On Sunday, one day after Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's agent Allan Wash tweeted an image of artwork depicting the three-time Stanley Cup champ getting stabbed in the back (quite literally) with a sword having the name "DeBoer" engraved on it, the netminder commented on the social media controversy.
The image seemed to indicate Walsh's disapproval of Robin Lehner taking over the starting job for Vegas — whose head coach is Peter DeBoer — in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Lehner has started in six of the Knights' eight postseason games after landing with Vegas ahead of the Feb. 24 trade deadline from Chicago.
The Golden Knights begin their second round series of the playoffs against the Vancouver Canucks Sunday night.
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Fleury addressed the tweet from his agent on a Zoom call Sunday with media ahead of Game 1 in the Canucks series.
"Regarding that picture that came up, Allan's been my agent for a long time," Fleury said. "I've known him since I was 15. We're always very close. We always talk about hockey or other things in life. He always protects and cares a lot about his players, and cares a lot about me also. I really appreciate his passion for the game. I think this was maybe a way to defend me in this situation. But I'm here to win with my team. To have success. That's what matters."
Fleury was asked twice if he knew Walsh was going to tweet the image, but didn't specify if that was accurate or not.
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"We've been talking, right? I love playing. I love being in the net. He's been on Twitter for a long time. He's just trying to protect me a bit," the goalie added.
Fleury signed a three-year, $21 million contract extension in July of 2018 with the Golden Knights that runs through 2022. He's 12-2-2 against Vancouver all time and hasn't lost to them since 2006.
Lehner is 5-1-0 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage in this year's postseason tournament.
"We have a good friendship and I think he's a very good goalie, also. No hard feelings," Fleury said regarding he and Lehner's relationship.