On Monday, November 25th, Marc Andre Fleury won his 300th career NHL game. He also became the 3rd fastest goalie to win 300 games. Fleury has also been racking up the accolades as of late. In addition to winning 300 games, Fleury has also became the franchise leader in wins and shutouts. The narrative on Fleury recently has been "Oh he sucks in the playoffs" or "He let's in soft goals and can't handle the puck behind the net." Our response. 1. Who has been good for the Penguins in the playoffs since 2009? With a team that didn't play well in front of him and a coach that refused to make any adjustments it was basically counting on MAF to stop every single shot that came his way. If you think a goalie is going to stop every shot that comes his way each and every game, well:
That just isn't going to happen. And people want to go pinning playoff losses on him, including last years, is just asinine. You want to know why the Pens lost in the playoffs last season? An out dated, easy to defend system, and 3 goals in the final 3 games. That's why they lost. Not MAF. And in response to the soft goals and him misplaying the puck. It happens to everyone. Get over it. Go watch the 2 goals Henrik Lundqvist gave up in that crazy Pens/Rangers game. Those were soft. So if the people that say Fleury sucks because he lets in soft, then Henrik Lundqvist sucks too right? Lets take a look at some numbers here shall we.
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You might have to click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see. But if you don't want to do that don't worry. We are gonna go over them.
1) WINS. At the time of typing this Marc Andre Fleury has exactly 300 wins. That's good for 30th all time. Yes. You read that right. 30th all time. By the end of this season we could see Fleury jump all the way up to number 20. That may be a stretch because that's 33 wins and we are already a quarter of the way through the season. I don't think we'll be seeing Fleury in 60+ games this year. A more conceivable number where we could see Fleury end this season is number 22. Passing Seasn Burke at 324 wins.
2. GAA. This stat and the next one are stats that people like to throw around as the be all end all for goalie stats because wins apparently aren't important. Marc Andre Fleury has a careeer 2.60 goals against average. That isn't horrible in a league that is trying to generate more offense. Let't take a look at some of the goalies ahead of Marc Andre Fleruy on the career wins list that have a close or worse GAA compared to MAF.
- Mich Richter. 29th in career wins who MAF will tie with his next win. 2.89 GAA
- Olie Kolzig. 27th in wins at 303. 2.71 GAA
- Sean Burke. 22nd in wins at 324. 2.96 GAA
- Nikolai Khabibulin. 20th in wins at 330. 2.72 GAA
- Tom Barrasso. 16th in wins at 369. 3.24 GAA
- Mike Vernon. 12th in wins at 385. 2.98 GAA
- Curtis Joseph. 4th in wins at 454. 2.79 GAA
- Ed Belfour. 3rd in wins at 484. 2.50 GAA
- Patrick Roy. 2nd in wins at 551. 2.54 GAA
So the 2nd and 3rd goalie in career wins have a .06 and .10 better GAA respectively than MAF. Man MAF sucks, right?
3. Save Percentage. The final stat we are gonna look at which is another stat Fleury detractors like to throw around as the be all end all of goalie stats is Save Percentage. Marc Andre Fleury has a career .911 save percentage. That is very solid compared to the guys ahead of him on the career wins list. Which we are going to do. Again comparing similar or worse.
*Below. S% = Save Percentage for those of you too dumb to figure it out.
- Mich Richter. 29th in wins at 301. .904 S%
- Olie Kolzig. 27th in wins at 303. .906 S%
- Mikka Kiprusoff. 23rd in wins at 319. .912 S%
- Sean Burke. 22nd in wins at 324. .902 S%
- Nikolai Khabibulin. 20th in wins at 330. .907 S%
- Evgeni Nabokov. 18th in wins at 352. .912 S%
- Tom Barrasso. 16th in wins at 369. .892 S%
- Mike Vernon. 12th in wins at 385. .890 S%
- Chris Osgood. 10th in wins at 401. .905 S%
- Curtis Joseph. 4th in wins at 454. .906 S%
- Ed Belfour. 3rd in wins at 484. .906 S%
- Patrick Roy. 2nd in wins at 551. .910 S%
- Martin Brodeur. 1st in wins at 688. .912 S%
13 goalies out of the top 30 that have worse or similar S% than MAF, Almost half. That number might be greater but all 30 goalies don't have a S% stat. Same with GAA. We also looked at where MAF was at career wise in save percentage. He is currently 99th overall. That number is a little BS because there are some goalies that have played only 1 or 2 games. So we shrunk the number down to goalies that have only played more than 100 games. Fleury would be 40th all time.
So when you want to go on your "Fleury sucks!" high horse, check the numbers. Its all right in front of you.
And for the "Fleury sucks in the playoffs" narrative that gets thrown around constantly. 52 wins (17th overall). 2.68 GAA. And a .905 S%. Very similar numbers to his regular season.
So again. If you want to say Fleury sucks and his numbers aren't good. Again, we say. Check. The Numbers.
MAF looks to get win number 301 tonight against Toronto.
Go Pens
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