Fleury impressing everyone … including fellow Golden Knights
Goaltender’s goals against average, save percentage tops NHL
Max Pacioretty has seen a lot in his career.
The Golden Knights left wing has played in 789 NHL games, been an All-star and appeared in two conference finals. But he still got goosebumps on the bench Monday night.
Pacioretty, like many in the announced crowd of 3,473 at T-mobile Arena, was in awe when goaltender Marc-andre Fleury came up with the latest highlight of his spectacular season. Fleury made an incredible diving poke check on San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane in the third period that proved crucial in the Knights’ 2-1 win.
”He’s just a smart goaltender who has executed that a lot, especially against this team,” Pacioretty said. “Amazing play in a crucial time of the year.”
The Knights led 2-0 when Kane streaked into the offensive zone on a breakaway. Fleury had already stopped several odd-man rushes and had a choice to make on how he was going to play this one.
He decided to be aggressive. He came well out of his crease and stretched his stick out to knock away the puck, making contact at the lower hash mark. If he missed, Kane would have had an easy look at an empty net.
But Fleury didn’t.
“Obviously, he’s a very skilled player with a lot of speed,” Fleury said. “I just thought I could surprise him with that.”
Surprising could sum up Fleury’s season. The 36-year-old is having one of his best seasons not long after he was the Knights’ No. 2 goaltender during the 2020 playoffs.
He seized the No. 1 job back with goaltender Robin Lehner injured and is one of the favorites for the Vezina Trophy. His 1.77 goalsagainst average and .936 save percentage lead the NHL among regular starters.
Fleury’s bounce-back story is so good that Pacioretty said he and teammate Ryan Reaves want to buy the rights to make a movie about their goaltender. But it doesn’t sound as if their would-be subject is interested in making that happen.
“I don’t think this movie is going to be any good,” Fleury said. “We should just cancel that right now.
But it’s flattering. Very flattering.”
Here are three more takeaways from the win:
1. Stolen playbook
If Pacioretty’s power-play goal Monday looked familiar to Knights fans, that’s because it was. He said the set play the team ran after a faceoff was lifted from its series with the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues scored a power-play goal Friday after getting the puck to the left point. It was passed around to forward Mike Hoffman on the right circle, and forward Zach Sanford put home the rebound.
On Monday, the Knights got the puck to Mark Stone on the left point with an option to shoot or pass. He gave the puck to Pacioretty on the right circle, and he beat goaltender Devan Dubnyk short side.
“Coaches drew it up for us,” Pacioretty said. “Just a little bit of an example of a way to find space out there and show teams a different look.”
2. Third line plays well
The Knights got a strong effort from left wing Alex Tuch, center Tomas Nosek and right wing Nicolas Roy. They forechecked well and sustained a lot of offensive-zone time.
The Knights finished with a 21-12 edge in shot attempts when the three were on the ice at five-on-five. Coach Pete Deboer moved Nosek up to that line Friday and said he likes how the veteran has responded.
”He’s good defensively, he can kill penalties, and he’s got enough skill that you can stick him with offensive players and they’ll be fine with it because he can make some plays,” Deboer said. “He’s been a valuable guy in my time here.”
3. Shark hunting
The Knights improved to 4-0 against San Jose this season and 121-3 all time. The Sharks have not led in any of the four games.