Thursday, February 14th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Marc-Andre Fleury returns to action
Marc-Andre Fleury finally returned to the ice last night, defeating the Norfolk Admirals 3-1 in AHL action. Fleury made 30 saves in shutting down the Admirals, who were in last place in the AHL East Division coming into the game with only 40 points. Fleury was evidently impressive in his new white pads, making 16 saves in the third period according to the Baby Pens’ website, as well as stopping the first 13 shots that he saw.
It is fortunate that Fleury had at least one good outing, even if it was against a bad team in the minor leagues. In order for Fleury to be successful, he must regain his confidence, and in order to do that, he must be successful in the AHL. Starting him out against a pretty weak team was a solid call on the part of Ray Shero and his staff, but now they must slowly ease him back into pressure situations, which should not be that difficult considering that WBS is only one point ahead of Hershey and two points ahead of Binghamton for second place in their division.
This means that the Baby Penguins will be playing a significant number of important games over the next thirteen days and that Fleury will be able to experience the in-game action and pressure that he had obviously not been able to while injured. By throwing him straight into the fire, the Penguins are setting themselves up to have that much envied situation where they have two valuable goalies which I have discussed at length here in the past. This could be an especially valuable decision considering that Ray Shero has announced that he does not plan to be active during the trade deadline, something that makes sense considering the makeup of this team and that it can’t really get better through additions, with any player seemingly representing more of a threat to the chemistry that the team has than an asset on the ice.
If the Penguins let their current team gel until they are back to full health, they will be just fine heading into the playoffs and, with the Baby Penguins experiencing a playoff hunt at the same time as their grown brethren, all of the players in the system will be receiving invaluable experience at the same time, whether they are in Pittsburgh or Wilkes-Barre Scranton.
On one last note, those white pads that Fleury wore? They do make him appear larger in the net.
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