Tuesday, 06 November 2012 13:14

Written by Dave Molinari

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made his first appearance of this fall in Pittsburgh today, but he won't necessarily be here very long.

Fleury said he returned to "come to my house, see the guys, skate with them" in informal workouts at Southpointe, but acknowledged that if the NHL lockout drags on, he might look for work in Europe.

"Hopefully, everything works well (with the collective bargaining agreement negotiations) this week and they have a good talk and everything settles down pretty quick," he said. "But if it's going to last longer, I might throw my name out there to see what's available."

Fleury recently participated in a series of charity games former teammate Max Talbot organizaed in Quebec, but pointed out there was only so much that kind of competition could do to keep an edge on his game.

"There was no hitting, pretty much no slapshots," he said. "It was more of an all-star type of game. 10-9 games and stuff like that, so it was kind of tough to play."

Even if the lockout ends in time for a portion of the 2012-13 season to be salvaged, it's unlikely that the abbreviated training camp that would be held will feature any exhibition games, and Fleury won't be happy about that.

"You know those exhibition games?" he said. "I think they're good. You can see more game(-type) action. Guys crashing the net ... you don't see that much in practice, guys in front of you, trying to battle around."