It was a pretty dismal trip out to Western Canada for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they come limping back to Western Pennsylvania with just one point out of a maximum of eight (their shootout loss against the Calgary Flames). It’s now five losses in a row for these flightless birds as they sit tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets (after Columbus’ win against the Oilers last night, not anymore) are second-worst in the Metropolitan Division (still better than the Flyers!). Now they get one more game against a playoff team (against whom they are 0-for-7) before they get two games against non-playoff teams. Tonight’s game also figures to be an emotional one, as Pittsburgh plays host to the Minnesota Wild and, for the last time, former Penguin Marc-Andre Fleury.

I understand that Fleury is a divisive goaltender, not just among Pittsburgh fans but in general: just look at his numbers as a Penguin versus in his brief but successful four-year stint with the Vegas Golden Knights. I think it’s important to remember that, during Fleury’s tenure in Pittsburgh, the Penguins were not a strong team when it came to shot prevention. As a matter of fact they were smack-dab in the middle of the NHL from 2005 to 2017, whereas Vegas allowed the third-fewest shots against in Fleury’s four years with them. It is little coincidence then that, after finishing no better than seventh in Vezina voting with Pittsburgh, Fleury finished in the top five three of his four years as a Golden Knight and won the award along with the Jennings for fewest goals allowed in 2020-21.

Consider too that the Penguins currently are a very bad team defensively, and in that light it’s hard to fault the goaltenders entirely for not standing on their heads all the time or even half the time. Indeed, most of his peers faced more shots against than Fleury and had better individual results (like Ryan Miller and Roberto Luongo) but because their teams were not very good offensively they were not piling up wins like Fleury.

Nevertheless, I look at Fleury’s time with the Penguins in perhaps a better light than most. Yes he was inconsistent and mercurial, but he managed to take most of it in stride and with professionalism. If Pittsburgh hadn’t been one of the better offensive teams in his tenure as their goaltender, things obviously would have been much worse; conversely if he had been one of the top five goalies in the League then it’s possible that the Penguins could have had more than just the three championships the franchise earned with him on their payroll.

But are we going to dismiss the fact that he was good enough to help this franchise win three Stanley Cups in thirteen years, more than any of his peers with better individual records and awards? Yes, Jonathan Quick and Corey Crawford have as many rings as Fleury, but they were also not Vezina winners themselves, they did not have to carry their teams because they had competent backups, and their teams were much stingier defensively. All this to say that Fleury might not have been considered one of the best goaltenders of his era, but he was exactly enough for Pittsburgh and I think he should eventually receive every honor the Penguins can bestow upon him when the time comes, including having his number 29 retired.

This season, the Penguins have been so inept defensively that they’ve gone to the extraordinary measure of keeping three goaltenders on their active roster (prior to heading out to Western Canada, anyway) in the hopes that one of them would go deus ex machina and bail the team out of their otherwise hopeless inability to minimize their opponents’ ability to produce offensively. Tristan Jarry was banished to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton dubiously on a conditioning loan but really it was to give Jarry an opportunity to see what playing in front of competent defenders feels like. Alex Nedeljkovic has played roughly as well as Jarry but because he’s paid almost half as much as Jarry it’s easier to forgive him for not performing up to a higher standard.

For those reasons, and because he’s on par with some of the better goalies in the NHL in terms of goals saved above expected, right now it is Joel Blomqvist who is the Penguins starter. Blomqvist has faced the fourth-most expected goals against in the League, but only Anaheim’s Lukas Dokstal has a higher goals saved above expected. Blomqvist isn’t in the “top ten goalie” conversation but, given that neither Jarry nor Nedeljkovic are either, he’s Pittsburgh’s best hope currently for helping keep them in games for now.

Ultimately, for any goalie is to succeed on any hockey team, let alone in Pittsburgh, the players in front of him are all going to have to do a better job. Right now the Penguins’ best defensive-defenseman is Ryan Graves, and that’s mainly because he’s sheltered on the third line. Otherwise you have Marcus Pettersson playing like a shell of himself and Matt Grzelcyk just trying to hang in there. And this doesn’t even talk about the forwards. All this to say that the Penguins were never this bad defensively with Marc-Andre Fleury in goal.