PITTSBURGH The question wasnt about Jeff Zatkoff. The question was about Matt Murray and Jim Rutherford, clearly, had no problem giving an answer about Matt Murray.

Murrays got everything you look for in a young goaltender, :size, fundamentals, mental toughne s. He smiled at the opportunity to bring up his 21-year-old safety net. He glowed.

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A bit before that and it seemed shoehorned in at the time Rutherford brought up Jeff Zatkoff, the backup goaltender Murray unseated, the a sumption went, for good in March and April. Maybe Rutherford knew exactly what he was doing, maybe he didnt.

Zatkoff did a good job, he said.Won some games for us.

Indeed. And a little more than 24 hours later, Zatkoff won them another one. A pretty big one, too; Pittsburgh opened up its Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Rangers with a 5-2 win. Patric Hornqvist started Manny Pina Jersey the scoring, then finished it with a hat trick-completing empty-netter.

Throughout, Zatkoff a complete afterthought post-trade deadline and a near-complete afterthought last weekend was making 35 saves, including 13 in a hectic first period in which his team, for the majority of it, failed to complete a breakout, let alone generate offense.

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Thatd be a tough go for starter Marc-Andre Fleury, who couldnt turn practice time on Travis Shaw Jersey Monday and Tuesday into an actual in-game return from his concu sion. Itd be a tough go for Murray, who, for all his gifts, has played 13 NHL games.

But Zatkoff? Before replacing Murray who on Sunday took a shot to the head in a game that he shouldve spent nailed to the bench and covered in bubble wrap Zatkoff hadnt played in a regular-season game since Feb. 20.

And when he played before that, not just in 2015-16 but the seasons before, he looked, very squarely, like a half-decent backup goaltender. He could win games, yes, and a .917 save percentage this season stands on its own, but there were also a lot of goals. Long-range goals. Bad goals. Early goals.

Zatkoff has a tendency to wander, and to leave more of his net exposed than he or anyone, really should. He can be slow to his posts, and slow to his feet. Sometimes, he seems to have bungee cords connecting each leg to the corner boards, pulling him too far to one side, then too far to other.

Hes not bad; very few goalies on decent NHL teams are. Hes also something of an adventure. Given that Brandon Woodruff Jersey Pittsburgh seemed prepared to choose between Fleury and Murray, it wasnt an adventure they couldve wanted to take. Not now.

Coach Mike Sullivan called him a good soldier. Defenseman Ben Lovejoy said he was the absolute best teammate anybody has ever played with.

Hes still a backup goalie, though, and these are still the playoffs. Given the choice, you go with your starter or your superprospect. Its nothing personal.

Jeff Zatkoff (Getty Images)

That choice wasnt Pittsburghs, though. He was tested early; given how little hed played, it may have been the best thing for him.

I think when you feel the puck early on no matter what game, no matter how many games youve played in this league the more you feel it, the more comfortable youre going tobe, he said. And I think that was the case tonight.

Zatkoff said he knew Tuesday night, courtesy of a text from Fleury, that hed be the guy. A lot of the credit for keeping him ready, he said, goes to the teams staff.

I had lot of goalie se sions with (goalie coach) Mike Bales. A lot of early se sions. A lot of work after practice with the guys, he said.

You just never know when that opportunity is going to come, and youve got to make sure youre ready in case the team needs you.

In the first period, they needed him the most. In the second, he started to wobble; there were more open nets, and odder routes in and around his crease. No goals, though.

At 3:10 of the third, the dam seemed primed to break; New York, at the end of a 5-on-3, created enough time and space for Derek Stepan to score, fish the puck out of the net, then score again.That didnt happen, because its illegal, but the a sumption was that a 2-2 tie was on the way.

A minute later, with nearly the entire net open again and the puck almost on Dan Boyles stick, Lovejoy swept a rebound and started a break that led to Tom Kuhnhackls shorthanded goal. 3-1.

The game was in a holding pattern from there Zatkoff allowed one more, after Hornqvist's second goal, and nearly another with sevenminutes to go while he was stuck in an on-ice barrel roll. Hornqvist made it5-2, and that was that. Game 2 is on Saturday Glenn Robinson Jersey .

By then, maybe Pittsburgh fans will figure out whether to stick with the Jeff! Jeff! Jeff! chant or the more traditional ZAT-KOFF! ZAT-KOFF! We heard both. Zatkoff heard them, too.

That definitely sent chills through me a little bit. Thats exciting. Thats why we play the game," he said. Hernan Perez Jersey "Its fun getting the job done at home in front of your fans, and its a special moment, for sure. Its one Ill always remember.

But its only one. Youve got to win four.

Whether Zatkoff gets the chance to hear either again is, right now, unknowable. Maybe this is a series between him and Rangers backup Antti Raanta, who replaced Henrik Lundqvistafter the first period. Maybe Lundqvist returns; teammate Marc Staal appeared to accidentally jab a stick in his eye. Maybe Fleury returns; Sullivan was deliberately evasive when asked about him after the game. Maybe Murray returns. Maybe Rutherford, an old goalie himself, returns.

Three periods in, this series has more than its share of goaltending questions. For at least one game, though, Jeff Zatkoff was the answer.