Friday, April 11th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Fleury key to Penguins’ efforts
The Penguins will attempt to go up two games to none on the Ottawa Senators at Mellon Arena tonight in a game that will, more than likely, be much more physical than anyone would have anticipated before the series. With all of the fights in the last game, this series is quickly becoming less about the star skill players involved and more about which team is stronger than the other, with the Penguins hoping that they will come out ahead.
One skill player who has stood up tall for the Penguins has been Marc-Andre Fleury, who has been very strong in the net for the club since returning from a high ankle injury. Fleury has been awesome in net, carrying the team much like he did at points last year and is beginning to draw respect from the national media for his performance, as ESPN’s Scott Burnside points out. By finally performing like the first overall pick in the draft, Fleury must be making Mario Lemieux very happy.
Of course, the real question tonight is what will Gary Roberts do next? Roberts played like a madman in the first game of the series, making up for the time he lost to a broken leg very nicely. He will now have a target on him, though, and it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his performance or whether another role player will have to step up alongside Crosby and Malkin to help the team out.
With that said, Matt and I will be two of about 1,000 people at the Pirate game tonight just because we already have tickets. We will, therefore, have very good Pirate coverage, but probably not as good coverage of the Penguins’ performance (even though we’ll try to find a place in the stadium where both games are on or something). We’ll DVR the game and check it out at some point late tonight/early tomorrow, so we’ll have something about whatever happens in both games tonight, it just won’t be as prompt as usual.
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