Sunday, October 21st, 2007 by Adam Wagner
MAF Owns You.
A bragger is always annoying, so I’m going to consent first. I was wrong. Marc-Andre Fleury did need some motivation. Whether this came in the form of a Michel Therrien tongue lashing or from the false, or so Ray Shero claims, rumors that the Penguins were considering looking for another goalie as late as yesterday, Fleury played a very solid hockey game Saturday night in the Penguins’ 2-1 win over the Alexander Ovechkins Washington Capitals.
Fleury was by no means spectacular Saturday, making a few excellent saves, but generally just avoiding letting an easy goal get past him. The Penguins are going to need this type of game from their franchise goalie, an ugly win, on plenty of occasions in the near future particularly when the game is as gritty as this one was.
It is helpful, however, when a defender has a game like Mark Eaton had Saturday, diving in front of loose pucks and being seemingly everywhere on the ice; in general, looking like last year’s rendition of Mark Eaton. Fleury is all about confidence, and when he feels that he is not the only line of defense, but rather the last line of defense he is a better goalie.
More goals were expected out of this game, but that does not mean that it was by any means boring. The up and down the ice action was on par with any 4-3 or 3-2 game, but both defenses were very solid with a Ryan Whitney goal on a Sidney Crosby feed (okay, it was a pretty goal; I’m still going off about Crosby, though) being the difference, showing why Crosby is more valuable to his team than Ovechkin is.
Ovechkin is, without a doubt, the most exciting player in hockey. Simply search him on YouTube and check out some of the videos to see further proof of this, as he scores goals that cause excessive drool on the keyboard. He is, however, something of a selfish player, as a great goalscorer must be, constantly looking for an opening for a goal for himself instead of a pass that could potentially benefit a teammate. Crosby, however, is constantly making plays that make his teammates look better such as his feed to Ryan Whitney tonight.
And that, along with Fleury’s play, proved to be the difference tonight.
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