Marc-Andre Fleury was the face of the Golden Knights long before the Golden Knights had any faces. The two worst-kept secrets in hockey were that 1)the Penguins were prepared to hitch their wagon to the decade-younger Matt Murray and would not protect Fleury in the upcoming expansion draft, and 2)Vegas would select Fleury, the closest thing to a big name and a recognizable face that would be available in the draft, and an eminently serviceable goaltender. The key word being “serviceable.” Fleury, in his 14 years in Pittsburgh, was only very occasionally great, most often perfectly fine, and in the playoffs, as often as not, outright bad. Even in each of the last two runs, both of which ended with Stanley Cups, Fleury was benched for Murray. His time was up. Semiretirement in the desert with a bad and irrelevant expansion team awaited. At least he’d sell some jerseys, everyone figured. “It was time,” Fleury said way back in June, with an optimism I find it hard to believe that even he really felt. “I can share my experiences, my playoff experiences, with my teammates here. We can be good right away. We can win games right away.” And here we are. The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Western Conference Final, and Marc-Andre Fleury had the best season of his career and the best postseason of his life, at age 33. Every year some team goes deep in the playoffs with to a goalie standing on his head, but who would have ever thought, a year ago, that that’d be Fleury in Vegas? “It was maybe a little bit of a shock,” Fleury admitted Sunday night, after Vegas’s 3-0 win to eliminate the Sharks in six. It was his fourth shutout of the postseason, in 10 games. He has a playoff save percentage of .951 and a 1.53 GAA, both league highs. Those numbers follow on regular-season figures of .927 and 2.24 (third in the league and tied for tops in the league, respectively, among goalies with 30 starts). The Sharks hit iron four times last night, which, if you subscribe to the team-of-destiny theory, could serve as evidence that it was one of those games for Fleury, but he also racked up 28 saves, including withstanding a first period dominated by San Jose. To clarify a line from three paragraphs ago, the Golden Knights are not winning because Fleury is standing on his head. He is playing great and they are playing great, independently of each other (insomuch as teammates don’t feed off each other, which they do). On Sunday, the Vegas forecheck was utterly dominant, as usual, while the Golden Knights had just a single giveaway all game. “I thought we were the hardest working team in the league before this series,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said, and depending on how you want to read that, DeBoer is either implying that something about the Knights’ play neutralized San Jose’s effort, or he’s conceding that Vegas works harder. They’re going to need to keep it up and for everything to keep going right in the conference final, against either Winnipeg or Nashville, the survivor of which will be the clear best team left alive. But what do you know? Vegas won the season series against both teams. Nothing about this postseason has been a fluke, at least no more than an entire season can be a fluke. But it all comes back to Fleury, whose Penguins won it all only when he was either great, or they had a better option. I do not know why or how Fleury is peaking now, at this age, on this team, and he doesn’t seem to either. He’s sure enjoying it, though. “He played unbelievable,” said Knights forward James Neal of his once teammate in Pittsburgh and now Vegas. “His smile describes him best. You look in his mask and see all his teeth, that ear-to-ear smile. “He’s a great guy. You talk more about the person than the goalie, and he’s an unbelievable goalie. So athletic, battles for every puck. He deserves everything he gets. I’m proud of him. He’s awesome.”
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Sergio Aguero described Barcelona as the best club in the world as he completed his move from Manchester City.
After 10 years at City, Aguero passed a medical on Monday to seal his free transfer to Camp Nou, with the Argentina international to officially become a Barca player on July 1.
The striker became City s record scorer during his decade-long stint at the Etihad Stadium, but now he is set to be united with compatriot Lionel Messi in Spain.
The pair are close friends, and Aguero s satisfaction was obvious as he sealed his return to LaLiga, having previously played for Atletico Madrid.
We all know that Barca are the best club in the world, so I think I made a great decision to be here and I hope to help the team, Aguero said.
Of course it s …
AC Milan want to sign Nicolo Zaniolo from Galatasaray in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that Milan wanted to bring Zaniolo to San Siro in the January transfer window, but the defending Serie A champions could not agree on a deal with Italian rivals AS Roma.
Zaniolo moved to Turkish giants Galatasaray in the middle of the season, but Milan have not given up on signing the 23-year-old attacking midfielder. The report has claimed that the Rossoneri are aware of the €35 million release clause that the Italy international has in his contract, and that they could trigger it at the end of the season.
Milan are third in the Serie A table at the moment with 47 points from 24 matches, as many as 18 points behind leaders Napoli.
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Scott Parker said he is already discussing plans for next season, including recruitment, with Fulham s board despite his position as manager on a permanent basis not yet being confirmed.
The Cottagers picked up their first Premier League away win of 2018-19 after Aleksandar Mitrovic s second-half penalty earned them a 1-0 success over Bournemouth one week after they beat Everton 2-0 at home.
Back-to-back victories have strengthened caretaker boss Parker s chances of being handed the reins next season, despite the former midfielder having failed to prevent the club from being relegated to the Championship since taking charge of the team in February.
We need to build, we need to talk, and obviously we re doing that, Parker told Sky Sports.
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Market: Sutton win
Odds: 7/10 @
Hoping to make up some ground in the play-off chase on Tuesday night, Sutton will welcome Crawley to Gander Green Lane.
Starting with the hosts, while Sutton might have been disappointed to have only collected a 1-1 draw at home against Crewe over the weekend, Matt Gray s men should find the mood in their camp at a continued high. With their sights firmly set on securing a play-off spot in 2023, the U s are enjoying a seven-match unbeaten run and will be looking to make another statement on Tuesday night. Likewise, suffering just a single defeat in any of their last 13 straight matchups across all formats a run that stems all the way back to December 17th Sutton have also gained a reputation for their rugged displays at the back. …
Arsene Wenger heaped praise on Leicester City midfielder N Golo Kante as Arsenal continue to be linked with a move for the France international.
The 25-year-old reportedly has a £20million release clause in his contract and has been heavily linked with the Gunners, as well as Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain after starring in Leicester s shock Premier League title success.
Arsenal boss Wenger did little to dampen the speculation with a ringing endorsement of Kante s quality, describing him as a rare talent, with the player set to decide on his future once Euro 2016 is over.
I admire and like N Golo Kante a lot it gives you ideas, he told beIN Sports.
He gives you the feeling that the higher the level he plays at, the more at ease he is. We are talkin…
In what will go down as arguably the greatest achievement in sport, Leicester City have been crowned Premier League champions.
From 5000-1 outsiders after almost being relegated in 2014-15, Leicester remarkably sealed the title thanks to Chelsea s 2-2 draw at home to second-placed Tottenham on Monday.
Leicester seven points clear atop the table with two matches remaining upstaged cashed-up Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United to etch their names into footballing folklore.
And the plaudits followed late on Monday as past and present players, as well as clubs across the globe, joined in the celebrations with Claudio Ranieri s men.
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Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker says he is happy with his decision to move from Werder Bremen to the Emirates last year.
The German admitted he was forced to rush the massive decision due to Arsenal s last-minute approach, yet despite this Mertesacker said he is still very happy at his new club.
I m glad I made this step, he told reporters. It came pretty sudden and I had to decide quickly. I was looking forward to a lot of things that came true. It was very important to me that my family feels well, and that is the case.
Mertesacker will represent Germany at Euro 2012 and is hoping the side can use their recent matches with Group B rivals Portugal, in particular, to their advantage in Ukraine and Poland.
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Socceroos coach Holger Osieck praised his men following their 1-1 draw with Japan in Asian World Cup qualifying at Suncorp Stadium on Tuesday.
Australia were reduced to 10 men in the 55th minute of the match in Brisbane when Matt Milligan was controversially shown his second yellow card.
And their task became harder still when Atsuto Uchida put the visitors ahead 1-0 ten minutes later.
But the Socceroos held on to take a point after Luke Wilkshire converted a penalty in the 70th minute.
German Osieck, who took over as Socceroos coach in August 2010, was impressed with his team s resilience in fighting back to earn a draw.
What our team delivered tonight was unbelievable, he said.
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Peter Stoger was glad to see an end to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang s transfer saga and hopes Borussia Dortmund can narrow their focus to on-field matters.
Aubameyang completed his long-awaited move to Arsenal on deadline day, the Gunners parting with a club-record £56million for his services.
Dortmund replaced the Gabon international with the loan signing of Chelsea s Michy Batshuayi whom Stoger has suggested will go straight into the starting XI for Friday s trip to Cologne.
To complete the transfer triangle, Arsenal offloaded Olivier Giroud to Chelsea, but with the window now shut, Stoger hopes a good deal of the media furore will die down heading into the business end of 2017-18.
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DC United have completed the signing of right-back Oniel Fisher, who has been traded from Seattle Sounders.
The Washington DC outfit paid $50,000 in general allocation money to acquire the services of the Jamaica international.
The 26-year-old was allowed to leave after Kevin Leerdam had largely impressed in his maiden season with Sounders and he now gets a new chance to secure regular playing time.
The Jamaican, who also operated as left-back at times, amassed a total of 32 Major League Soccer appearances in three years with the senior side.
Fisher broke into the Jamaica national team set-up last year and went on to make four appearances at the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup held in United States.
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