Mark Madden's Hot Take: Marc-Andre Fleury's story keeps getting better ... just not in Pittsburgh

Marc-Andre Fleury got Vegas past Colorado in the NHL playoffs’ second round. The Golden Knights face Montreal next. Fleury goes home. He very likely will eliminate the Canadiens.

The story gets better and better.

Just not in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltending has gotten worse since the day Fleury went to Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft. But let’s place blame where it’s due.

It’s not on then-GM Jim Rutherford, who did what any GM would have done.

Rutherford kept the younger, cheaper goaltender who had just won his second straight Stanley Cup by posting shutouts vs. Nashville in the last two games of the 2017 final.

Most of the culpability falls on said younger, cheaper goaltender. Matt Murray’s decline started instantly and was reflected clearly by both stats and eye test. He got hurt a lot, too.

It was tough to ditch Fleury in 2017. It was easy to trade Murray to Ottawa in 2020.

Tristan Jarry must also be accountable. Perhaps Jarry is still salvageable. But this year’s playoff performance was horrific. He has yet to establish consistency.

Throw Mike Buckley into the mix. Buckley was appointed goaltending coach upon Fleury’s departure in 2017 because he had worked with Murray at the minor league level. Murray disintegrated on Buckley’s watch. Jarry imploded in this year’s playoffs. Murray and Jarry have developed similar flaws: too often beaten over the glove, too deep in the net.

Abstractly, coach Mike Sullivan absorbs some heat. Fleury stole the Penguins’ second-round series against Washington in ’17, then allowed just two goals in the first two games of the Eastern Conference final against Ottawa. But the second Fleury faltered in Game 3, Murray went back in and stayed in. Murray was Sullivan’s guy.

No complaints: The Penguins won the Stanley Cup. But what if Fleury keeps playing, and the Penguins win that Cup? That’s a likely scenario. Everything would be different now.

Fleury is missed because those since responsible for the Penguins’ netminding have soiled the blue paint. And if Fleury hadn’t since played so well, the topic would be less toxic.

Vegas is a good bet to get to the Stanley Cup Final. That would be Fleury’s sixth.

He has three Stanley Cups and could get a fourth. He’s third all-time in regular-season wins with 492. Fleury has the highest winning percentage (.557) of any goalie with 300 wins or more.

Fleury is already a lock to make the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Can Fleury yet be regarded as one of hockey’s top 10 goaltenders ever? Top five, even?

Perhaps he will be. That’s why Rutherford tried to get Fleury back before this season. That was a lot closer to happening than people know.