Goalie Fleury finds redemption as Hawks win in 3-2 shootout over Pens
It's been a tough season for all of the Blackhawks, but perhaps no one is taking harder than goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Just last season, the 36-year-old allowed a career-best 1.98 goals per game and helped lead Vegas to the conference finals. Shock waves then reverberated across the NHL when GM Stan Bowman seemingly fleeced the Golden Knights by acquiring Fleury in a trade.
Suddenly the Hawks had a rock-solid, Stanley Cup-winning goalie in net. Yes, the defense remained suspect, but surely Fleury would mask the flaws and get the Hawks off to a red-hot start.
But that's not what happened as Fleury gave up 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the season opener, 4 goals in 11.5 minutes at Pittsburgh, 4 more in the home opener against the Islanders and a half-dozen to Detroit five nights later.
"Coming in obviously I wanted to help the team," Fleury said in late October. "I wanted to get some wins, you know? ... We all expected more."
Fleury brought the worst goals-against average (4.11) in the league into Tuesday night's game against Pittsburgh at the United Center.
And guess what?
He earned some sweet redemption against his former team by stopping 42 shots during a 3-2 shootout victory. Fleury also thwarted Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang in the shootout, while Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat both scored to give the Hawks (3-9-2) their second straight victory.
"He was great all night," said Seth Jones, who made it 2-0 late in the second period with his first goal of the season and saw nearly 31.5 minutes of ice time. "We talked about it before - we really wanted to hunker down for him and get the win for him."
Fleury was thrilled to make amends for his last start against the Penguins, which the Hawks lost 5-1.
"I was happy to get the nod and get a crack at them again," Fleury said. "It was frustrating last time and embarrassing to go back there and do so poor. Tonight went better and got a win."
Bryan Rust nearly won it for the Penguins (4-3-4) in regulation, but his shot sailed just over the net with five-tenths of a second remaining.
Jujhar Khaira scored the Hawks' other goal in regulation.
Jones scored on a shot from the slot after a long, dominating shift in the offensive zone.
"It feels nice," he said. "I've shot the puck a lot this year and it hasn't gone in. I just told myself, 'Keep shooting, keep shooting.' ... It was a great screen by Kirby (Dach) to take the goalie's eyes away."
Fleury had a difficult time remembering a more difficult start to a season during his 18-year career.
"Honestly, maybe my first season in the NHL - a long time ago," Fleury said of a 2003-04 Penguins squad that started 6-16-4 and went on to win just 23 games. "We had something like this."
The Hawks certainly have more talent than that team and there's still 68 games remaining. So who knows what's possible over the next 5½ months?
"Listen, it's two wins," said coach Derek King. "There's some cleaning up to do obviously. But at least the battle level's there, the accountability's there and you can see these guys are actually playing for each other."