After a poor performance in Game 2 of the series against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-André Fleury may have bought a long-term season ticket on the bench.
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After teammate Filip Gustavsson masterfully stopped 51 shots in the opening game in a 3-2 second-overtime win, the Quebecer was given a mandate to play the next game, but his opponents hit back hard, scoring seven goals in 31 shots. After a 7-3 defeat, the Savages will find their supporters on Friday and it’s certain that head coach Dean Evason will bring the Swede back into the game. And if he continues his good work, the goalkeeping system in place during the regular season is in danger of being forgotten.
Fleury had enough experience to recover from a painful evening and faced his responsibilities to the journalists. “It was really embarrassing to give up seven times during a playoff game,” he said.
“You know I wanted to show up to give my club a chance to stay in the game and win. I didn’t do that. I conceded too many goals, he also complained. We had to open the game to get back on our feet and we missed more chances but basically I didn’t make the key saves.”
The veteran, who was weak at a few Stars goals, set his career-high goals in a playoff game: he lost seven times in a 5-8 loss of the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 If there’s anyone, If anyone can confirm this, it’s Stars’ pilot Peter DeBoer, who managed Flower with the Golden Knights of Vegas between 2019 and 2021.
“They were transparent in their talks, including to the media, mentioning that they would use their two goalkeepers. We were ready for a thing or two,” said the instructor, who also used to regularly visit two bouncers in Vegas, Robin Lehner and Fleury.
To hell with excuses!
Even if his teammates weren’t in the best of light, the Sorelois took the blame, he who was thwarted on the first shot in his direction; Roope Hintz beat him with a breakaway early in the game.
“It’s not the start I was hoping for,” said the man who hadn’t played for eight days. I don’t know when my last game was, but I need to sort this all out. I’ve been in this sport for quite a long time and had a good workout beforehand. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Evason refused to point a finger at his goalkeeper.
“We decided to go with him. The Stars got a shorthanded breakaway and scored three goals on the power play. What did you want from him? He made great saves for us, he stressed. We discussed the overtime hours granted. There were others, what… five that resulted in goals, total? We missed chances and they played very well, only we didn’t make the right gestures in front of our goalkeeper.