PITTSBURGH (TNS) – Neither Mathieu Garon nor Marc-Andre Fleury could sleep.
Next door from their downtown Detroit hotel room for the 2009 Stanley Cup final, a boisterous group of Red Wings fans were whooping it up. So much so that it kept the Penguins goaltending roommates from their afternoon nap.
With about 10 minutes to spare before the team bus would leave for Joe Louis Arena, Garon said Fleury filled their garbage can with water, leaned it against the noisemakers’ door, knocked, and the two took off in a mad dash.
“He said, ‘I’m going to get them back.’ ” Garon recalled by phone recently, unable to hide his laughter at the event now more than seven years ago.
The incident was one of probably hundreds or thousands of times that Fleury has made his teammates smile over the past 13-plus years, and that’s one of the reasons Fleury is arguably Pittsburgh’s most beloved sports superstar since Jerome Bettis.
But hockey is a ruthless business. Times change. Money matters. The Penguins are staring down an expansion draft for the NHL’s new Las Vegas franchise, and they likely don’t want to lose Matt Murray, their 22-year-old, Cup-winning goaltender.
Those who know Fleury best, his backups over the years, they’ve been watching the situation unfold, too. This story is about what they think, and it goes something like this:
Nobody has had a more likable or genuine teammate. Whether it’s here or elsewhere, they wish most for “Flower” to be happy. Fleury’s good-natured handling of this situation has proven why he’s so well-liked. And the legacy he’ll leave behind is one filled with plenty of laughter.
“It’s hard for me to think about – almost like Marty Brodeur – him in a different jersey,” Garon said. “If it happens, it’s going to be weird, but I wish the best for him. If he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, I hope he finishes his career there. If he wants to be a No. 1 somewhere else and play more, I hope it happens for him.
“Either way, what he left behind in Pittsburgh will be pretty amazing, the fact that he played there for so long. It’s sad in sports. You can be the best player or whatever, but you get older and there’s always young guys pushing you.
“Whatever happens to him, I know he’s going to be a fan favorite forever in Pittsburgh.”
The garbage can – “a leaner” Garon called it – is only the start of Fleury’s off-ice antics, the majority of which you can’t get anyone to divulge.
Jeff Zatkoff remembers that time in Philadelphia when Fleury switched the label on the deodorant and hairspray cans.
“I’m sitting there, and my armpits are all hard,” Zatkoff said. “I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what was going on.”
Garon still chuckles when remembering how Fleury would sneak stink bombs into Pascal Dupuis’ hotel room, drop one and leave.
Fleury said this lighter-than-usual approach was something passed down from his mother, France, as a way to combat the pressure of playing one of sports’ most pressure-packed positions.
“It’s always been a way for me to forget games, to move on.” Fleury said. “I’ve always had the attitude to come to the rink the next day with a smile.
“To play well, I think I do need to be more relaxed and having fun.”
Fleury has not played especially well this season. He’s 8-5-3 with a 3.42 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage, the latter two numbers Fleury’s worst since his first two NHL seasons.
Yet publicly – and probably privately, too – Fleury has not complained. He has been a mentor to Murray and has been anything but a distraction for the Penguins.
“I can tell you this, he was pulling for me to do well,” Tomas Vokoun said. “I’ve played with people, and I didn’t always think they were sincere. I know he was.
“It’s amazing how he deals with things. It’s a great quality to have as a human being. He’s great at separating what’s happening on the ice with what’s going on in the locker room and what’s going on when we leave the rink.
“He’s one of the best at it I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Jocelyn Thibault has a theory on Fleury.
“Marc-Andre Fleury’s like chocolate,” Thibault said. “Everybody likes chocolate. You can’t not like him.”
Actually, Fleury’s teammates don’t like him. They love him. One theory on why the Penguins have struggled so much when Fleury is in goal is because they’re simply trying too hard to make things better for him. It’s tough to argue.
As much as this group loves Fleury, they understand the business. And they’re not exactly going to cry a river for their friend, even though they might think about jumping in front of a moving vehicle for him.
“I don’t see any reason why anyone should feel sorry for him,” Vokoun said. “He’s had a great career, and he’s still a great goalie. He’s having some difficulties now, but every goaltender will go through it.”
The consensus opinion is that Fleury eventually will reclaim his status as a true No. 1 goaltender, the guy who was the Penguins’ best player in the early part of the 2015-16 season, an All-Star a season earlier and the owner of an NHL-best 20 shutouts between 2013-16.
“Marc-Andre Fleury is not a backup goaltender,” Johnson said.
Here and now, though, Fleury has been a backup more often than not. Best-case scenario, he’s sharing time while trying to navigate a preparation process that’s completely foreign to him.
Fleury’s backups wonder whether that’s palatable long term, for him or the team. Most of all, they want Fleury to again be happy, whatever that entails.
“I don’t know firsthand, but I’m sure that smile has been somewhat lacking in the last few weeks or so,” Johnson said. “That’s something that gets me. I don’t want that guy to be not smiling. I want that guy to be happy. If it’s not in Pittsburgh, it’s going to be somewhere else.
“That happiness you get talking to Flower every day believe me, it’s genuine.”
