Marc-André Fleury is playing his best hockey ever.
- Thread starter Will Hunting
- Start date
LOL. he had some seriously bad gafs during that series and the playoff series that followed in the next post season that led to him being pulled in favor of Vokoun but that doesn't change the fact that the defense in front of him, specifically during that Flyers series (looking at you in particular Paul Martin) was seriously bad. No goalie would have stood a chance.
KrisLetAngry
MrJukeBoy
I was the laughing stock of my office pool when I picked him, then he turns out to be the best goaltender in the league
I picked him last year. Was my best goalie.
Straight Fire
Registered User
MAF is always a tremendous goaltender in the regular season, especially for us fantasy geeks. It's the post season that falls into question for him. He's never had any doubters in the regular season though and is as good as they get.
Straight Fire
Registered User
Bingo. AND, IMO he's one of those rare breed that has a chance to erase some of the bad memories. No one can take the cup ring from him, and a 2nd appearance in a SCF . . . some success going forward and some of the ***** is forgotten. No question he's been one of the great goaltenders already in his career.
This year is phenomenal!
Absolutely. Should he have another good playoffs (he was good last year) and win another cup or 2, nobody will bring up the stretch where he was very forgettable.. He'll be remembered as won of the best goalies of his generations. He already has the regular season statistics to back that up. Another Cup will only add to an already pretty illustrious career.
Kipper933
Remember the Kipper
SanDogBrewin
Righteous bucks!
Last 4 games of that series SV% were .750, .889, .905 and .1000. Up n down MAF went. The next series in 2013 was much worse.
With a new contract from his front office MAF needs to get past the playoff jitters. Time will tell if he repeats awful performances. Recent history has not been kind.
"History" most certainly says hello
jrolley325
Registered User
"History" also has back to back SCF appearances along with a Cup ring. If you want to point out the bad, you have to throw in the good.
Face it, he's either really really good or really really bad which adds up to mediocre numbers career wise. He's still a better option than over half the goalies in the league.
Face it, he's either really really good or really really bad which adds up to mediocre numbers career wise. He's still a better option than over half the goalies in the league.
Nemesis Prime
Registered User
jrolley325
Registered User
he was fine last year. people will say he's bad no matter what just because it's the popular thing to do. goodness, just twitter search "fleury" ANY time he gives up a goal. it's insanity.
Quick should not be a finalist based on his season so far. There are others far more deserving.
nhlfan9191
Registered User
- Aug 4, 2010
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The guy you're quoting made that post awhile back.
Good on Fleury to be having such a great season. I think he needs this season to get his confidence back. He's always had average seasons but racked up wins playing for good teams. This year he's impacting the team and pulling his weight. That being said, it's honestly all about the playoffs. I'm not on the boat that thought Fleury had a great playoffs last year just because he was better then the past 4 playoffs before that. He hasn't stole a game in the post season since 09. If he can steal a few and the Pens stars don't disappear, I personally want to play them.
Russian Factor
Registered User
Opinions on Fleury are always so crazily varied that it makes for an entertaining read when people offer up their hot takes
AquaticBirdman
Registered User
He's gained a new found sense of confidence under our new goaltending coach over the past couple of years. On top of that his technical ability has improved tremendously. He no longer has the tendency to overplay pucks and flop around aimlessly in the crease. His rebound control is much better, and he doesn't struggle with otherwise routine saves anymore. His ability to play the puck is still iffy, but once again not as bad as it once was. Overall he's a much better goaltender, and with a better defensive system in front of him I think we're going to see his best years in his 30s...
Honour Over Glory
#firesully
- Jan 30, 2012
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The team collapsed as a collected effort of crap the years MAF also didn't do well, last year he redeemed himself, but the team decided goals and systems don't matter after being up on the Rangers, such an epic collapse that ended up costing a stubborn coach his job thankfully since that series had him and his stubbornness written all over it after the Pens played a classic Jacques Martin style to stifle the Rangers and then reverted to the DB system and golf bags were ready.
Fleury will never get the deserved respect until he has a year where he wins the Vezina and then goes on to the finals again in that same year and wins it all.
It seems other goaltenders that do far less get more praise yet a guy that is a consistent 30+ game winner and a 2x SC Finalist and Cup Winner (it's a team effort, he played a huge role as well) has to "earn it."
I look forward to him continuing to have an amazing season, he's been by far the most consistent Penguin the whole year, he had a few bad stretches, but it never lasted as long as any of the players on the team.
Honour Over Glory
#firesully
- Jan 30, 2012
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He's average to above average with playing the puck, but yeah Bales has done a good job of getting him to settle down and rely on his positioning with the occasional flash of his amazing reflexes and athleticism.
He's just 30yrs old, a lot of goaltenders usually start to really get into a groove around 28-35. Some peak early. I never saw MAF as peaking early, he always had the ability to stabilize his spastic behavior in net and he showed flashes of being a solid positional guy but then reverted back, seemed more like a leadership thing with his goalie coach and him just not buying into it.
Lundqvist, Quick, Rask, Thomas, Price, Niemi, Crawford, Roy, etc all racked up tons of wins playing for good teams too, that tends to happen for goaltenders because they can't always stand on their head every single game for 60+ mins.
His confidence started to come back from last year's playoffs when he wasn't the reason the team was out, he had a good playoffs but people still underestimated that, he's also finally gotten a chance to really mesh with Bales.
I have never seen Fleury play great in the playoffs. Last season he was ok but he still gave up a bad goal almost every game.
He was decent for a couple of seasons but he has been below average in the playoffs most of the time.
His high has been several pretty good regular seasons, this year probably his best. He has also been the worst playoff goaltender for as long as I have been watching and I am older than most here.
I would take just about every legit starting goaltender in the playoffs over Fleury just so I would know I wouldn't get "playoff Fleury". Even when they won the cup he was just ok, he wasn't anything special. The year before when they didn't win the cup I thought he was better.
That's my opinion.
Shaftception
Registered User
- Apr 6, 2011
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