Marc-Andre Fleury is not looking back.

But he is not ignoring his meltdowns and failures of the past two playoffs that had folks wondering whether he was finished as an elite goaltender.

Instead, he embraced them as he maintained a positive attitude and embraced a new goalie coach to turn around his career and rejoin the conversation of whether he might be on Team Canada.

“You’ve got to learn when you go through tough times,” said Fleury. “Tough times help prepare you for stuff, it makes you a better goalie.

“But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. It’s in the past. You just prepare for the next game and go from there.”

If you remember, the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie has been on a downward spiral the last two seasons, unable to stop a beach ball in the Pittsburgh net in the playoffs. He even lost his starting job to Tomas Vokoun.

It was quite the fall for the former first overall pick (2003) who was the third goalie for Team Canada in 2010 and projected to be this country’s next great goalie.

But with a nip here and a tuck there, Fleury was able to make some adjustments that his new goalie coach, Mike Bales, wanted.

“We’ve worked on a few technical things and different ideas on how to play certain situations, small adjustments I felt would help him,” said Bales. “Marc goes out and tries to practice and likes certain things and not other things.

“When he gets comfortable in practice, then he can use it in a game.”

Said Fleury: “It’s been good working with Mike (Bales). A fresh set of eyes. Little things we’ve worked on. My play has been pretty good. The guys have stuck to the game plan,” said a modest Fleury. “I was been looking forward to this season . . . I am happy, it’s been good.”

It is not like Bales is messing with Fleury’s style. Fleury will never be a classic butterfly goalie. He’s simply too athletic, too passionate about stopping the puck.

“It’s more a case of small adjustments like getting down low quicker as well as new strategies for seeing the puck through traffic,” said Bales, who played a handful of games for the Ottawa Senators in the mid-1990s but was mostly a European or minor league goalie. “A little bit about positional play, how to play certain situations down low. I can’t say exactly specifically what we’re doing. Little situations help make it easier to tread the game and how to play different plays.

“The one thing with Marc, he’s so physically gifted and talented that if you make physical adjustments he can apply them really well to his game At this level, the guys are the best in the world. They’ve been that way because they are able to make changes quickly.”

There were a lot of questions about Fleury at the beginning of the season. And worry for the Penguins. If he did not rebound, the Penguins could flounder, especially after losing Vokoun, out indefinitely with blood clots.

Fleury is at or near the top of most categories goalies care about: leading in wins (18), third in games started (28), and minutes played (1,640) seventh in goals-against average (2.01) and 15th in save percentage (.924).

“He’s played even better this year,” said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma. “He has improved his game and improved how he is in net.”

To Bylsma, it was a matter of pride for Fleury to bounce back.

“Marc is a guy who has won more hockey games in a regular season than any other player over the last number of years,” said Bylsma. “So what happened to our team and the goals against him, the save percentage, we saw that again this year in the playoffs, (Vokoun) went in, got the net and won us some hockey games.

“The motivation for Marc is right there. He is confident he’s going to win a lot of hockey games, it’s what he’s done.”

Does he belong on Canada’s Olympic team? Fleury won’t say yes or no, but he does want it.

“It’s an exciting time of year,” said Fleury. “It doesn’t come too often. The last time I was there, it was such a great experience. It’s still on my mind.”

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For Bales, there’s no doubt.

“Obviously, Marc is one of the best goalies in the NHL,” said Bales. “He’s playing great, goaltending at the elite level, playing well at the right time. In my opinion, should they (Team Canada) consider him?

“Absolutely.”