Tuesday, March 29, 2011
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Give Vancouver's Daniel Sedin the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP. He's the best player on the league's best team. He has 40 goals and a league-best 96 points. He deserves it in Sidney Crosby's absence.
As for you Marc-Andre Fleury supporters, including Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who pushed Fleury hard for the Hart Sunday?
Easy.
I have a better award in mind for Fleury.
Conn Smythe Trophy.
You know, as playoffs MVP.
It's an easy call, isn't it? Who wouldn't prefer the Smythe? I'm starting to think it could be Fleury's year. The way he's tending goal, it's not hard to picture him leading the Penguins to the Stanley Cup.
With the great Crosby, certainly. But maybe even without him.
Crazy?
Bylsma doesn't think so. Nor does Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik. Both talked about the confidence that Fleury brings to the rest of the team. Each game, he makes the players believe as if they don't have to score three or four goals to win. Each game, he makes them believe they can win without Evgeni Malkin and even the concussed Crosby, if they must.
That's why Bylsma is right when he says Fleury deserves strong Hart consideration even though only two goaltenders -- Montreal's Jose Theodore and Buffalo's Dominik Hasek -- have won it since 1962. It's hard to imagine any player more valuable to his team than No. 29.
Look at the past three Penguins games, all shootout wins. They beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1, Sunday, the New Jersey Devils, 1-0, Friday night and the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, Thursday night. Fleury was the star each time. There's no reason to think he won't be a star again tonight in the rematch with the Flyers at Consol Energy Center with nothing less than the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference possibly at stake.
"He just constantly finds way to win games for us," Orpik said.
It's no secret that Fleury almost always is smiling, especially these days. But you should have seen him grin after the Florida game when he was asked if the puck looks bigger than normal. Like a beach ball, perhaps? "No, no, same size," he said, holding his fingers in the shape of a puck-sized circle. "I checked."
You could have fooled a lot of us.
"By far, this is the most consistent I've ever seen him -- and I've been with him here since he was 18 years old," Orpik said. "That's the biggest difference in his game. Consistency is the hardest thing for any athlete in any league to find. He's found it."
It didn't come easy for Fleury, 26, this season even though he had a great playoff run in 2009 when the Penguins won the Cup and another great run the year before when they lost in six games in the final to the Detroit Red Wings. His 1-6 start and temporary benching for backup Brent Johnson have been well-documented, as has the rather fierce criticism directed at him by a sizable portion of the Penguins fan base. The mere mention of it still rubs Fleury's raw nerve.
"Why do we have to talk about that now?" he growled after the Florida win. "That was 5 1/2, 6 months ago."
No, he wasn't smiling.
Moments later, Fleury apologized for being so uncharacteristically short. "I just didn't think that was the right time to be talking about a negative."
No worries, eh?
But Fleury missed the point in this case. His rough start might have been a negative, but the way he responded to it was an overwhelming positive. It was inspirational for his teammates, actually. Beginning with a 5-1 win Nov. 12 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, his record is 33-12-5.
"Obviously, a strong-minded guy," Orpik said of Fleury.
The man will have to prove it again at playoff time. He wasn't close to his best in the 2010 postseason in a six-game series win against the Ottawa Senators and a seven-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens, going 7-6 with 2.78 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. It's no coincidence the Penguins were bounced out so early.
"I don't think I played that bad [against the Canadiens]," Fleury said. "I had three wins. I had a shutout. I didn't get lit up every night. Other than Game 7 ... "
Alas, Game 7.
Fleury allowed a power-play goal to Montreal's Brian Gionta just 32 seconds into the final game at Mellon Arena, and the Penguins never recovered. It was the third time in the final four games of the series that he allowed an early first goal. The Penguins lost all three. Game 7 would turn a lot uglier for Fleury. He was pulled by Bylsma in favor of Johnson at 5:14 of the second period after giving up his fourth goal on just 13 shots. The Canadiens held on after that 4-0 lead and won, 5-2.
But, hey, that was 10 1/2 months ago.
Fleury is hardly giving up any goals now, early or late ones.
I'm guessing he won't start doing it anytime soon.
"I always look forward to the playoffs," Fleury said. "It's the most fun in hockey. Every game counts. Every game is intense."
Fleury sounded as if he can't wait.
"I just want to be there for the guys."
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Vinnie and Cook" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11088/1135445-87.stm#ixzz1HzBOjTf7
No comments:
Post a Comment