Fleury turns back the clock
Marc-Andre Fleury spent the regular season saying all the right things — and just as importantly, doing all the right things — while watching Matt Murray take his job as starting goaltender for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It wasn’t easy. Yet the goalie with more wins than any other in the history of the franchise handled the demotion with grace. He never moaned about playing time and did his best to help the 22-year-old Murray adjust to the grind during his first full season in the NHL.
The Penguins held on to Fleury at the trade deadline, keenly aware that a time might come when they would need him to conjure up a little more magic.
That time arrived on Wednesday night against Columbus, after Murray tweaked something during pregame warmups.
For the next couple of hours it seemed like old times as Fleury withstood an early push by the Blue Jackets and stopped 31 shots en route to a 3-1 victory.
Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal is on Friday night in Pittsburgh.
“It felt like it’s been a while,” Fleury said. “I was a little nervous at the beginning ... maybe from not expecting it.” He didn’t look like it. The Blue Jackets peppered Fleury during a one-sided first period, firing 16 shots his way while the Penguins mustered just three at the other end of the ice.
Fleury stopped them all, and when Pittsburgh finally got it going in the second period, the Blue Jackets couldn’t keep pace.
Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino and Bryan Rust scored in the second, with Evgeni Malkin assisting on Rust and Kessel’s goals in his first game back after missing the final three weeks of the regular season with an upperbody injury.
It was a surge reminiscent of Pittsburgh’s sprint to a fourth Cup last spring — a push made possible only by Fleury’s hot start.
“When he play like this it’s much easier for us,” Malkin said.
“He’s just an amazing player and I hope he plays the same way on Friday.”
Murray will be re-evaluated on Thursday, but considering how comfortable Fleury looked while tying a club record by making his 101st playoff appearance, there’s no hurry to rush the kid back out there.