Under Siege
Pens’ goaltender Marc Andre Fleury
By Bob Grove

On the ice, Marc-Andre Fleury's trademarks are his bright pads and his reflexes, the latter perhaps unparalleled among National Hockey League goaltenders. Off the ice, you can tell it's the 21-year-old from Quebec by his frequent smile and upbeat disposition.

Catching a happy Fleury with his pads on, however, has bordered on the impossible lately. The second No. 1 overall draft choice in Penguins' history had won just six of his 32 NHL decisions, including three of his last 22, halfway through a four-game holiday homestand during which Pittsburgh hoped to salvage a profoundly disappointing season.

Summoned from the American Hockey League in late November as part of that reclamation project, Fleury had started nine of 11 games and been mostly spectacular in his long-awaited role as Pittsburgh's No. 1 goaltender.

He was phenomenal stopping 36 shots in Detroit Dec. 12, a 3-1 loss. He was merely superb in stopping 39 shots in St. Louis the next night, a 3-0 loss. He also held the Penguins in their Dec. 16 home game against Buffalo-the debut of head coach Michel Therrien-until an overtime penalty led to Pittsburgh's 10th loss in 12 games and pushed Fleury's frustration meter briefly into the danger zone.

"Coming in after the game when they scored in overtime and he played really well," recalls center Erik Christensen, a teammate both here and in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, "he was really upset. Upset with himself, upset with the way things have been going. Swearing to himself in French. I said, 'Calm down. You were unreal.' I think he takes that to heart when someone tells him that, but he's still very fiery and wants to win."

That is why the Penguins have been so impressed with their prized goaltender, a key figure in their future, even while he loses most of the time.

"It's obvious he never likes to lose," says Sidney Crosby. "Sometimes it's frustrating the more you lose, and it definitely starts to eat at you after a while. But that's the way you need to be. That's why he's so good. That's the way we all need to think.

"I'm not one who accepts losing, and you feel for him, especially a goaltender who's got a little more pressure on his shoulders than anyone else. Maybe that's something that can push us in front of him, to know that he's giving his all."

In the final year of his three-year entry level contract, Fleury has operated this season on both ends of the success spectrum. He was 10-0-2-0 with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and his 1.57 goals-against average and .939 save percentage led the AHL; he won only two of his first 12 NHL games this season.

"It is tough, especially this year when I played in the AHL and we won almost every night. You kind of get used to that," says Fleury. "Then you come here. . . then you think, 'It's the NHL, everything's not always perfect.' Any night you don't win, it's tough on the confidence.

"It's always tough at the end of the night when you don't win, but then you have to think about what you did during the game…It's tough when you lose and you wonder, 'When am I going to win?' "

General manager Craig Patrick understands that his young goaltender has been under siege; the Penguins could have been outscored 16-1 instead of 6-1 during those consecutive road losses last month, the final two games of Ed Olczyk's tenure as head coach.

"He doesn't like to be scored on," says Patrick, who worked a trade with Florida to get the top pick in the 2003 draft and use it on Fleury. "It's nice to see his skill level and it's nice to see his competitiveness. He'll never wilt. He's a young man with a huge heart and willingness to compete 100 percent of the time."

Fleury's competitive streak only seems to grow with the challenges he faces, and his game has matured along with it. He has significantly reduced the number of early first-period goals he allows, reduced the amount of time he spends flopping on the ice, and has more consistently played his angles. And he understands the questions he asks himself are the same ones goaltenders have been posing for generations.

"Some nights when you have five or six goals against you, the guy's coming down on you and you think, 'Is it going to go in again? Can I stop one tonight?' So I think it's huge to have confidence," he says, "to know that you can make every stop, that it's going to take a great shot to beat you."

Both Christensen and Crosby point to Fleury's quickness, competitiveness and refusal to give up on any shot as the reasons for his play this season. Both believe Fleury is critical to whatever success the Penguins can dredge out of this season.

"Some games we've played so badly you think, 'God, if we didn't have Flower, what would it be like?' He's such a rock, so steady," says Christensen, who sits next to Fleury in the Penguins' dressing room. "I told him, 'You're not going anywhere, man. We're going to need you if we're going to make a run and try and get back into the playoff hunt.

"In my opinion, maybe it's bold to say, but he's a Sidney Crosby type at his position. He's only going to get better, and once he's at his peak in his career, he's going to be the best goalie in the game."

PSR Hockey Editor Bob Grove has been covering the Penguins since 1981 and currently serves as a regular co-host on the Penguins Radio Network.