Why the entire hockey world is rooting for marc-andre fleury

[doniceage]

Everybody loves Marc-Andre Fleury, and the new fans of the NHL’s newest franchise are about to find out why he’s the most popular player in the game today.

Sidney Crosby has never looked so lonely. He sits at a podium in the depths of Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena with an unprecedented amount of elbow room. He doesn’t face the usual swarm of cameras and reporters. It’s the rarest of hockey sights for the game’s biggest star.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/ar...c-andre-fleury

[creasecollector]

Thanks for posting this! Nice article

[Frendo]

Not me...never liked him...he's a clown for me.
His career has been tremendously benefited by playing with Pens which always has been a good team witch exception of his 2 first years.
I don't even to dare to think how much he'll tank with the knights now when he don't have a amazing team front him anymore who can score 4-6 goals while
he allows 4-5 goals game after game like last season for mostly....plus his technique is quite bad so he had to making unnecessary difficult moves on easy shots or
gets off position too often plus he has proven that his mentality is very weak and gets shaken up too easily...

Pens saved him waaaay too many times, but he won't be that lucky with the knights as during his stint with Pens.

The knights needs to having 4-5 defensemen on ice for every games otherwise they will ending up allowing 5-10 goals on alost every games while he's playing then.
Just remember how bad he was during some playoffs (esp that one against Islanders which he got almost 5.00 in GAA and below 80% SV on that year) and this will be much much much worser!

[creasecollector]

Not me...never liked him...he's a clown for me.
His career has been tremendously benefited by playing with Pens which always has been a good team witch exception of his 2 first years.
I don't even to dare to think how much he'll tank with the knights now when he don't have a amazing team front him anymore who can score 4-6 goals while
he allows 4-5 goals game after game like last season for mostly....plus his technique is quite bad so he had to making unnecessary difficult moves on easy shots or
gets off position too often plus he has proven that his mentality is very weak and gets shaken up too easily...

Pens saved him waaaay too many times, but he won't be that lucky with the knights as during his stint with Pens.

The knights needs to having 4-5 defensemen on ice for every games otherwise they will ending up allowing 5-10 goals on alost every games while he's playing then.
Just remember how bad he was during some playoffs (esp that one against Islanders which he got almost 5.00 in GAA and below 80% SV on that year) and this will be much much much worser!

I respectfully disagree with this.

As you mentioned, aside from the first two years the Penguins have been a good team. Yes, while this is true, you cannot ignore those first two years, especially from a goalie's perspective. The fact that he was able to battle through that and still develop into an elite goalie says something. Being a First Overall pick as a goaltender, and going to a bottom feeder like the Penguins isn't easy. But Fleury rose above all that to start to carve out his career.
Regarding the 4-5 goals per game stuff, that simply isn't true. Aside from last year (3.02), his GAA (Goals Against Average) has always been under 3.00. Quite good considering the amount of games he's played. And you can't blame a goalie for every single goal he lets in. A lot of people are also starting to recognize GAA as a Team Stat, which I think better reflects the team as a whole (including the goalie) other than one individual player on the team.

As for the technical stuff, Marc-Andre Fleury is one of the most technically sound goaltenders in the NHL. He's no Carey Price when it comes to the smoothness of his game, but that's the way Fleury plays and it's unique to him.

He plays the position with a high-level of energy that is very hard to do at a consistent level like that. He is never too high or too low, and he carries his body very efficiently and balanced like nobody in today's game in my opinion. In the goalie coaching world, the term "Controlled Athleticism" gets tossed around when looking at goalies like Marc-Andre, simply because he is able to play outside the traditional 'realm' of his position, while still maintaining his foundational technical skills as a goalie. I think he's made a lot of adjustments to his game in recent years, and from a technical standpoint has become a lot better as the years have gone on.

When looking at Marc-Andre Fleury's mental toughness, I think he is one of the best, actually. Not many goalies can go through what he went through and still manage to become (and stay) an elite goaltender of his caliber. Like a stated earlier, he was a highly touted prospect and Drafted #1 overall. With all that pressure, some would have even expected him to crack. But did he? Overall, I don't think so. I think he's thrived in the spotlight. Has there been lapses occasionally? Sure, but we see that in any athlete, in any sport, good players can have bad stretches. That's sports for ya.

For all the times the Pens "saved" him, he "saved" them right back. Why? Because that's what a team does. They pulled each others weight in hopes of winning some hockey games. But to simple say that the Penguins have carried him every small inch of his career is a tad shortsighted in my opinion. If you nitpick moments of career here and there, I don't think that's very fair.

Looking onto next year, will Fleury put up dominating numbers? Maybe, but probably not. And you know what? That's totally okay. He will still have the same technical abilities that make him a great goalie in today's NHL.

Will he lead the league in Wins or GAA in 2017-18? No, but that is not a reflection on him as a goaltender. There is simply much more layers to MAF (any goalie, really) than what meets the eye.

Just my 2 cents.

[30ranfordfan]

I'm also going with "not me" but different reasons......

I have always thought he was a good goalie on a great team. Is he Patrick Roy? Nope. But if we're going to talk about guys that benefited from being on great teams.... Chris Osgood (who I do think is very underrated) comes to mind. Different eras, but I would rank MAF higher on my all time list than Osgood.

I can't route for a guy that hates winning as much as MAF seems to.... he played well enough to earn a NMC in his contract, but instead of telling the Penguins "not a chance I'm wasting my time on an Expansion team" he caved in, and let them expose him.

If he had forced a trade, or forced the Penguins to expose Matt Murray - I would absolutely be routing for MAF this season (and beyond). In Vegas? I hope he goes 0-60, with a GAA over 5.

Not me...never liked him...he's a clown for me.
His career has been tremendously benefited by playing with Pens which always has been a good team witch exception of his 2 first years.
I don't even to dare to think how much he'll tank with the knights now when he don't have a amazing team front him anymore who can score 4-6 goals while
he allows 4-5 goals game after game like last season for mostly....plus his technique is quite bad so he had to making unnecessary difficult moves on easy shots or
gets off position too often plus he has proven that his mentality is very weak and gets shaken up too easily...

Pens saved him waaaay too many times, but he won't be that lucky with the knights as during his stint with Pens.

The knights needs to having 4-5 defensemen on ice for every games otherwise they will ending up allowing 5-10 goals on alost every games while he's playing then.
Just remember how bad he was during some playoffs (esp that one against Islanders which he got almost 5.00 in GAA and below 80% SV on that year) and this will be much much much worser!

[creasecollector]

I don't think MAF hates winning, I just think he wants to not burn any bridges and go out on a positive note with the organization that gave him so much, even if that means going to an expansion team. He'll still pickup a win here or there, not as much as he would have on Pittsburgh, and I thijk he'll cherish every one of them because, like any athlete, you play to win even if you're on a bad team.

Just my opinion of course. Good discussion so far guys.

[maradona]

I don't think it would have been particlarly good for team morale if Fleury had insisted the Pens keep him. Every other player on the team would have looked at him and seen a guy who was getting more money than a backup goalie should, and therefore making it harder for to improve the team in other areas.

I don't dislike Fleury, I've collected him on and off since he was drafted, but I realize that he had a few pretty bad playoff performances to go along with the good ones, and that Murray is probably the better bet for the Penguins right now.

[30ranfordfan]

I can't imagine any scenario where both goalies were back in Pittsburgh next year.... but that doesn't mean Fleury had to waive his NMC to go to Vegas.

He had a limited NTC, where he needed to provide a list of 10 teams he'd accept a deal to. There are established teams that had big goaltending questions (not necessarily the case today, but we're talking before July 1): Dallas, Calgary, St. Louis, Philadelphia, even Winnipeg. Not saying those teams would all want him, not saying he'd necessarily want to go to any of them, but there were options.

And if the Penguins didn't trade him by the expansion draft, and he refused to waive his NMC - Then Matt Murray would have been exposed, and (I assume) selected. That's even better for MAF, as he'd stay in Pittsburgh, on the Cup favorites, and have the other guy out of his way.

I don't think it would have been particlarly good for team morale if Fleury had insisted the Pens keep him. Every other player on the team would have looked at him and seen a guy who was getting more money than a backup goalie should, and therefore making it harder for to improve the team in other areas.

I don't dislike Fleury, I've collected him on and off since he was drafted, but I realize that he had a few pretty bad playoff performances to go along with the good ones, and that Murray is probably the better bet for the Penguins right now.

[doniceage]

I can't imagine any scenario where both goalies were back in Pittsburgh next year.... but that doesn't mean Fleury had to waive his NMC to go to Vegas.

He had a limited NTC, where he needed to provide a list of 10 teams he'd accept a deal to. There are established teams that had big goaltending questions (not necessarily the case today, but we're talking before July 1): Dallas, Calgary, St. Louis, Philadelphia, even Winnipeg. Not saying those teams would all want him, not saying he'd necessarily want to go to any of them, but there were options.

And if the Penguins didn't trade him by the expansion draft, and he refused to waive his NMC - Then Matt Murray would have been exposed, and (I assume) selected. That's even better for MAF, as he'd stay in Pittsburgh, on the Cup favorites, and have the other guy out of his way.

I am sure he had his reason why he did what he did. I respect that if as a person that he felt loyalty to the franchise of course we all know it about dollar and cents and not much loyalty exist in professional sports. I wish him the best and hate to see any guy that I think is a good team player be on a perennial loser. From a collector standpoint any person sitting on a pile of M.A.F. rc's has to be going man why you doing this to me. As he could have kept padding his stats in Pittsburgh no problem until Jarry was ready to take over the reigns. Many say that he is better than Murray but only time will tell. So perhaps if that true Murray will be let go before he gets the big dollars and they bring in another low cost goalie who can help offset the salary cap.