A Frighteningly Passionate Defense of Marc-Andre Fleury

Everybody has a weak spot and mine is goaltending.

I can keep my emotions and passions in check on just about every other topic. Trust me on this one. If I had any doubt about my ability to stay calm in the face of enemy fire, Ben Roethlisberger is forcing me prove it on a daily basis.

I’ve stood up to numerous out of town assaults on Ben’s character, decisions, and generally scum-baggedness (it’s my blog; I can make up words if I want). Frankly, Ben deserves it for the way he’s acted.

I’m not sure I deserve it; after all I’m not hitting on 20 year old drunk college girls. That being said, when you wear your sports passions on your sleeve as I do (and on your shirt, your shorts, and your hat), you have to be tough. If I’m going to walk around Chicago carrying my terrible towel trumpeting the glory of the Steelers all the time, I have to be prepared for a response when things go south.

I can handle the shots at Big Ben and Santonio Holmes. I can handle the weekend at Bernie’s jokes directed at Joe Paterno. I can even take all the grief that comes from being a Cub fan. Oh and I’m perfectly willing to listen to legitimate criticism about the entire NHL world fawning over Sid the Kid to the point of Favre like nausea.

Seriously, I can handle all of that with a proportionate degree of class and dignity.

Alas, when you attack my goaltender, I become like a mother bear when one of her cubs (not Cubs) is under attack. I grimace and growl; the fur (hair) stands up on the back of my neck. I become 100% ready to attack.

To some degree I’ve always known this but tried to overlook it as a minor character flaw. Alas it came flying back to the forefront this week because once again a segment of the Penguin fan base has taken to ripping up Marc-Andre Fleury.

Yes that’s the same Marc-Andre Fleury who you last saw robbing future hall of famer Nicklas Lidstrom at point blank range to win game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals…on the road. The same MAF who took the Pens to game 6 of the finals the year before that. The same Flower who robbed Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway in game 7 against Washington last season (again on the road). And also the guy who shut out Montreal on the road last night.

A normal person would not care about this criticism. They would just brush it off. It would be enough for them to say, Stanley Cup Champions and move forward. Of course when it comes to goaltenders, I am hardly a normal person. That’s why I wrote an entire blog on the subject last year after the Stanley Cup finals. I called it, Stanley Cup Championship should put an end to Fleury bashing. Apparently, I was wrong.

http://ahaberman35.livejournal.com/tag/fleury#post-ahaberman35-5374

Is it any wonder that Emily gets so worked up when people criticize her favorite player, Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi? It’s almost like we are the bear couple (not to be confused with Chicago Bears) and we have two sons, Marc-Andre and Antti. Cleary I’m not setting a good example for grace under fire.

Here is the thing about Fleury, he is never going to have great numbers, at least not playing for this version of the Penguins. And to be clear, that’s the way it should be. The Penguins have two of the best offensive players in the league in Crosby and Malkin. They play Dan Bylsma’s aggressive forechecking system which generates a lot of scoring chances in the offensive zone. They allow their talented offensive defensemen to pinch and go in deep to create chances.

This is exactly the way a team with this much talent should play. Do we really want to see them playing the NJ Devils trap? We don’t and neither does their owners, a fellow who knew a thing or two about scoring goals as well. The Penguins fired the worlds angriest French Canadian as coach last season about 48 hours after he unveiled the Crosby and Malkin version of the neutral zone trap.

So in came Bylsma who totally revamped the way the Penguins played. He developed a style that plays to their strengths and covers up their biggest weakness, their defensive defensemen. It’s a classic example of a coach brilliantly tailoring a team’s game plan to its talents.

The down side to Bylsma’s strategy is it exposes the Penguins to a lot of quality chances against them. To be clear, that’s not the same as a lot of shots on goal. When Kris Letang goes in deep and throws a diagonal centering pass to the slot, sometimes it results in a brilliant goal. Sometimes it results in a 2 on 1 break the other way.

Fortunately, the Penguins have a goaltender who can be counted on to make the big save when that happens. More important, they have a goaltender who gets that this style is going to leave him exposed sometimes. He makes as many big saves as possible and when one gets buy him, he fishes it out of the net and moves on.

When they are on their game, the Penguins dominate with the forecheck and do not give up a high number of shots. And while I can not prove this statistically, I would guess that the number of quality shots they give up as a percentage of total shots is as high as any team in the league. The result, you will not find Marc-Andre Fleury at the top of the list in save percentage in the NHL. Compare this to Jaroslav Halak who faces 45 shots a game but probably faces fewer quality chances than the Flower.

There is a stat that he is frequently on the leader board for…wins. Especially playoff wins. I guess we as Penguin fans can grudgingly settle for that?

I went through this with Tom Barrasso in the early 90s. Lemieux, Jagr, Coffey and company were playing run and gun hockey and winning games 6 to 4. I would hear all kinds of comments about Barrasso and how his GAA and save percentage were mediocre so he obviously was not good. To say I did not always handle such criticism well was a grotesque understatement.

I would get into arguments with people at school, in bars, anywhere to defend Barrasso. I turned my home into a billboard for him. I ran into Jeff Webster a few years back after not seeing him since high school and the first thing we did was argue about Barrasso! It was soccer practice 1990 all over again.

And yes, I admit this is emblematic of some degree of psychosis. It’s disturbing that I could not be above such arguments, especially after two Stanley Cups. Alas, I was 17 years old when that started. Clearly I’ve matured and moved on from such issues after two decades of personal growth.

WRONG.

Last week I found myself defending Barrasso on Bob Smizik’s blog. I was defending him for that awful, never should be spoken of playoff loss to the Islanders in 1993. I was pointing out in intricate detail how poorly the Penguins played in that series and two awful turnovers by Ulf Samuelson that lead to goals in game 7 (a nightmare I relived thanks to the NHL network and the miracle of YouTube). I was doing this with vigor, anger, and passion…17 YEARS LATER. Honestly, this is not normal behavior.

And over the last 48 hours I’ve been fighting it out with Fleury bashers as if they insulted by family.

I admit that Smizik’s blog has become kind of a guilty pleasure for me. It helps me deal with being completely isolated from the inside Pittsburgh sports scene. I enjoy reading it and commenting on it. I do this knowing full well that internet blogs attract a motley mix of folks, some of whom do not have the most educated or enlightened perspective on sports.

I found myself pleasantly amused by the belief that Bruce Arians is responsible for everything that went wrong with the Steelers the last two years, right down to Ben’s bathroom escapades. I enjoyed arguing my minority view point on Ben which I espoused twice in recent blog entries. I argued these points with thought, passion, and sensibility.

As for the Fleury bashing…yikes. I did not bring my computer home last night. So I found myself counting the minutes until I got to work so I could lay into these morons who are attacking one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. I could feel the anger and venom building up inside me as my fingers cracked the keys. Honestly, it’s frightening…to me!

So I have two suggestions for Penguins fans.

First, be proud that you have one of the best young goaltenders in the league on your team. Understand that he’s not perfect; that he will let in a soft goal once in awhile, or give up a bad rebound. Understand that his statistics will never be amongst the league leaders except for wins. And understand that in spite of that, the guy is perfect for this Penguin team and the way they play. He’s an elite goaltender in the NHL no matter how much some fans and media members refuse to believe it.

And second…if you disagree with the above, don’t mess with me on this topic. This old bear still gets mighty angry when you attack his goalie!

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN, BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD !