Shea-ved Ice: Fleury Steals 2 Points Against Caps
Being that it's Christmas Eve, it made me think about things that are important at this time of year.
Of course, family and friends rank at the top of the list, but I'm talking about the way the Pens have exorcised some demons from last year.
If you'll recall, the Penguins dropped all six games against the New Jersey Devils and all four meetings with the Washington Capitals in 2009-10.
So far this season, the Pens are 2-0 against New Jersey and 1-0 against the Caps.
The only thing better would be a perfect record against the Flyers, but there's always the playoffs to make that happen.
Last night's 3-2 shootout victory over the Capitals was made possible with a gutsy performance by Marc-Andre Fleury.
The atmosphere inside the Verizon Center gave the game a playoff vibe. Was it a preview of what may come this spring? Time will tell.
Either way, Fleury showed up and gave an encore performance to his Game 7 show in 2009. Fleury's highway robbery of Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway in the opening minutes set the stage for the Pens' 6-2 thrashing to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Last night, early penalty trouble put Fleury in the spotlight early and often. The crowd wanted desperately to blow the roof off with an early goal, but Flower crushed three power play chances in the opening period.
Sidney Crosby got the Pens on the board first with a goal that still has me shaking my head. His deflection of a puck going five feet wide, across his body and into the net from a near impossible angle almost defies physics.
My wife had to work an early shift this morning, so she was asleep for the game. Well, almost asleep. Crosby's goal prompted me to yell some indecipherable things in disbelief that woke her out of a dead sleep. My many thanks to Crosby for landing me in the doghouse.
Anyway, Fleury made 32 saves in the game. If it were possible to be awarded bonus saves for stopping pucks a mere mortal would have seen whiz by, he would have gotten credit for 50+ saves.
His best save of the game came in overtime on Mike Green, who won't be haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future this evening.
He'll be haunted by the white glove of Fleury.
Green danced around two Penguins and had Fleury down and almost out. I say almost out, because Fleury was able to somehow reach back and cover the puck on the goal line.
Green looked to the heavens, buried his face in his gloves, uttered some inappropriate words and skated back to the bench in shock.
Luckily, I had learned my lesson from Crosby's goal and was yelling approval of the save into a pillow.
The play was reviewed, but the ruling of no goal on the ice was upheld.
(Side Note: When the Capitals fans were shown the replay on the big board, they all started acting as if the puck was in the net.
Let's review for a short second. The announcers in the booth were saying it wasn't over the line or it wasn't conclusive and the people at home could clearly tell on their televisions that it wasn't a goal.
How in the world can you be in attendance, see it on a screen bigger than Brett Favre's ego and still think the puck is over the line?
I'm sure the conversation between the referee and Toronto went something like this:
Referee: I was standing there. It looked like a good save to me.
Toronto: Yeah it was. Why are you calling us about it?)
The save forced the game to head to the always exciting shootout.
At this point, Fleury's been subjected to two 5 on 3 disadvantages and six power plays in total. He made several key stops to keep the team alive and now he has to stop three of the most talented forwards the Capitals have?
Seems like a lot to ask of your goaltender for one evening.
Ovechkin led off the shootout by going out wide to the left and tucking the puck nearside on the backhand. The move started to resemble the one he was stoned on in Game 7 until he pulled it to the backhand.
Kris Letang answered right back to tie it at 1-1 after the first round.
Fleury then settled in and stopped not only the next two shooters, but four more after that. If it was me back there after stopping the fourth shooter, I'm looking at my bench with a "Can someone end this thing already?" look.
Finally, after Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Letestu, Chris Kunitz and Tyler Kennedy failed to score, Pascal Dupuis ripped a wrist shot to the twine to send the Capitals fans home for a not so merry Christmas.
Also enjoyable were the Twitter conspiracy theories that HBO somehow had a hand in the game going to extra shootout rounds for its next episode of 24/7.
In all honesty, the Penguins' penalty parade for the first two periods should have cost them the game. They finally got to their game in the third period and looked like the dominant team they've been since early November.
There's no point in re-hashing the Alex Goligoski blunder at the offensive blue line that led to a shorthanded goal for Washington. He knows he has to make a better decision with that puck in that situation.
This was a game that Fleury stole. Plain and simple. If Fleury plays an average game, the Pens lose.
Games like this and how he's played since breaking out of an early season funk are the reason I defend him to all comers at any time.
If last night's game was anything like what we can expect at the Winter Classic, we could be in for something special.
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CaseySheaPens
