Agent for Vegas goalie Fleury raises questions with tweet

General manager Kelly McCrimmon said the team spoke with Fleury the day of the trade and with Lehner upon his arrival to ensure them of the arrangement.

“We did not feel that we had enough support behind Marc-Andre, so that was the motivation behind the deal,” McCrimmon said recently. “I think there’s a good relationship between both goaltenders and each is available for the same reason: to try to help us win.”

Fleury remains with the Western Conference top-seeded Golden Knights in the Edmonton bubble. Games 5 and 6 of this series, if necessary, are scheduled on back-to-back days and would lend themselves to splitting the duties in net.

That won’t happen for Vancouver, which has ridden Jacob Markstrom to seven wins in 10 games. The 30-year-old Swede has been among the best goalies in the playoffs with a .929 save percentage.

“He’s a great example of, one, how long it takes goaltenders to develop and how quickly people can give up on guys,” said DeBoer, who coached the Florida Panthers when they drafted Markstrom in 2008 and when he saw his first NHL action a few years later. “The fact that he’s persevered and turned himself into one of the best goaltenders in the world and how long it took for him to do that, I give a ton of credit to him because that path hasn’t been easy.”

BOSTON BRUINS VS. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING, Game 1 (8 p.m., NBCSN)

Bruce Cassidy figured his Boston Bruins would run into the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2019 playoffs with each team looking like a Stanley Cup contender. Columbus swept Tampa Bay in stunning fashion in the first round, delaying a rematch between the Atlantic Division’s perennially two best teams.

That’s a reality again now, in the second round two years after the Lightning eliminated the Bruins in five games.

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