I don't know if anyone read the Penguins report yesterday but a couple of questions were asked to Dan Bylsma about Marc-Andre Fleury. Here's my translation:
On hoping to get Marc-Andre Fleury a string of wins:
I don’t think there’s a lot of hoping in the direction that we’re taking. He’s got to get better, but he’s got to get to his game. It comes from practice and focus and it comes from our team and our attitude when we play the game. I think our team feels that way as well. We got behind the last two games and we had to fight to come back and we got the win in Phoenix. But that doesn’t mean we’re where we need to be. We need to look at this next stretch of games here, these three games coming up in four nights where we have a chance to put some wins together.
Translation: I'm gonna ride Brent Johnson until the wheels fall off. We win when Johnny plays but can't when Fleury does, can anyone explain why? I can, they don't really trust him. They'll say they do to his face, but they don't. And as for this upcoming stretch, I plan on playing Johnny all three games.
On Marc-Andre Fleury’s game:
I think that what type of goalie we have and the quality and the effort that he’s putting in is he’s working really hard on his game, but going out with the mindset and sticking to his game and his foundation when he’s out there is a big thing for Marc. Even in practice, he’s got to confident in the mindset that his ability and what he does as a goaltender is going to get him through this.
Translation: Fleury's confidence is pretty much shot and it shows.
On how Fleury can find confidence:
The conversation about what confidence is is a long one. Does he understand confidence? Well, he understands that he doesn’t have it right now. But it’s a long conversation about what confidence is.
Translation: This one is not code for anything, this is very straight forward.
You can tell that HCDB is not at all happy with MAF's performance in this young season. He's frustrated and he's believes the team is frustrated. But Sid seems to have a different opinion:
On Marc-Andre Fleury:
I think he’s dealing with (problems) okay. It’s not easy. It’s going to be tough. But to sit here and say that he’s not frustrated – he probably is. I have times where I don’t score and I’m going to be frustrated to. But unfortunately for a goalie, the goalie’s always the center of attention more than anyone, so there’s always a lot of pressure that comes with that. And he’s more than capable to deal with it. He’s mentally strong. But you have to be patient to. He’s going to have good games, and it’s not like he can change it overnight. I’m sure he wants it more than anyone and he’ll do whatever it takes.
Translation: If you think MAF isn't frustrated you're an idiot. His problems are magnified because he's the goalie and goaltender is the most important position in hockey. He can deal with it but leave him alone. He wants to play and I think he should be playing more. He's being paid $5000000 to be our starter, Johnny's being paid $600000 to be our back up. Do the math. Fleury should be playing, he'll snap out of it and when he does, you'll all be sorry for doubting him.
I side more with Sid on this. We've seen how he can play when he's on top of his game. So let's ride him. Yeah, we might lose more but this will get Fleury some confidence. He can't have confidence in himself whenever his coach doesn't have confidence in him. Start him all three games this week. That will benefit us more than trying to ride Johnny to the playoffs.
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