That Brent Johnson guy has been pretty good for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Johnson is 4-0 with a .950 save percentage and 1.49 goals against average. That's goalie speak for lights out.
The $5 million a year franchise goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury is 0-3 with a .853 save percentage and a 3.41 goals against average. Not exactly the numbers you want from your No. 1 goalie and the reasons he has found himself riding the pine for the team's 3-game winning streak.
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| Is it weird that moments like this usually indicate Fleury is in top form? |
By no means am I saying Fleury should become the backup. Any Pens or Detroit Red Wings fan knows how good the man can be in clutch situations. The only problem is, he hasn't been that goalie since the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. Last season he was inconsistent all year. Only the Fleury haters (Those who will say he sucks no matter what he does.) seemed to mind his play in the regular season. We all knew once the playoffs came, Fleury would be a wall.
Well, that never happened.
Fleury fell on his face in the playoffs and was pulled from several games. Getting pulled in the season is just something that happens. You can't bring it 50-60 games a year and expect to not get lit up every once in a while. The sport and position is just too grueling. But for Fleury to be pulled multiple times in the playoffs was concerning. You have to wonder if his head was really in the game.
Fast forward to training camp, and all we heard from the team and media was that Fleury was having a great camp. The Flower was in bloom again. Then the Montreal Canadiens came to town again. Fleury was solid for 55 minutes. Then he let in a terrible goal against Scott Gomez, jarring fans' memories of the soft goals he let in against the same team in the playoffs last spring. The next game he let in four goals on 14 shots. They weren't bad goals, but you expect a player like Fleury to make the tough saves needed to win a game. He didn't make those saves and the team lost.
Coach Dan Byslma is making the right move by going with Johnson. Something isn't right with Fleury. He's not sharp and hasn't played a complete game in I couldn't tell you how long. Meanwhile, Johnson is making tremendous saves. Have you seen that glove hand? Probably not because it looks so fast right now.
But Fleury needs a chance sometime this week to prove he is worth the big bucks the Pens are dishing out. Before the playoffs last year, Fleury was known to never play two poor games in a row. If he sucked in one, he came back with the great effort the following night. Now, early in the season, is the time to let Fleury out of this funk. If he doesn't have the opportunity to regain his confidence, he's only going to get worse as the year goes by. And this team can't win the Cup without Fleury playing at top form.
Eddie Money - I Wanna Go Back
I disagree. your faith in Fleury is ridiculous. I just dont understand, its like the women who get punched in the face and keep going back to their man. Next time he'll improve, he loves me, he wants me bla bla.
ReplyDeleteFine. If you want to get punched in the face and beaten down every time go for it. But for me, enough is enough. Fleury is a hack. last year we had one of the best defenses, but Fleury was bottom rung not just last year but previous years in save percentages even during the Stanley Cup Finals. Its people like you who fail to recognize how mediocre a player he is. Its the greatness of the Pens D that makes him look so much better.
Quit getting beaten up. He doesnt like you. He's a drunk bastard who's gonn keep ramming his fist in your face.
You know he's only 25, right? Calling him a hack because of one bad season and a bad start to this one is premature. You seem to know a lot about domestic violence.
ReplyDeleteThey were not one of the best defenses last year, especially in the playoffs. Fleury stunk, no doubt, but so did the defense. Kris Letang, Sergei Gonchar and Alex Goligoski left him out to dry countless times.
I love Fleury and he loves me.
Or maybe you can dig in a bit more and do analysis. Since you probably have a life and can't focus on everything perhaps then you can read other analysis that is based of cold hard data.... just a suggestion. to make it easier for you...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.postgameheroes.com/?p=10234#idc-container
unfortunately there is a lot more data out there along these lines some from the same site. unfortunately I can't find it atm. though I'm sure a simple google search will make it easier.
Fleury is overrated. Thats as simple as that. I dont care if he's 25 or 35. In 5 years he may indeed be a great goalie, and perhaps then we can all rest easy. But I'm not willing to wait 5 years. What exactly does his age have anything to do with his performance now? Are you saying we should give him a few more years to become better, because last I checked he was not receiving developmental player salary. He's got starter salary. That takes away from our ability to pay for a new goalie should this guy be a bust or should we want to develop him.
This is NOT one bad season. This is multiple seasons. Fleury was not bad just last year, he was almost as bad the previous year. Our defensive play more than made up for it obviously.
Hearing from you that the defense left him to dry is anecdotal at best. Strong statistical data suggests otherwise.
I like your blog, no personal attack intended.
No I do not batter women, I know enough though that people do tend to be clouded by undying and unyielding support for people who dont deserve it.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
ReplyDeleteShots allowed don't necessarily mean the defense was one of the best in the league. They didn't have the big bodies getting guys out from in front of the net like they did in 2009. The defense was soft last year (Or soff. Depends on who you hear saying it). You say I am bringing up anecdotes, but you have to look at those example and not just look at stats. They don't tell the whole story.
Are you saying that Games 6 and 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals were flukes. The man can be one of the best goalies in the league and the team does not win a Cup without him. The offense wasn't exactly tearing it up against Detroit. They had a total of four goals combined in Games 6 and 7.
As for the 2008-2009 season, Fleury had a .921 save percentage and a 2.33 goals against average. I'll take that from my starting goalie any day of the week.
I didn't take anything you said as a personal attack. I'm not Marc-Andre Fleury. Thanks for reading and I look forward to more fun debates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kANbgKP6seM
ReplyDeleteHow many goalies can make that save? Not many. He's not the best goalie in the NHL, but when he is on his game he's definitely in the top five.
For any Fleury haters out there, this is a great read. http://thepensblog.com/pensblog-news/stoosh/tuesdays-with-stoosh-1012.html
As for last year, am I the only one that remembers Fleury starting out 8-0? Anyone that says that the Pens defense was good last year didn't watch many games. It was very average and Fleury followed suit. The Fleury haters don't really bother me because seeing him lift his second Stanley Cup this June will make all the negativity worth it. Go Pens.