Pittsburgh’s Biggest Fleury Fan, Cousin Maria: ‘If You Love Somebody, You’ll Follow Him All The Way ‘til The End. I Love The Flower’
By JOE CAPOZZI
LVSportsBiz.com
My friend Alan asked me to write a guest column about what it’s like being from Pittsburgh and watching former Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury lead the Vegas Golden Knights on their improbable inaugural season run through the Stanley Cup playoffs.
No such column could be written without consulting with The Flower’s biggest fan – my cousin Maria.
But I wasn’t sure she’d want to talk about it. After all, Maria Dennison, 68, has been a black-and-gold loyalist her entire life, proudly decorating the front of her suburban Pittsburgh house with all things Steelers, Pirates and especially Penguins.
She’s also known for spewing venom on her Facebook page when the puck doesn’t drop the Penguins’ way. (“Murray is costing us the game!!!” went one rant just before the rival Washington Capitals eliminated the Penguins from their quest for a three-peat.)
The day Marc-Andre Fleury was drafted back in June 2017.
When she picked up the phone Thursday, she sounded tired. I learned why when I mentioned Marc-Andre Fleury.
“I’ve been staying up until 1:15, 1:30 in the morning watching the magnificent Flower,’’ she said without cursing the three-hour time difference.
But isn’t it hard, I asked, even strange, watching your favorite player in another uniform, driving for a championship, while the hometown Penguins are driving golf balls?
“No, it’s not hard for me,’’ she said. “If you love somebody, you’ll follow him all the way ‘til the end. I love the Flower.’’
That’s saying something. After all, Cousin Maria has been a Penguins loyalist for 50 years – from Jean Pronovost and Syl Apps to Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby.
But for her, Marc-Andre Fleury will always be in a league of his own.
“I just like him and his personality. He’s always so upbeat,’’ she said, barely stopping to breath. “He’s such a wonderful guy. He did so much for the Pittsburgh community. Before he left for Vegas he and his wife and 2 kids worked on park in McKees Rocks. They cleaned it up, brought in new equipment. All on his own.
“And he’s such a jokester. If you follow him and read things, he goes on road trips with the team and he emptied out the hotel rooms of the rookies, their entire hotel room, and puts everything out in the hall.’’
She continues, with visions of Fleury’s epic saves in Game 3 Wednesday night still dancing in her head.
“Even the way he plays. Fleury gets down, he gets up, he’s on one side of the net, then the other. He’s just awesome. He moves so fast. That’s the reason the Penguins won back-to-back Cups: He played so well,’’ she said.
“I’ve been a Penguins fan since 1969, since the days of Les Binkley and Ken Schinkel. Nobody can compare to the Flower.’’
Before I can ask another question, she interjects: “And I would hope he would come back and finish out his years with the Penguins. Oh, that would be awesome.’’
I remind her that Matt Murray, the Penguins’ current net-minder, is a pretty good goalie, too.
“I know this is not nice to say,’’ she says, “but I’m not a real big Murray fan. He is not and never will be a Fleury.’’
As for the circumstances that led to The Flower’s emotional departure from Pittsburgh last summer, Cousin Maria has no patience for the economic algebra of the NHL expansion draft.
“I cried. I was so upset,’’ she said. “I called my friends: ‘I cannot believe they are doing this.’ I just wish they could have done something different.’’
I could hear Maria’s husband, Hughie, in the background and I imagined him rolling his eyes as she went on and on about The Flower. But then she shared a secret about the other man in her life: Because of Fleury, she has been a Las Vegas Golden Knights fan from Day One.
“Let me tell you this,’’ she continued, “if (the Penguins) were playing Vegas now, I was going to root for Fleury. Oh, I was hoping we’d both be in the finals for two reasons: One, so he’d get the satisfaction of playing in the finals against the team that let him go, and, two, so I could watch him beat (the Penguins).”
As if she sensed my reaction of disbelief over the phone, she added: “It sounds strange, I’m sure, but there are a lot of people I know who are rooting for him that are hoping he goes all the way.’’
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Fleury was in his typical upbeat, smiling mood Friday morning, hours before the Golden Knights host the Winnipeg Jets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at T-Mobile Arena. Fleury doesn’t talk with the media on game days, but he still gave a tap to an LVSportsBiz.com writer in the locker room and chatted with a sports writer from a local Pittsburgh newspaper.
Not only were Fleury’s circus saves on Jets scorer Mark Scheifele Wednesday the stuff of highlight reel material, he even tickled the ear of Jets forward Blake Wheeler during a scrum break near his net.
Fleury appears most relaxed and in a fun mood during games that have the most stakes.
“He calms us down,” Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore said. “He likes having fun.”
Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant told LVSportsBiz.com, “Nothing seems to bother him . . . He battles hard.”
Back in Pittsburgh, I decided to take another Pittsburgher’s Penguins pulse. I texted my sister Dee in Peters Township.
“It’s funny how all the Pens fans are still glued to the TV in bars and restaurants when the Golden Knights are playing. It’s almost like the Penguins are still in the series,’’ Dee replied.
“Fleury is beloved here. Everyone is rooting for him to win.’’
I checked one more reliable source, a childhood friend whose family has been Penguins loyalists since the franchise’s earliest and dreariest years.
“I would like nothing more than to see Fleury hoist the Cup another time with his Vegas teammates!’’ said Bob Zivkovich, an Erie resident who grew up with me in Pittsburgh’s South Hills suburb of Bethel Park.
“Make no mistake the Pens would have never hoisted as many Lord Stanley’s without his strong play. But another point I want to make about Marc Andre is his relationship to the Pittsburgh community. He is that rare athlete that hit it off with the city from the beginning. Part youth, part personality, he brought a sense of fun back to hockey in Pittsburgh.’’
Bob continued, “‘Pittsburghers know the stars of their professional sports teams, no doubt about it. But the ones they never forget are the ones that have forged a strong bond with the community.’’
Maybe Cousin Maria isn’t crazy, after all. Before she ended our conversation – she needed get going so she could take Aunt Theresa to Bingo Night – she shared a final thought.
“I have one or two old Fleury (Penguins) shirts and I keep thinking I’m going to go out and get a Vegas Knights one,’’ she said. “If they go to finals, I’ll hang it in the living room window.’’
A Fleury Golden Knights jersey in the window of a house in suburban Pittsburgh.
What would the neighbors think…
“My neighbors think I’m crazy anyway,’’ she said. “But that’s OK. Fleury is my man.’’
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(Pittsburgh native Joe Capozzi is a staff writer for The Palm Beach Post. Joe is a talented metro news and sports reporter who enjoys bicycling South Florida’s trails and taking inspiring nature photos that you can see on his social media. When the Vegas Golden Knights drafted Marc-Andre Fleury in the expansion draft, he sent his treasured box of Fleury Flakes cereal — sold in Pittsburgh in 2011 — to the home office of LVSportsBiz.com. He wonders if that act of charity jinxed the Penguins this year and sparked the Golden Knights’ playoff run.)
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