Penguins Recap: Fleury Sets Record, Atones for Playoffs in 3-1 Win
Not a bad way to get things started.
Marc-Andre Fleury had some real demons in that building leftover from last Spring’s postseason incineration. Ditto the defense. With Simon Despres in Zbynek Michalek’s old role and Brandon Sutter picking up Jordan Staal’s old defensive responsibilities, the Pens flipped the script on their playoff defeat and beat the Flyers on the back on solid goaltending and a perfect penalty kill.
The win was Fleury’s 227th career victory, giving him sole possession of the Penguins’ all-time mark for wins by a goaltender. He had been tied with Tom Barrasso.
Defensively, the Penguins atoned for the playoff loss. The new pairing of Orpik and Martin played well throughout the game, as did Letang and Niskanen. Despres held up well after being a surprise addition to the roster out of training camp.
The big takeaways were the special teams efforts. The power play struck twice on three chances (albeit once on a empty net) with goals from Kennedy (Paul Martin?) and Kunitz. The penalty kill was the big story, however, killing all five chances against after getting lashed for 12 goals on 23 opportunities last Spring.
James Neal also scored a goal on The Faceoff Play©.
Rangers in five minutes.
About the Author
James Conley is the owner of Slew Footers. A Pitt grad and freelance writer, James also contributes to the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Baseball News Source and SB Nation's Pensburgh.
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