Faceoff Factor

Fleury’s Streak Reaches Six, One Is The Loneliest Number

Jesse Marshall | Pittsburgh Penguins

Mar 28, 09:50 AM | Hype this story!

With a victory over the Islanders last night, Marc-Andre Fleury won his sixth straight game in goal, a streak that’s by and large been overshadowed by the hoopla surrounding Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa, and yes, Jarkko Ruutu.

The streak now dates back to March 9, a road game against the Washington Capitals, where Fleury fought off an onslaught of Capitals power-play chances en route to the 4-2 victory. He hasn’t looked back since.

In fact, dating back to November 24th, 2007, Fleury has only lost 1 game he’s started. That was a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the Florida Panthers. And let it be known that on that day, the defense hardly showed up to help.

There is also a two-game mini-streak clumped in-between the 4 games Fleury won before getting injured and the 6 that he’s won after getting pulled in Florida: a 2-0 shutout of the Lightning and a 3-2 overtime win against Atlanta. That makes Fleury 12-1 in his last 13 starts in goal.

It’s been said that 1 is the loneliest number, but Marc-Andre has provided it with some company; he’s allowed 1 goal or less in 4 of the 6 games within this streak. His goals-against average during this span has been 1.16. That’s about the same average of points-per-game Evgeni Malkin has been registering over the course of the last month. When you’re the goaltender for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and you only allow 1 goal a game on average, you’re giving your offense a pretty good chance of victory.

But what’s more, his puck playing abilities and overall confidence seem to have been bolstered. The confidence issue, for me, is a matter of sheer maturity. Fleury faced a rough start to the season and countless criticism from writers and fans alike. Compound that with the mental strain of dealing with an injury such as a high-ankle sprain, and you’ve got a melting-pot for disaster.

But watching from the box helped Marc-Andre immensely. Ray Shero appeared on Bob Groves intermission report via radio last night and was quoted as saying “Rehab and practice were things that Marc-Andre began to approach differently. He accepted his two week assignment in Wilkes-Barre and was very serious about it”.

In the midst of all this, Ty Conklin deserves an immense amount of credit, not only for what he did on the ice, but what he’s done behind the scenes. Conklin has been the consummate professional. We can only assume that the confidence which Fleury has displayed with the puck can be traced back to the presence of Ty Conklin. What he did was amazing, but the picture is clear, the future of this team belongs to Marc-Andre Fleury.

When the Penguins defense was at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Fleury floated somewhere between absolutely stealing games, and getting absolutely shelled. With acquisitions like Hal Gill, the emergence of Kristopher Letang, and the inspired play of Sergei Gonchar, Fleury is getting help from all mediums.

The end of Fleury’s book of development is not yet written. While his statistics this year are surely destroying those of years past, including those of his 40 win season a year ago, the playoffs are looming in April, and it will be on that stage and that stage only that Fleury will have the chance to silence his critics and lead the Penguins back to the promise land.