cellphone and was tasked with letting him know if and when Claiborne’s now-wife Jennifer was heading to the hospital.

”I remember I saw the trainer walking on the field and he gave me, like, a look,” Claiborne recalled in an interview with The Associated Press at the family’s home. ”I just ran. I took off running. I grabbed my phone from himand I went to Coach (Todd) Bowles and I was like, `Coach, it’s time,’ and he was like, `All right, congratulations.’

”And I remember just running out of the building and running to the hospital, and when I got up there I just looked at her.”

It was July 30, 2017, and Jennifer was 35 weeks along – two weeks before her scheduled cesarean section. But her water broke while she was watching the couple’s two English Bulldogs outside their home. She had to immediately head to Morristown Medical Center, about 2 1/2 miles away.

Meanwhile [url=http://www.authenticsbuffalobills.com/cheap-jeremy-kerley-jersey]Jeremy Kerley Color Rush Jersey[/url] , Morris zipped from the Jets’ training facility in Florham Park to the hospital just over 3 miles away in time to be there to welcome his daughters.

”He came and it all happened within the hour,” Jennifer recalled. ”It happened so fast, it was scary.”

Doctors performed the C-section and first delivered Ma’Kaila, who was quite underweight at 3 pounds, 8 ounces.

Ma’Liah came a few moments later, weighing in at a more robust 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

Ma’Kaila was immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit, separated from her sister – and mother – for the first time.

”I was asking, `Is everything OK?”’ Morris said. ”They were like, `She’s good. Everything’s good. It’s just that she’s underweight – too underweight.’ They wanted to take her back and start feeding her and try to get her to gain some weight.”

Ma’Kaila stayed in the NICU for the next two weeks, working up the strength to be sent home to her parents and sister.

For Morris, who was entering his first season with the Jets on a one-year, prove-it deal after four years with the Cowboys, it was a whirlwind of anxiety and excitement.

Somehow, he needed to keep his mind focused on football, while also wanting to make sure his wife and daughters had everything they needed while he was working.

”Oh, man,” he said [url=http://www.the49ersfootballauthentic.com/korey-toomer-jersey-authentic]Youth Korey Toomer Jersey[/url] , shaking his head. ”We’d have meetings early in the morning and we had to stay over at the (players&rsquohotel, but Coach was giving me a little time to come here and stay with (Jennifer and Ma’Liah) instead of going to the hotel. I’d come (home) after meetings. We’d get done around 11 or so and I’d come here, check on her and make sure everything’s OK with her and then I’d head up to the hotel for curfew and we’d FaceTime all night.”

Claiborne’s coaches and teammates never knew of the hectic routine he was keeping throughout the summer.

Playbooks and Pampers.

Meetings and feedings.

Football and baby blankets.

”I don’t care if it was 10 minutes, I live so close to the facility that I was running home every single break to check on them and see if everything’s OK and then I’d get back to my job,” he said. ”It was like that for a while, for the whole training camp. … It was chaos, but it was fun.”

Claiborne was in for the biggest surprise of all on Aug. 15 when he arrived home during a short break.

”I was like, `Babe, come here, look,”’ Jennifer called out to him. ”I was like, `Can you watch her real fast?’ And I was speaking of Ma’Liah.”

But she had brought Ma’Kaila home from the hospital earlier in the day and had both girls in the bed, laying them beside her with a video camera set on record to capture the moment.

”I wasn’t expecting to see both of them at all,” a wide-eyed Claiborne recalled. ”I wasn’t ready for it at all. When I walked in, I was so used to seeing her (Ma’Liah) in the bed when I’d come in, and when I saw both of them laying there, my heart just dropped.

”I was like, `Oh [url=http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-shaquem-griffin-jersey]Seahawks Shaquem Griffin Jersey[/url] , my God.’ It really hit me: We’ve got twins at the house. This is real now.”

Ma’Liah and Ma’Kaila are now 10 1/2 months old, healthy and full of personality.

Ma’Liah, according to Jennifer, is the more demanding of the two, and ”she’s a Daddy’s girl.” Ma’Kaila is still slightly smaller than her sister, but is more independent – moving around on her own, playing and feeding herself.

”It gave me a sense of what I’m really playing football for, what I’m really doing it for,” said the 28-year-old Claiborne, who re-signed with the Jets on another one-year deal in the offseason. ”It’s for my family and bringing these two precious little babies into the world, it opened my eyes to a much bigger picture.

”I’ve really learned that it’s not about yourself. Once you have kids, it’s about the kids, but I think I got a re-understanding of that once these two babies were born. I enjoy every moment of it.”

The family was planning to fly to its home in Dallas over the weekend to join Claiborne’s son Morris, who turns 9 in November, and daughter Madicyn, who’s 3, for a special Father.