Labeling anyone who criticizes MM a 'Fleury fanboy' is such a pathetic argument. Liking MAF doesn't have anything to do with MM and his play. Not to mention the IE was not a big fan of MAF.
Maybe anyone who supports MM should be labeled a 'Murray fanboy' and their opinion should be ignored?
Eeeeeeexactly.
I've always been someone who bashes players on this board when they warrant it. Same thing for giving props when they deserve it.
I honestly never was the biggest MAF fan but I respected the hell out of him because no matter how bad things got he never complained, he never said the wrong thing. He always had a positive attitude and by all accounts was a massively positive influence in the locker room, which people overlook in competitive sports. I was fortunate enough to meet Marc Andre twice, briefly and he was extremely gracious and didn't mind chatting with a "nobody".
And yeah MAF had some very, very bad stretch runs, namely in the postseason. But one also has to remember the man has been in the NHL since he as a teenager which is nearly unheard of for goalies. His career is a massive sample size and he's still playing at a high level now. He joined a dumpster fire roster and within a few years was helping lead us to back to back Cup runs. The man has been around forever, and he's going to likely end up with the 3rd most wins in the history of the league when it's all said and done.
Yes, between 2010-13 he was awful. NOBODY worth a damn will ever deny that, but if you look at his overall playoff record outside of that 4 year window, he was well above average and was incredible in 2008, solid in 2009, playing back to back massively impressive efforts against a tremendous Red Wings squad in games 6 and 7. In those 2 games MAF saved 48 of 50 shots, including an all time great, Cup winning save with 2 seconds left against one of the greatest players of all time in Lidstrom.
The problem is I think this board has a lot of younger people who were only kids during those 2 runs and don't remember how damn good MAF was for the bulk of both runs, coming up with massive efforts in crucial situations.
We don't win in 2017 without MAF. That's a cold hard fact. His performance against Washington was elite. Goes into their building, game 7 and shuts them out?
The guy really was the first building block in the resurrection of the franchise. Yeah, he absolutely deserved a shit load of criticism at different periods, but he also had numerous important moments along the way. And at the end of the day, the biggest reason for failures between 2010-14 was Dan Bylsma and to a lesser extend Ray Shero. I'd certainly argue MAF was the worst player for much of that time but comparing those 2 clown ass names above to the current coach and GM is a fool's errand. Sullivan is 100x the coach Bylsma ever was and JR is in the HOF, largely because of what he did repairing the damages of his predecessors. And i say that as someone who had to eat crow on JR because I pretty much loathed the hire at the time.
And at the end of the day, I truly hope Murray figures it out. We're more likely to win another Cup if he does. Murray was a MAJOR reason for the back to back Cup wins. The last goalie to win the Cup with back to back shutouts was a legend named Terry Sawchuk for Detroit back in the early 50's. He'll always have a place in our hearts because of him stepping up as a young kid and playing well beyond his age.
But right now, he is trash. Plain and simple.
