Fleury Stones Islanders; Pens Win 1-0

While Pittsburgh Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury has had a great deal of success in his young career so far and has been able to put together stretches of really good goaltending, the thing he's still growing into is long-term consistency.

I'm talking Martin Brodeur-type stuff here.

The last year or two in the tail of his career aside, one of the best things Brodeur always brought to the table year after year after year was strong play night-in and night-out.  Couple that with the many nights he was spectacular and it's no wonder why he's going to go down as one of the, if not the, greatest goaltender to ever play this game when he retires.

Fleury may just be starting to settle into that part of his career now, as he continued his remarkable 3 month run into the All-Star break by shuting out the New York Islanders last night, 1-0, at the CONSOL Energy Center.

Fleury stopped 29 Islander shots in the win, with several of them being good scoring chances.  And the Flower needed to come through that way last night, too, because Craig Adams scored the only Penguin goal against rookie New York goalie Kevin Poulin about 8 minutes into the third period -- and on a play that was the direct result of rookie Dustin Jeffrey cleanly winning an offensive-zone faceoff, to boot.

"He's been our backbone," head coach Dan Bylsma said of #29's play this year.

Of course, Fleury won't complain about the help he got from his posts on a few Islander shots last night, but the fact of the matter is that he has now put together a stretch where he's allowed no more than 2 goals in 22 of his last 30 games, and not more than 3 goals in a single game since October.

That's dependability, folks.  That's the type of goaltending that helps a franchise compete for Stanley Cups year in and year out.

Kudos to Fleury's teammates, too, who have done a great job without their Captain, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin the last few weeks. 

Without Sid, Pittsburgh has captured points in 6 of 9 games, and has won 5 of their last 6.  That's helped keep them competitve at the top of the Atlantic and league overall standings, which the Philadelphia Flyers continue to lead with 71 points and a 33-12-5 record.

Pittsburgh is 5 points back at 31-15-4.  The Tampa Bay Lightning have 67 points, while the Vancouver Canucks have 69.

Catching the Flyers isn't going to be easy.  They're playing great hockey, winning 10 of their last 12, and going 18-6 in their last 24 overall.  But expect Pittsburgh to be right in the mix down the stretch.

Now that we're at the All-Star break, it's a great time to pause and look ahead ---- to the trade deadline, which is Monday, February 28.

I'll have a more detailed look-see at how the Penguins might approach this year's deadline later this week.

Thanks for reading.