Grange: Mind over chatter for Penguins’ Fleury

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury. (Getty/Marianne Helm)

In hockey lore, goalies are crazy.

From Glenn Hall throwing up before every one of his NHL-record 502 consecutive starts to Ed Belfour’s obsessive fiddling with his equipment to Ilya Bryzgalov’s observations on the universe, goalies are the other ones. They stand alone.

Marc-André Fleury wants you to know he is not crazy.

But the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie was driving his team up the wall.

The former No. 1–overall pick who helped Sidney Crosby win his only Stanley Cup by stopping 48 of 50 shots as the Penguins won games six and seven to complete their comeback over the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup final spent the next four years unravelling, it seemed.


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It culminated in consecutive first-round playoff exits in 2012 and 2013, in which Fleury allowed 41 goals in just 11 games. He was awful.

Once considered a foundation piece, Fleury was not-so-suddenly exposed as the team’s weak link.

And so Fleury began to see a psychologist.

It wasn’t his idea. It was put to him by management, who were worried that their franchise goalie was getting lost inside his own mind.

“At first I was [hesitant]. I was thinking, I’m not crazy, I don’t really need to go to a psychologist,” he says. “But it’s different. It’s good help; it’s keys to help you know what to think about before the game and at certain moments during the game to stay relaxed, stay at ease.”

In many respects, Fleury is the opposite of the clichéd tightly wound netminder who needs to be tiptoed around. He’s affable, fun, friendly. At his best, the stresses of the position never seemed to wear on him.

But for a long time he was far from his best. A goalie drafted because of his athleticism—his ability to move like a panther from post to post and grab pucks out of the air from impossible angles—was being undone by his strengths, his nature.

“In my head I always want to be aggressive. I want to go get it,” he says. “And sometimes I put myself out of the play too fast. So I have to tell myself, ‘Wait, wait, relax, don’t move around too much.’ I’m still working on it.”

Only now he has help.

On top of the sports psychologist, the Penguins set him up with a new goalie coach—the only member of the staff who survived the firing of head coach Dan Bylsma and GM Ray Shero.

Last season was a modest triumph for Fleury. He re-emerged as a goalie the Pens could rely on. He played in 64 games—second in the NHL—and was tied for third with 39 wins. His .915 save percentage was in line with his career average.

The Penguins still fell short in the playoffs—as long as your lineup includes Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, a second-round exit is always going to be considered falling short—but for the first time since they won the Cup, everyone wasn’t staring at Fleury as the main reason.

“I think I learned some things with my preparation and, mentally, how to deal with high-pressure games,” he says. “It was tough in the playoffs, a lot of eyes on me, and it went pretty good. So I was happy to find ways to react and manage the situation.”

This is cold comfort, of course. Fleury is heading into the season in the last year of his seven-year, $35-million contract. The Penguins have said they have no plans to extend him.

He needs to perform. It’s the business of hockey, which is prone to mood swings and a certain type of amnesia. Fleury gets it. He’s only as good as his last save, which is nuts in itself, but that’s hockey. And Fleury’s more than able to take the bad with the good.

“I love the game. I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” he says. “What comes with it sometimes is a little crazy, but it’s the business we’re in. You have to adapt.”

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