Marc-Andre Fleury played 13 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins between 2003-17, and the three-time Stanley Cup champion was honored ahead of a 3-2 Minnesota Wild win against his former team at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday.
MAF made 34 saves in the victory — his first game action since sustaining an upper-body injury on Jan. 19 against the Florida Panthers — and was celebrated for reaching 1,000 NHL games, a feat that he accomplished in a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on New Year's Eve.
The 39-year-old shared a hilarious response to the pre-game ceremony after the win.
“I’m happy it’s over,” he said with a smile, according to NHL.com's Jessi Pierce.
“I was a little nervous for it. I feel like I’ve gotten softer and softer with the years and then seeing my kids on the ice and on the jumbotron talking too. Old teammates. I don’t know, it gets me. But I think it was early in game they got the power play just to move around a little bit. So that was good. Very grateful for the Wild organization and Penguins also for making this day so special for my family.”
Fleury's last dance in Pittsburgh?
This very well could be Fleury's final game against the team he won three championships with in 2009, 2016 and 2017. He's in the final season of a two-year, $7 million contract he signed with Minnesota in July of 2022, and is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
But while he's still between the pipes, the longtime netminder continues to play well even at his advanced age.
“Marc was great. A great evening,” explained Wild head coach John Hynes. “The way he performed. I told the team after the game, just his performance and his competitiveness was great to see. It was a big difference in the game. Then the way the players play in front of him. It’s fun to be involved in that and see how much he battles and how much he means to the team, and you can see his impact he has the group, how they battle and how bad they want to win for him.”
Whether or not Fleury ends up playing after this season, he's a surefire Hall of Famer and will probably go down as one of the most liked goaltenders of all time. But first, he'll look to help the Wild make a second-half postseason push.
“It’s just big challenge, right?” the veteran explained. “You know you have to battle. Maybe some crazy plays, so just battle through it and try to keep it out.”
As Marc-Andre Fleury has been doing for his entire legendary career.
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