Fleury blossoms at the right time for the Penguins
WASHINGTON Somewhere in there, amid the Washington Capitals’ flying bodies, swinging sticks and repeated attempts to will the puck past the goal-line, was a collected Marc-Andre Fleury.
The sequence came in the closing minutes of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Game 1 win over the Capitals. Fleury, their goaltender, faced four shots on goal and saved the final one without a stick in hand. It lasted for 20 seconds, but felt much longer. It was impossible, for a few abiding moments, to know where the puck was or who had a chance to shoot it. It was impossible to know what would happen next.
It all looked like the previous two years of Fleury’s career.
“I couldn’t see the puck for a little while there,” Fleury said after the game. “I had no stick, so I was trying to make some stops. It was fun.”
The 32-year-old, who helped the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009 and has been a franchise cornerstone for more than a decade, was nearly the backup goalie for a second consecutive post-season run. Fleury was replaced by rookie Matt Murray because of injuries last post-season and Murray ultimately led the team to another Stanley Cup victory as a healthy Fleury looked on from the bench.
Fleury had a chance to regain his starting spot this season, but faltered in October and November and split time with the 22-yearold Murray throughout the year. Speculation swirled that his days in Pittsburgh were numbered, yet he was not dealt at the trade deadline. So when Murray was injured in warm-ups of Game 1 during the Penguins’ first-round series, Fleury stepped into a net that is, at least for the moment, his again.
“I think it’s tough for anybody. He’s been a big part of that franchise,” said Capitals defenceman Brooks Orpik, who played with Fleury when he was a member of the Penguins. “Like I said, I think everyone knows that the NHL is a professional sports business, but at the same time you hope that there is a certain degree of respect or loyalty there and at least if you’re going to make a change that you do it in the right way.
“I think a guy in his situation deserves that, but at least from the outside looking in, he’s obviously handled the situation the best he can.”
The situation can be looked at from two vantage points: one rooted in loyalty and reputation and the other in the bigger picture.
The loyalty side is that Fleury was drafted first overall by the Penguins in 2003. He was at the centre of the Stanley Cup run in 2009. He led the league with 10 shutouts in 2014-15 and until this season, his goals against average was 2.83 or below in each of the previous 10 years. All of that would suggest him as an accomplished, franchise netminder.
The bigger picture is that Murray, a highly touted prospect, will replace him one day and already has shown an ability to win big games. He has a Stanley Cup championship of his own. And Fleury’s contract — which pays him US$5.75 million a season through 2018-19 — carries a no-move clause that could complicate things this summer.
With the 2017 expansion draft looming, the Penguins will need to trade Fleury to protect Murray from being selected by the Vegas Golden Knights. They had a chance to so at the deadline, but opted for top-notch insurance policy in net.
That policy is paying dividends with Murray on the shelf and Fleury navigating the Penguins through their attempt to repeat. And while the future may be more complicated, Fleury’s steady play is making the Penguins’ Cup pursuit much simpler.
“I think Marc deserves all the credit for what he’s done as far as his approach over the last season plus,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday. “He’s just a quality person. I don’t know that our two-goalie system would have worked if we didn’t have the quality people in both Marc and Matt like we do. These guys make it work. They both want the net and sometimes there’s not a net for both of them.”
Right now, it is Fleury’s and Sullivan assured he was not worried when he had to make a late change at the start of the playoffs. Fleury’s save percentage was .909 in October and .889 in November, leading Sullivan to mix and match his goaltenders and give Murray 47 starts during the regular season. But Fleury’s play picked up after the deadline passed; he posted a 3-3-2 record with a save percentage of .923.
That funnelled into the postseason and Thursday night and a 20-second sequence that typified everything Fleury has wrestled with over the past two years. He made 33 saves in Game 1, but none were bigger than the four in those frantic moments. And when the refs finally blew the whistle and the players peeled themselves off the ice, there stood Fleury.
“It’s probably a tough situation for him to be pushed into and I think a lot of other people would have made a bigger distraction out of the whole situation,” Orpik said of Fleury’s past two years. “He obviously hung in there, stayed patient and waited for his chance to get back in there.”