Dan Bylsma Says Marc Andre-Fleury is Pittsburgh Penguins “No. 1 Goalie”
By Josh Hill
After getting benched in the first round against the New York Islanders, there have been a lot of questions asked about the future of netminder Marc Andre-Fleury with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But embattled head coach Dan Bylsma gave Andre-Fleury a vote of confidence by saying he’s the No. 1 goalie for the Pens moving forward.
“Fleury is our No. 1 goalie and will be moving forward,” Bylsma told reporters, via ProHockeyTalk.com. “He is a guy who will come back to this team.”
The better question to ask is how much does this vote of confidence mean coming from Bylsma, who himself has his future with the Penguins in doubt. Bylsma is clearly still trying to carry himself like everything is business as usual because until he hears otherwise, that’s exactly what is going on.
But if Bylsma is fired, the questions about Andre-Fleury will again surface and even Bylsma’s vote of confidence isn’t enough to shake the thought that he might have lost it. Andre-Fleury was lit up by the Isles in and almost allowed for an early upset of the Pens. To make matter worse, when he came back into the action for Tomas Vokoun in Game 2 against the Boston Bruins, Andre-Fleury hardly did his part in stopping the offensive explosion in the 6-1 loss.
ProHockeyTalk.com ran a report that suggested Andre-Fluery could be bought out this offseason, and not a whole lot of people can blame them after the way he performed this postseason.
If you want easy and quick answers about what the Pens will do this offseason, you won’t get them. Bylsma is on the chopping block and Andre-Fleury might end up going down with him.
No one is happy about what happened in Pittsburgh and vote of confidence or not, Andre-Fleury is not going to be safe as the starter in Pittsburgh until he’s in that role to start next season and even then he’ll have a lot of confidence to gain back.