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Marc-André Fleury is 10-5 with a 2.82 goals-against average in 17 games this
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are two of the young stars for the Penguins who are helping the franchise become successful again after a decade of being weighed down by instability on and off the ice.
It is a nearly identical replica of Fleury — even a soul patch dots the doll’s chin — but it is hard to match the real-life effect of Fleury’s colorful gear or his sterling play.
“As soon as you walk in our dressing room, it’s the first thing you see,” Ed Johnston, the Penguins’ senior adviser and former coach, said of the bright pads. “With how he stops the puck, he can wear anything he wants.”
Fleury, who turns 22 on Tuesday, is part of a unique collection of young players setting a new winning trend for the Penguins after years of poor play on the ice and distractions away from it.
One season after the Penguins finished last in the Atlantic Division for the fourth consecutive time, they are 10-7-3 (2 points out of first place) with a roster of fledglings who have drawn comparisons to the
Edmonton Oilers when Wayne Gretzky and
Mark Messier were their young stars. Sidney Crosby, the 19-year-old center, does commercials in English and French, leads the N.H.L. All-Star fan balloting in the Eastern Conference and creates passing lanes in tight spaces.
Evgeni Malkin, a 20-year-old center, has 10 goals and 10 assists. A federal district court ruling last week allowed him to keep playing for the Penguins after his former team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, in southwestern Russia, initiated legal action against him, claiming it still had Malkin under contract.
Pittsburgh also has an 18-year-old center, Jordan Staal, a large, limber skater who stands 6 feet 4 inches.
“Some cities never get a superstar,” Johnston said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “We’ve got a couple of them.”
