Penguins crush Rangers on Fleurys birthday
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is plenty familiar with being upstaged by Penguins teammate Sidney Crosby, as he was Saturday night in a rousing 8-3 win against the New York Rangers at Mellon Arena.
Fleury, who celebrated his 25th birthday with NHL victory No. 126, couldnt hold a candle last night to Crosby, whose second hat trick of the season and five points pulled him within six of San Joses Joe Thornton, who did not play but began the day as the league leader with 36 points.
Seven years ago this June, then- Penguins general manager Craig Patrick traded up at the 2003 entry draft to select Fleury, whom he thought would make all the saves in the Penguins transformation back into a Stanley Cup contender.
Two years later, Patrick picked the hotly hyped Crosby first overall to literally save the franchise from likely relocation out of Pittsburgh.
With a scoring title, MVP and the tag of youngest captain to win the Stanley Cup to his credit, Crosby is aware that his clubs on-ice success is tied directly into the goalie he replaced as the face of the franchise.
Everybody always talks goaltenders, and its about age and experience, Crosby said. Its a really tough position mentally, but he seems to just get better and better. Just when you think he cant he improves in certain areas; and thats a great trait for us.
Another great trait for the Penguins (18-9-0, 36 points) is the way they are closing November. With only a rematch against the Rangers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden remaining in the month, the Penguins are 6-2-0 after opening November with four losses in five games.
It helps that theyre getting healthy. They welcomed back into the lineup defensemen Kris Letang and Alex Golgoski, and winger Tyler Kennedy ? and each of those players contributed to this season-best offensive outburst.
Letang and Kennedy each recorded two assists, and Kennedy notched his sixth goal and first since missing 14 of 15 games with a lower-body injury.
Toss in Crosbys fourth career hat trick, a two-point effort by center Evgeni Malkin, whose eighth goal was his fourth in six contests, forward Max Talbots first goal, winger Pascal Dupuiss seventh and defenseman Mark Eatons third … and, well, this victory looked a lot more convincing in the end than it had in early in the third period, when the Rangers cut the score to 4-3.
Fleury made just five saves after a goal by Rangers defenseman Michal Rozsival just 33 seconds into the final period; but judging him by statistics is probably not the wisest move.
Fleury is 126-92-26 overall with a 2.83 goals-against average and .907 save percentage ? numbers that often leave him out of conversations regarding the leagues top goalie.
Well, hes not overlooked in this room, I can tell you that, defenseman Brooks Orpik said of Fleury, whose is 31-18 over three postseasons, including an epic save on future Hall-of-Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom last June 12 that allowed the Penguins to leave Detroits Joe Louis Arena with the Stanley Cup after a Game 7 victory.
Jokingly, Malkin, who will play for Russia at the Olympics in February, said he is glad Fleury is not being talked about as a starter for Canada at the games in Vancouver.
No, no chance, he said, laughing, about the prospect of winning a gold-medal game between Russia and Canada with Fleury between the pipes.
You wouldnt take anybody over him, Talbot said yesterday morning before scoring his first goal since netting his clubs only scores in that Cup victory at Detroit. People come to me and ask about Flower. If somebody asks what goalie I want in net, its him.
In net is where the Penguins have placed Fleury for 95 of their past 104 regular-season games, and he has delivered a victory 59 times.
His thoughts as his 25th birthday closed were on that sparkling performance in his NHL debut. Fleury stopped 46 shots against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 10, 2003, when the Penguins lost but their fans fell for the always-smiling player known affectionately as Flower.
It went by so fast … its crazy, he said after stopping 22 shots last night, during which a sellout crowd sang Happy Birthday to you!