TWO MINUTES
for goaltender interference.
Interesting column last week from USA Today
hockey writer Kevin Allen, arguing that the small tremors of fan unrest
over the Penguins' rough start have rolled into shock-wave style debates
about whether Marc-Andre Fleury should be benched or traded or just plain
given up on because he's been inconsistent for the first quarter of the season.
Allen rightly argues that those tremors are premature, those shockwaves foolish,
and those debates utterly insane.
The whole column is worth a read -- it's an informed, intelligent, objective analysis, the kind in awfully short supply around these parts -- but the real hat trick, the collection of paragraphs in which he puts the sensible biscuit in the rhetorical basket, comes right here:
What's wrong with that debate is that it ignores the truth that the Penguins' plight is not entirely Fleury's fault, and that Fleury is only 22. Although he has played 150 NHL games, he is still the NHL's youngest starting goalie...
...The most interesting aspect of the Fleury debate is that it seems like everyone has forgotten that he won 40 games last season at age 21. It also seems like the hockey world has forgotten that Carolina's Cam Ward won the Stanley Cup two years ago, struggled mightily last season, and now is back performing effectively again.
If the Penguins did want to deal Fleury, there would be a long line of suitors, and it's entirely possibly they would feel the aftershocks of that trade for years to come.
There aren't nearly enough Kevin Allens populating our egregiously uninformed Penguin nation -- if I hear one more fan at Mellon Arena shout shoot! when the puck carrier has no shot or hit somebody! when the defender should be retreating or playing the puck, my head's gonna explode -- but the one thing that gives me solace is that the one person we need to think like Kevin Allen, Penguins GM Ray Shero, surely will. Shero's a smart guy. Smart enough, I'd say, that there's no way in hell he'll even consider giving up on Fleury anytime soon.
And anyone who thinks otherwise -- which is to say, anyone dumb enough to think that Fleury should be benched or traded or given anything other than a combination of more ice time, more coaching, and more encouragement -- should not be allowed to watch the Penguins on television, much less to attend one of their games in person, ever again.
The whole column is worth a read -- it's an informed, intelligent, objective analysis, the kind in awfully short supply around these parts -- but the real hat trick, the collection of paragraphs in which he puts the sensible biscuit in the rhetorical basket, comes right here:
What's wrong with that debate is that it ignores the truth that the Penguins' plight is not entirely Fleury's fault, and that Fleury is only 22. Although he has played 150 NHL games, he is still the NHL's youngest starting goalie...
...The most interesting aspect of the Fleury debate is that it seems like everyone has forgotten that he won 40 games last season at age 21. It also seems like the hockey world has forgotten that Carolina's Cam Ward won the Stanley Cup two years ago, struggled mightily last season, and now is back performing effectively again.
If the Penguins did want to deal Fleury, there would be a long line of suitors, and it's entirely possibly they would feel the aftershocks of that trade for years to come.
There aren't nearly enough Kevin Allens populating our egregiously uninformed Penguin nation -- if I hear one more fan at Mellon Arena shout shoot! when the puck carrier has no shot or hit somebody! when the defender should be retreating or playing the puck, my head's gonna explode -- but the one thing that gives me solace is that the one person we need to think like Kevin Allen, Penguins GM Ray Shero, surely will. Shero's a smart guy. Smart enough, I'd say, that there's no way in hell he'll even consider giving up on Fleury anytime soon.
And anyone who thinks otherwise -- which is to say, anyone dumb enough to think that Fleury should be benched or traded or given anything other than a combination of more ice time, more coaching, and more encouragement -- should not be allowed to watch the Penguins on television, much less to attend one of their games in person, ever again.
Posted: Tue - November 20, 2007 at 03:57 PM
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Published On: Nov 30, 2007 03:57 PM
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Published On: Nov 30, 2007 03:57 PM