Marc-Andre Fleury and Goaltending

I’m not in Pittsburgh, but if box scores, statistics, and news reports are to be believed, Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has had, to put it politely, a less than stellar training camp. To be honest, I’m still not sure what the Penguins have in Fleury aside from a young goaltender who appears to have lots of potential.

However, lessons should have been learned from last season. In addition to other components of the team never meshing properly, the Penguins were done in, early last season, by sub-par goaltending. If the team hopes to compete for a playoff spot this year, the Penguins cannot have sub-par goaltending at any point of the season. In particular, the Penguins cannot start the season with a number one goaltender who is "fighting the puck" or slumping or whatever the correct term is for when goaltenders cease to stop the puck.

For the sake of the Penguins future (and right now Fleury has been projected to be the Penguins future in goal), I don’t really want Fleury to be dispatched to Wilkes-Barre to start the season. Likewise, I’m not sure that benching a young goaltender for a long period of time is going to prove helpful to that young goalie’s development. So while (and keep in mind I write without having seen any preseason games or workouts) I’d tend to keep Fleury on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster for the moment, there’s a bigger issue that has to be acknowledged.

That bigger issue is goaltending as a whole. Whichever goaltender gives the team the best chance to win games, particularly early in the season, has to be the goaltender who plays. Goalies, perhaps more than other athletes, are suspect to hot streaks. And when a goalie gets hot, you play the hot goalie. Based on training camp reports, Fleury doesn’t appear to be the hot goalie right now, and for a team that wants to re-establish itself as one that can at least compete—you have to play the hot goalie. You have to play the goalie who gives you the best chance to win games.

Here’s to hoping that goalie eventually and quickly turns out to be Marc Andre Fleury. But if Fleury isn’t the guy, the Penguins have to place the best guy they have in front of the net if they want to regain a competitive edge this season.