Kovacevic: Fleury can't keep saving coach

WASHINGTON -- The Penguins are a deeply flawed team.

As I type this late Wednesday night, out on the street behind me, hundreds of their most passionate fans, some of them ex-pats, some of them nutcases with unlimited gas budgets, are singing in joyful unison on the steps of the nearby National Portrait Gallery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqg5TxvoRGg

This is now, of course, a tradition when the Penguins win here at Verizon Center, as they did by a 3-1 count over the Capitals. And this one, I dare say, deserved it.

Beau Bennett buried his own rebound early in the third period in his first game in two weeks after hurting his arm -- as only he could -- by celebrating a goal.

And yes, he lived to tell. Even joke.

"Kept my arms in tight for this one," Bennett cracked.



Sure did:



That came 24 seconds after Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov's fluky goal early in the third, one that, given all recent precedent, should have smashed the Penguins into pieces.

Not this time.

Less than two minutes later, Phil Kessel finished this soft feed from Evgeni Malkin, and it was 2-1:



Finally, with time ticking away, Nick Bonino flipped a 150-footer into the vacated Washington net, fittingly capping an evening in which some of the thickest contributions came from uncommon sources or within uncommon roles: Sidney Crosby, despite being held scoreless again, was 18-8 on faceoffs and was dispatched regularly on defensive-zone starts. Kevin Porter, who I really need to meet someday, was beyond sound at both ends. Matt Cullen, belying his age, was a whirlwind in killing off the Capitals' power plays. David Perron, maybe the nicest guy on the planet, took a merciless cheap shot on Washington tough guy Tom Wilson. And Ben Lovejoy, beleaguered for his many minuses in the past playoffs, shut down Alexander Ovechkin to the extreme that, on Ovechkin's last one-on-one rush up the left side, he finally stopped trying to beat Lovejoy and simply chipped and chased.

That's concession at the highest level, and be sure that several of the Penguins noticed and appreciated the moment.

"No. 12 played a very good game," Rob Scuderi remarked when I raised that.

That said, only one player was outright excellent. Again.

Which leads me right back to the whole deeply flawed thing. Because when examining these maddening Penguins through nine games, and even including this effort as their most inspired, their most complete, only two total truths now stand out:

1. Marc-Andre Fleury is "playing out of his mind right now."

Those weren't my words. They were those of Jeff Zatkoff, seated at the stall to the right of the Flower right after his 33-save showing. And Zatkoff couldn't have been more correct.

Forget the 1.90 goals-against average or .937 save percentage, though both are stupendous.

Forget that he's conceded all of eight goals in his past five games.

Consider nothing other than raw quality:



That might look routine. It isn't. I don't know how clearly this comes across here or even on a zillion-inch plasma, but I can tell you that whole play developed right in front of me and Ovechkin absolutely pulverized that puck, with a ticket punched for the top shelf.

That's man on man, the planet's predominant shooter vs. one of the planet's most elite goaltenders, with the latter winning decisively.

"Flower's amazing every night," Perron said. "I think he's the reason we had a chance, even tonight, if you look at all their shots in the second period."

That's fair. The Capitals outshot the Penguins, 14-4, in that period and easily could have pulled away. As could be spoken of so many of the other four victories in this borderline Bizarro 5-4 start.

"I'm feeling good," Fleury said with the trademark boyish smile. "I'm having fun, you know?"

I asked if he thought he'd saved any jobs in the past few days.

"Jobs?" he responded. "Well, maybe someday they'll save my job."

That's funny. He thought I meant players' jobs.

2. The players aren't trying to get Mike Johnston fired.

The Penguins are deeply flawed, if I haven't already mentioned that once or twice.

They don't score anywhere near their talent level. This game marked only the second time all season they put home even three, and this one needed an empty-netter.

Their power play is the NHL's worst, now 2 for 31 after overpassing their way through three man-advantages on this night, including 1:45 of a five-on-three that generated two whole shots.

Their defense, though much more in 200-foot harmony with the forwards in this game, has had shots-against totals of 37, 33, 36, 33, 35, 34 and now this one of 34.

But there's playing badly, there's having a head coach with few answers, and then there's the scenario in which the players are so disjointed, so disillusioned and maybe even so disconnected from the head coach that they're trying to get him fired.

That's not the case. And that's not any super-secret insider info, either. It was witnessed by 18,000-plus here, many more back home, and even more on the NBC national feed.

If the players wanted Johnston out, this was the time, this was the place.