Monday, February 11th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Marc-Andre Fleury rehabbing at last
Marc-Andre Fleury has finally started his rehab assignment, but in a minor twist has not yet decided whether he is wearing his white pads or his yellow pads. Fleury has been out since December 6, but he has been afforded the time to rehab by the performance of the team, particularly Ty Conklin.
The Penguins are extremely fortunate that Conklin has stepped up to take over the starting goalie role since Fleury went down. The backup, however, has brought something different to the table than Fleury did. Instead of taking chances and attempting to be spectacular, Conklin has played a very conservative, very solid style of goaltending that the Penguins had not had before.
Fleury is probably the future of the goalie position in Pittsburgh and, as such, will receive playing time when he returns. The issue, though, is that the team has played much better in front of Conklin with the assurance that a stupid goal will not be let up if they commit a stupid act with the puck. Conklin may actually be a better fit for the Penguins even if Fleury is undoubtedly the better goaltender when both are playing at their best.
For instance, when Fleury was injured he had won four consecutive starts and was finally beginning to start the Penguins’ quickly-becoming-annual second half sprint to the finish. Conklin, however, stepped in and filled the role of starting goaltender beautifully, helping the Penguins reach first place in the Atlantic Division and stay in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs.
Perhaps the most important facet of Fleury’s being injured is that the Penguins now have two starting goalies, essentially, for the playoffs, something that all of the winners of the Stanley Cup and even main competitors have also had. The point of having two goalies is that in the NHL playoffs the best team does not always win, but usually the hottest team. For an example of that, look no further than the Hurricanes two years ago or the Oilers from that same season. Neither team was particularly good, but both were able to ride a hot goaltender to a relatively successful finish.
By having two very different goalies who have had success with this team, the Penguins will have been afforded a luxury in about two months thanks to adversity that they faced in the past two months.
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