Im a Fleury supporter and always have been. Like youve posted, he doesnt have the best stats but the kid is a winner, plain and simple, he single handedly kept us in the playoffs quite a few times last year. Sure he lets in a few bad ones, but I ask, what goaltender doesnt? Lundqvist hasnt exactly played stellar this season, but you dont see New Yorkers calling for his head. I actually thought after the SCF last year that the question of whether MAF is our franchise netminder would cease but I guess its something he`ll always have to deal with.

He’s a hot and cold goalie, he plays average a lot of the time. Fortunately that time doesn’t seem to involve the Playoffs, when he is one of the best goalies in the league. Brodeur may do it all season, but that’s a rare quality, I’ll take Fleury over Brodeur anyway, I think Fleury in the playoffs is better.

A hot goalie can carry a team to the finals, and Fleury seems to be hot every year. Even if he eventually has a bad postseason, I’ll continue to be a huge Fleury fan.

I had my doubts through the 06-07 season when the Pens lost to the Sens in the first round. Even with the complete turnaround and playoff berth, I wasn’t convinced Fleury was a big-time goaltender. I know, he had 40 wins that year. But like any cynic I wasn’t entirely convinced. In 07-08, even during just the first few months of the regular season (well, before he hurt his ankle), I started seeing the real competitor emerge. Then he went down for a bit, Conklin stepped in and I was pretty sure he’d have to fight for the first spot again. Nope. He came back from that ankle injury better than he ever was. And even though the Pens lost in the Finals, Fleury made a HUGE statement in a lot of those games, especially G5 when Sykora netted the game winner in OT. (That was G5, right?)

Then came last season. It’s hard to overly critique a goaltender’s season when the entire year came down to one huge save at the right time to win the Cup. You can’t ride him too hard for anything at that point – hindsight. But after giving up those 5 goals in game 5, I thought otherwise. Until he had two consecutive one-goal games.

This season the Pens tied a franchise record: 17 wins out of the first 25 games. Aside from a ridiculous amount of injuries and the team’s effort to deal with said injuries, how can anyone say this team and goaltender is struggling? MAF lets in weird goals. It’s his unfortunate downside. He’s too risky playing the puck outside the net and sometimes gets some really bad (see also: weird) bounces. Remember when he sat on the puck in 07-08 Finals and it literally popped up from under him and into the net? That’s the sort of thing that happens to this kid. But really, I can’t see how you fault him while still backstopping a team that’s first in the Atlantic, tied for first in the conference and only two or three points off from first in the league.

I hate to show my man love for flower, but whenever he makes a huge save and they zoom in on his face and he has a smile ear to ear, you can just tell he has fun out there, which is in part why I think hes good.

He is a primetime player. I don’t care about stats. Obviously you can look at the playoffs the last two years and its easy to see why I think he is the best…he has the most playoff wins over the last two years!

The other telling stat if you want regular season proof is that he is undefeated when he has to make a save in a shootout. That is stepping up and taking the bull by the horns.

Flower, you are the man! Keep it up!

First post here, and I’m excited to continue to participate in this blog. I played basketball growing up, and was never that into hockey despite growing up in Minnesota. I was pretty enamored and amazed by Crosby when he came into the league, so that and a new friendship helped me become a die hard Pens fan. My friend is a die hard Caps fan and even worse he is OBSESSED with Ovie haha. It certainly does make for some interesting debates between the two of us though.

Haha sorry for the little introduction, but I just felt like sharing.

I think Flower is a really good goalie. He is a bit confusing too me though. He seems to save all the difficult ones and then lets some easy ones in from time to time. I also find myself nervous everytime he leaves the net, but all in all he seems to continue to improve and is one of the better goalies in the NHL.

Flower gives up bad goals all the time, like Barraso (See Fitzgerald, Tom), but when the chips are on the line they both win. I don’t need Luongo, Thomas, Miller, King Henrik, etc. The guys who are supposedly the best in the game (excepting Brodeur, of course) all have one thing in common. They have ZERO Stanley Cups. Tommy’s got two. Flower got his first of many. I don’t think Flower would trade Vezina trophies for the chance to lift the Cup!

Why do you think the Wings always went back to Osgood? … HE WINS.

Who cares about soft goals that do not mean anything in the long run? … Someone who did not win the Stanley Cup!

Who is the ONLY goaltender that I want the Penguis to go into battle with?…MAF!!!