Agent For VGK’s Marc-Andre Fleury Removes Shocking, Drama-Creating Tweet Showing Image Of Fleury Being Stabbed In Back By Sword With DeBoer’s Name On it
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
A usual care-free, smiling and jovial Marc-Andre Fleury sat serious Sunday morning as he answered daunting questions about his agent posting a shocking and controversial tweet only a day earlier that showed a graphic of Fleury being stabbed in the back with a sword that had the name of Vegas Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer on it.
Fleury said his agent, Allan Walsh, has since removed the controversial tweet that had Las Vegas and much of the hockey world buzzing all day long Saturday on social media, through texts and via phone calls.
“I really appreciate his passion for the game that he has. I think maybe it was a way to defend me that situation for not playing much,” Fleury said to media Sunday morning. Here is the Fleury talk at 9:20 am today from the NHL playoff Bubble in Edmonton that lasted just shy of five minutes:
Fleury said he asked his long-time agent, Walsh, to remove the tweet — and that Walsh had complied.
What was unclear, though, was whether Fleury knew that Walsh was going to post the blunt image that had the clear message that Fleury was stabbed in the back by DeBoer and was upset that he lost his starting goaltender job to Robin Lehner. The VGK acquired Lehner, a former Chicago and Islanders goalie, in a three-team trade during the season and was installed as the starter by DeBoer during the NHL playoffs.
Fleury explained that Walsh has represented him for a long time and that he likes to protect his clients, who also include fellow Golden Knights player Max Pacioretty. Walsh is known for his expressive and colorful manner in representing his NHL clients.
But in this case, the tweet was especially shocking because Fleury was not known to publicly complain about his loss of playing time in Las Vegas.
During the media session, Fleury said he wants to move on from the controversial tweet.
Fans had strong reactions to the Fleury media session. Here’s two, for example, from Facebook and the third one from Twitter.
Fleury is an original Vegas Golden Knights player picked from the Pittsburgh Penguins roster in 2017 during the expansion team draft and is much beloved by the Las Vegas market. He’s known for his likable personality and practical joking ways, which made the image of the sword plunged into his back so shocking and jolting Saturday. Many fans said on social media that it was a bad distraction during the postseason.
Lehner, a much different personality than Fleury with a contrasting stay-at-home goalie style compared to the sometimes-acrobatic Fleury, started four of the five first-round games against the Chicago Blackhawks and was unbeaten as a Golden Knights goalie up until the Knights lost to Chicago, 2-1, in Game 4.
The Golden Knights start Round 2 in the NHL pandemic playoffs later today with a Game 1 start at 7:30 pm Las Vegas time when they play the Vancouver Canucks.
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