Eight consecutive games on the bench had Marc-Andre Fleury admittedly feeling nervous Saturday night before the 4-1 win at St. Louis, when he stopped 22 of 23 shots.
It hardly showed.
In fact, Fleury got into a nice groove and said not playing for three weeks forced him to do things a little differently.
“I simplified my game,” Fleury said. “Just tried to stop the first puck and go from there. Try to keep it simple, not do too much out there. Maybe that was a good thing. Don’t overthink stuff. Just go out and play.”
A free and easy Flower? Can’t be a bad thing, right?
Goaltending coach Mike Bales noticed the improvement in Fleury’s game Saturday.
“He was letting the game come to him instead of trying to go out and look for the big save,” Bales said. “He was a little bit more relaxed and patient in there.”
Bales denied that his role this season has become more of Fleury’s personal psychologist than tactician; there are always things he talks to Fleury and Matt Murray about, mental and physical.
Bales does, however, believe there was a bit of an adjustment for Fleury at practice, one that has not been subtle for someone used to starting 60-plus times a season.
“We’ve talked about that a little bit,” Bales said. “When you’re the starting goaltender and you’re playing a lot of games, sometimes you’re almost just trying to get through practices, trying to not waste too much energy and save it for the games.
“When you’re not playing, sometimes there’s a little bit of a different approach to practice. You have to go out and treat them a little bit more like games, where you’re pushing yourself really hard. Sometimes you just need a reminder about that.”
One of the main keys for any goaltender is composure in the net. This is especially true with Fleury. If he’s showing a little too much of his freakish athleticism, that could be a recipe for disaster. A little goes a long way.
“It’s something I’ve gotten better at over the years, but it’s still something I need to focus on,” Fleury said. “I can keep improving.
“Staying on your feet is not all about making a save standing up. It’s being on your feet as long as you can and reacting from there. If there’s a pass and you have to drop and move, you can get there. If there’s a shot, you can react.”
And brings us full circle to the overreacting, to trying to make “the big save,” to trying to win his job back in one night. The time off forced Fleury to think, and that wasn’t a bad thing at all.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: February 7, 2017, 5:00 a.m.