Penguins will start Fleury tonight
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Marc-Andre Fleury knows this won't be quite like Oct. 10. And that it shouldn't be.
After all, a lot has happened since that night, when Fleury played his first National Hockey League game. He has tacked 938 minutes of NHL work onto his resume. Celebrated his 19th birthday. Earned a silver medal with Team Canada at the world junior championships.
Still, as he prepares to play goal for the Penguins in their game against Minnesota at 8:08 p.m. today at the Xcel Energy Center, Fleury expects to be battling some serious jitters.
"Maybe not as much as my first game," he said yesterday. "But for sure, I'll have some butterflies."
Fleury dealt with a few thousand of those when he made his NHL debut, but they weren't much of a distraction. He turned aside 46 of 48 Los Angeles shots in a performance that validated every flattering syllable written or spoken about him.
It's not realistic to expect him to duplicate that against the Wild this evening -- heck, most goalies can't even dream of producing that caliber of work once -- and a case could be made that Fleury might have benefited from a bit more practice time before being thrown into a game.
He has had just two practices and a couple of game-day skates with his teammates since returning from the junior tournament in Finland last week. And he didn't look especially sharp in either of the practices.
Still, Coach Eddie Olczyk said, "it's time to get back in there," and the Penguins have a logical motive for starting Fleury tonight.
He hasn't played since the gold-medal game at the world juniors Jan. 5, when he was scorched for three third-period goals in what became a 4-3 loss to the United States. The tournament-winner was scored when Fleury's clearing attempt with about six minutes left in regulation hit teammate Braydon Coburn and caromed into Canada's net.
Fleury has been debriefed by Olczyk, general manager Craig Patrick and assistant coach Lorne Molleken, who oversees the Penguins' goalies, since rejoining the team Sunday, and they clearly do not want him to dwell on the gold-medal game any longer than necessary.
"Like anything else, you have to put that behind you as quickly as possible or else it will eat away at you," Molleken said. "So we wanted to get him back in as soon as possible."
Fleury seems to share that perspective and said that settling back into the Penguins' rotation is "the best way to move on."
In his most recent NHL appearance, Fleury gave up four goals to Vancouver's Markus Naslund in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Canucks. The Wild doesn't have anyone, with the possible exception of struggling right winger Marian Gaborik, capable of torching him for three or four goals.
Nonetheless, Fleury -- who has played with and against Minnesota players such as Gaborik, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Pascal Dupuis and Brent Burns -- doesn't view the Wild as being less menacing than any other opponent.
"It's never easy," Fleury said. "Every team has lots of very skilled players, so you have to watch for them."
Fleury has a pretty nice pedigree of his own -- he was the first player chosen in the 2003 NHL entry draft and is widely regarded as the best teenage goalie in the world -- and he rarely, if ever, has looked overmatched against the NHL's premier players and teams.
His stats -- a 4-10-2 record, 3.20 goals-against average and .910 save percentage -- are more than respectable for a rookie whose team has the worst record in the league, and he generally comes up with enough big-time saves to keep the Penguins competitive.
"When he's been in there, for the most part, he's given us a chance to win," Molleken said.
Even though the game tonight will be the Penguins' 46th, Fleury is entering the stretch drive of his rookie season. Because team officials are reluctant to pay him $3 million in easily attainable bonuses once he makes his 25th appearance of 20 minutes or more, he's a virtual lock to rejoin his junior team in Cape Breton after -- if not before -- he makes his 24th appearance meeting that criterion.
Should he stay in the game tonight for one period or longer, it will be No. 16.
Even though his time in the NHL this season is running out, there is much that can be accomplished in his remaining games.
Fleury said he would like to upgrade various facets of his play and singled out the way he handles pucks around the net as a priority. Molleken would like Fleury to concentrate on not committing too quickly when confronting a shooter.
"The biggest thing I would like to see is for him to just be a little more patient in his game, as far as when to stand up and when to go down," Molleken said. "He's so quick with his legs that I would like to see him stay up a little bit longer in different situations, because if they do start to shoot at the lower part of the net, he's quick enough to make that save.
"As far as Marc playing his angles and staying out, he does that as well as anyone in the league. It's just a matter of, when the puck moves from side to side, maybe staying up a little bit longer when the puck is from the top of the circles out."
Fleury did that throughout October, when he was the NHL's rookie of the month and one of the premier goalies in the league. His play then showed the impact he's capable of having, and Molleken seems convinced Fleury has the potential to be more than just an all-star. Or even a franchise goalie, for that matter.
"I think he can be one of the best, ever," Molleken said. "No. 1, he's such a good athlete. No. 2, he competes on each and every shot.
"His quickness and his lateral movement are second to none. As he gets older, as he gets stronger, as he gets used to the NHL game, his game is just going to ... I really think he's going to be one of the best there is."
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Marc-Andre Fleury knows this won't be quite like Oct. 10. And that it shouldn't be.
After all, a lot has happened since that night, when Fleury played his first National Hockey League game. He has tacked 938 minutes of NHL work onto his resume. Celebrated his 19th birthday. Earned a silver medal with Team Canada at the world junior championships.
Still, as he prepares to play goal for the Penguins in their game against Minnesota at 8:08 p.m. today at the Xcel Energy Center, Fleury expects to be battling some serious jitters.
"Maybe not as much as my first game," he said yesterday. "But for sure, I'll have some butterflies."
Fleury dealt with a few thousand of those when he made his NHL debut, but they weren't much of a distraction. He turned aside 46 of 48 Los Angeles shots in a performance that validated every flattering syllable written or spoken about him.
It's not realistic to expect him to duplicate that against the Wild this evening -- heck, most goalies can't even dream of producing that caliber of work once -- and a case could be made that Fleury might have benefited from a bit more practice time before being thrown into a game.
He has had just two practices and a couple of game-day skates with his teammates since returning from the junior tournament in Finland last week. And he didn't look especially sharp in either of the practices.
Still, Coach Eddie Olczyk said, "it's time to get back in there," and the Penguins have a logical motive for starting Fleury tonight.
He hasn't played since the gold-medal game at the world juniors Jan. 5, when he was scorched for three third-period goals in what became a 4-3 loss to the United States. The tournament-winner was scored when Fleury's clearing attempt with about six minutes left in regulation hit teammate Braydon Coburn and caromed into Canada's net.
Fleury has been debriefed by Olczyk, general manager Craig Patrick and assistant coach Lorne Molleken, who oversees the Penguins' goalies, since rejoining the team Sunday, and they clearly do not want him to dwell on the gold-medal game any longer than necessary.
"Like anything else, you have to put that behind you as quickly as possible or else it will eat away at you," Molleken said. "So we wanted to get him back in as soon as possible."
Fleury seems to share that perspective and said that settling back into the Penguins' rotation is "the best way to move on."
In his most recent NHL appearance, Fleury gave up four goals to Vancouver's Markus Naslund in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Canucks. The Wild doesn't have anyone, with the possible exception of struggling right winger Marian Gaborik, capable of torching him for three or four goals.
Nonetheless, Fleury -- who has played with and against Minnesota players such as Gaborik, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Pascal Dupuis and Brent Burns -- doesn't view the Wild as being less menacing than any other opponent.
"It's never easy," Fleury said. "Every team has lots of very skilled players, so you have to watch for them."
Fleury has a pretty nice pedigree of his own -- he was the first player chosen in the 2003 NHL entry draft and is widely regarded as the best teenage goalie in the world -- and he rarely, if ever, has looked overmatched against the NHL's premier players and teams.
His stats -- a 4-10-2 record, 3.20 goals-against average and .910 save percentage -- are more than respectable for a rookie whose team has the worst record in the league, and he generally comes up with enough big-time saves to keep the Penguins competitive.
"When he's been in there, for the most part, he's given us a chance to win," Molleken said.
Even though the game tonight will be the Penguins' 46th, Fleury is entering the stretch drive of his rookie season. Because team officials are reluctant to pay him $3 million in easily attainable bonuses once he makes his 25th appearance of 20 minutes or more, he's a virtual lock to rejoin his junior team in Cape Breton after -- if not before -- he makes his 24th appearance meeting that criterion.
Should he stay in the game tonight for one period or longer, it will be No. 16.
Even though his time in the NHL this season is running out, there is much that can be accomplished in his remaining games.
Fleury said he would like to upgrade various facets of his play and singled out the way he handles pucks around the net as a priority. Molleken would like Fleury to concentrate on not committing too quickly when confronting a shooter.
"The biggest thing I would like to see is for him to just be a little more patient in his game, as far as when to stand up and when to go down," Molleken said. "He's so quick with his legs that I would like to see him stay up a little bit longer in different situations, because if they do start to shoot at the lower part of the net, he's quick enough to make that save.
"As far as Marc playing his angles and staying out, he does that as well as anyone in the league. It's just a matter of, when the puck moves from side to side, maybe staying up a little bit longer when the puck is from the top of the circles out."
Fleury did that throughout October, when he was the NHL's rookie of the month and one of the premier goalies in the league. His play then showed the impact he's capable of having, and Molleken seems convinced Fleury has the potential to be more than just an all-star. Or even a franchise goalie, for that matter.
"I think he can be one of the best, ever," Molleken said. "No. 1, he's such a good athlete. No. 2, he competes on each and every shot.
"His quickness and his lateral movement are second to none. As he gets older, as he gets stronger, as he gets used to the NHL game, his game is just going to ... I really think he's going to be one of the best there is."
