The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed goaltender Matt Murray on long-term injured reserve to return him to the manufacturer for warranty repairs, GM Jim Rutherford confirmed today before assembled media.
“We didn’t mind some small-time maintenance,” said Rutherford of the MA-77 goaltender model the team acquired in 2012. “For example, we had to fiddle with the timing mechanism on the glove-hand side all last year, which was fine. But now the CPU is acting all funny, and it was time to send him back to the manufacturer for some more significant work.”
Despite the issues, Rutherford insisted the organization in no way regrets extending their lease with the high-end goalie model, given its long run of optimal operation.
“For two years there, he was running nearly perfect,” he said. “The lateral movement sensors were a bit slow, sure, but we could deal with that. Honestly, we were more worried about getting him reprogrammed to start blinking more than once a month. All told, though, he outperformed a lot of other models in his class, so we are happy with our investment.”
Representatives of Murray’s manufacturer based in Thunder Bay, Canada conceded that even the most well-designed models will still require regular tune-ups.
“With too much use or excessive calibration, even the MA-77 can need professional repair work,” said maintenance division manager Thomas Wilcox. “I know it seems counterintuitive, but sometimes it’s best just to let the machine work out the kinks on its own [and] not tinker with it too much.”
In the meantime, head coach Mike Sullivan said the team will revert back to having human Casey DeSmith fill the position until Murray returns.
Even with mounting concerns about the MA-77’s longevity, Rutherford stated that he still would have traded in the similar, highly coveted Swedish model it picked up in 2016.
