Fleury steals the spotlight
Ex-Penguin returns to Pittsburgh for dazzling encore performance
It has been more than two years since Marc-Andre Fleury walked off to the desert, where he immediately made the Golden Knights a must-see attraction in Las Vegas. But it remains a spectacle at PPG Paints Arena, too, whenever the flamboyant former Penguins goalie and fan favorite returns to Pittsburgh.
Fleury certainly hogged the spotlight Saturday, stopping 29 shots as the Golden Knights beat the Penguins, 3-0, to snap their five-game winning streak.
“It looked like everything was going his way tonight,” Kris Letang said.
The performance Saturday was a compelling mix of Cirque du Soleil acrobatics, a little prop comedy that might make Carrot Top giggle and, well, plenty of love.
Two hours before puckdrop, Fleury, wearing a fashionable brown suit, strutted past his old locker room. Spotting Dan Potash’s unattended AT&T SportsNet microphone, he tangled its cord into a messy ball before snickering away.
The ovation when Fleury hit the ice for warm-ups, despite there not being many people in the seats at that point, was enough to startle a man in the press box who was pecking away at his laptop and totally not eating a plate of nachos.
“It’s always fun to come back. I saw so many people with signs and my jersey, waving and cheering,” Fleury said. “It will always be special to be back here.”
As warm-ups wrapped up, Fleury stopped at the door to the Vegas bench to watch Letang finish his routine. When Letang made his way toward the locker room, Fleury called for a puck, and the two old friends briefly passed it back and forth.
When actual hockey started happening, he was again the center of attention.
Fleury had no choice in the first period. He flashed his right pad to rob Patric Hornqvist. He did the splits to stop Dominik Simon’s point-blank backhand. And the crowd oohed when Fleury extravagantly snatched Sam Lafferty’s long-range shot late in the period. That got a grin out of Fleury, not that it’s a challenge.
There was more drama late in the second, with the Golden Knights up, 1-0.
Fleury lost his helmet during a scramble in the crease, perhaps because he yanked it off himself. His handsome face exposed, he lay on the goal line with two pads stacked, waiting for a shot but presumably wishing for a whistle. He got it.
“I was in a windy tunnel. That’s why the mask came off,” he said with a sly grin. “I don’t know. I was just battling to try to stop the puck and win a game.”
Fans booed the guys in stripes and coach Mike Sullivan fumed on the bench.
“I thought it should have been a penalty,” Sullivan said. “But to the referee’s defense, it’s really difficult when there’s a mass of humanity in the crease.”
Fleury made his biggest save with the Penguins on the power play in the third period. He sprawled across to rob Juuso Riikola, getting just enough of the shot with his outstretched left arm to send it fluttering out of harm’s way.
Moments later, Hornqvist batted an airborne puck just over the crossbar.
It was one of those nights for the Penguins, who just couldn’t buy a goal even though Sullivan and many players rightly believed they were the better team. Letang felt they played better than a night earlier, a 4-2 win over Dallas.
“Obviously, he made some huge saves for them. They got some puck luck also with the couple posts that we hit,” said Letang, who drilled a crossbar.
Added Sidney Crosby, who now has gone two games without a point: “We had some of those chances. Usually they go in. Flower made some good saves.”
Fleury now is 3-1 against the team that picked him first in 2003 then three Cups later sent him to Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft, sticking with Matt Murray instead. It was Fleury’s 57th career shutout. The first 44 came in black and gold.
In the other crease was Tristan Jarry, whom the Penguins drafted in the second round in 2013, thinking he might one day be Fleury’s replacement. Jarry was making his second start of the season. He played well in Winnipeg six days earlier.
Vegas scored on Jarry on a second-period power play, the result of a suspect goalie interference penalty on Zach Aston-Reese. After an innocent dump-in, the Penguins got caught out of position, leaving Paul Stastny alone to Jarry’s right. Cody Glass hit him with a crossice pass and he drilled it into an open net.
It was another solid start for Jarry, who stopped 21 shots in the loss. Vegas got its final two goals while the Penguins pulled him for an extra attacker.
The Penguins begin a three-game road trip Tuesday against the Florida Panthers. After this hard-luck loss, they’ll look to start another streak there.
“You don’t leave the rink with your head down,” Aston-Reese said. “It sucks losing but there’s a right way to lose and a wrong way to lose. And we competed and we battled and we had our chances. The bounces just didn’t go our way.”