On the night of May 7, 2013, inside a small visitors locker room in old Nassau Coliseum, Marc-Andre Fleury sat alone. Reporters waited for the distraught goaltender to raise his head from his hands so that they could ask their questions. His answers, as it was written later that evening, came in whispers.
Fleury’s career, once on a soaring, acrobatic arc toward stardom, had careened into the shores of Long Island after another blown third-period lead, another playoff collapse. The Philadelphia series the year before had sounded the alarm that Fleury may have lost control of his unquestionable physical gifts, but the Penguins were not going to give up on their hand-picked franchise goalie who helped them win a Stanley Cup because of one string of ugly performances against their arch-rival.