Give One Point to Fleury

Sorry this is so late, but I've got painters scurrying all over my house today, (why do they have to show up on Sunday, anyway?)


The Tower of Flower Power was just that, he was absolutely stunning in goal, stopping a regular season carreer high 47 of 49, in a gallant, but losing effort against the New Jersey Debbles. You couldn't ask more of a goaltender than to keep you in a game where you were outshot 49-15. It wasn't the defense's fault, there was just too damned much of it, you couldn't really ask more of a defense that seemed to spend the last 2/3 of the game in their own end. And what happens when you let that kind of thing go on long enough? Someone (Patrick Elias) throws a pass across the middle and it boinks off Gill, the human sequoia, and slips in the goal.

Satan scored on the first power play of the game, which should say nice things about both Satan's ability to score, and the power play, but after that the offense got a bit..... well... non-existant isn't too strong a word. The Pens seemed to be trying to out-Devil the Devils, but there was only one problem. This years incarnation of the infernal dwellers just isn't the same as in days of yore. In years past, you could nurse a one goal lead against NJ and be reasonably assured of a win, but this year's type seems to know how to shoot, and they like doing it. The only reason the score wasn't 30-something to 1 was MAF's stellar performance between the pipes. Just ask Sid: Without Marc, we don't even get a point," center Sidney Crosby said."We didn't deserve it. It's funny how it works that way. We didn't do what it takes to win that game."
or HC Therrien: "We didn't work," coach Michel Therrien said. "It's pretty simple."
Or the Cookie Monster: "He played unbelievable," Cooke said. "Made some huge saves. It's just unfortunate that we couldn't get the job done."
Pascal Dupuis: "If he's not there, it would [have been] a horrible game," winger Pascal Dupuis said. "They played a way better game than we did. You get beat, one on one all over the ice, you're not going to win many games."
Or even 'Uncle Daddy' Martin Brodeur: "It was like one of those games when I first came into the league, not a lot of shots and not a lot of goals," Brodeur said. "We got a lucky bounce, but we deserved it. He (Fleury) played well, it's too bad for him, but we'll definitely take this win."
All these nice comments aside, the Flower would have rather just chalked up a win: "It doesn't matter what I do, the main thing is to win the game," Fleury said. "We got a point tonight but two would have been better.
All in all it was a Playoff-worthy effort for a pre-season ready team...

I've said before, I'm not a play-by-play kind of guy, if you'd like a recap or just mentions of how well Flower played last night, this next part's for you. I've scoured the interwaves for articles on MAF, and here they are:
Articles: PPG, Trib-Review, PP.com, TSN, CBC, For absolutely, totally and world endingly complete coverage of the pre-game, game, outside the game, anywhere around the game, or just whatever he happens to think of, I recomend Seth &co. over at Empty Netters. Just about every kind of picture you'd ever want to see, including a rash of former player jerseys. I can only say, 'wow'.
I was going to add a Devil's blog in there, just to be fair, but the dude couldn't even get the GWG right. Imagine, a paid blogger on a night when your team won the game and he confuses the only two goals his team got.... I've never had a very high opinion of people in NJ, and this just shows ya'all why.