The numbers themselves mean nothing.
When Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury faces Anaheim in the regular-season opener Thursday at Consol Energy Center, it won’t matter that he made it through the preseason with a 1.13 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage.
Shutting out Detroit in his final exhibition won’t register in his career stats, either.
Still, having the kind of preseason Fleury has enjoyed — and capping it with a 60 unblemished minutes against the Red Wings — should infuse him with confidence going into a season that likely will chart the course the rest of his career will follow.
“He was solid,” center Sidney Crosby said after Fleury rejected 25 Detroit shots. “He definitely made some great saves throughout the game, especially early on. A great way for him to go into Game 1.”
Fleury has been the Penguins’ go-to goalie for the better part of a decade, but he is entering the final season of a seven-year contract. General manager Jim Rutherford declined to negotiate a new deal with him this summer, so what Fleury does between now and the end of the playoffs should determine where he will be working next season.
And how much he’ll be paid to do it.
Although his season almost certainly will play out against the backdrop of that storyline, Fleury said it won’t affect how he approaches his duties.
“I still have the same goals,” he said. “Win. Make the playoffs. Go to the final. Get a Cup.”
Whether the Penguins will have a lineup capable of seriously contending for a championship — and whether Fleury, who has had some highly publicized flameouts in previous playoffs, will give them the goaltending a Cup run requires — won’t be known for a while.
Still, Fleury’s quality work since the start of training camp has to be encouraging to the coaches and management.
“Marc’s had a solid preseason,” goaltending coach Mike Bales said. “He’s looked good in practice, and he’s obviously looked good in the games.”
A few hours before shutting out Detroit, Fleury cited dealing with traffic around the net, following the puck as it makes its way through a jumble of legs, sticks and skates as his biggest challenge early in the season.
“Trying to find the puck through people is something that I always find the toughest,” he said.
Didn’t seem to be a problem against the Red Wings, though. Fleury couldn’t have tracked the puck any better that night if he had X-ray vision.
There’s one issue over which he had no control, though.
The Penguins have eight days between the exhibition finale and regular-season opener, a break that doesn’t lend itself to sustaining momentum.
“In an ideal world, you’d probably want to play fairly quick,” Bales said, adding that “our practices will be up-tempo and as game-like as possible.”
Regardless, camp will end eventually. So, for that matter, will the 2014-15 season.
And with it, Fleury’s contract.
He has been in the organization since the Penguins traded up to get him with the No. 1 choice in the 2003 draft and acknowledged that, at least at this point, he has a hard time picturing himself in a different sweater.
“That would be weird,” Fleury said. “This team is the one that gave me my chance, and that I won a Cup with. I want to have another one.”
Dave Molinari: Dmolinari@Post-Gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG.
First Published: October 3, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
