MONTREAL — “Fleury, Fleury, Fleury …”
In the final minute of a 30-save shutout two years ago in Montreal, with Marc-Andre Fleury about to become only the third goaltender in NHL history to reach the 500-win plateau, Canadiens fans serenaded the former Habs fan and Quebec native, despite the fact Fleury was wearing a visiting Chicago Blackhawks sweater.
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Montreal fans always understand the significance of a milestone and certainly of a moment.
It’ll be interesting to see and hear if the hockey lovers in Montreal give him a similar sendoff Tuesday night in what could be Fleury’s final start at Centre Bell, an arena 90 kilometers from where he grew up in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec.
The 38-year-old future Hall of Famer, who is in the final year of his contract with the Wild, said on the first day of training camp this year that he’ll decide after the season whether to hang up his chest protector and goalie mask for good.
He was consistent with that messaging after Monday’s practice in Centre Bell, but he and his family are certainly acting like this could be it. He has gotten more than two dozen tickets and passes for the game — “more than usual,” he said — for family and friends, including his mother, France, sister, Marylene, and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
“It’s going to be special for him, for sure. Maybe his last time in Montreal,” his sister, Marylene, told The Athletic. “It was important for him to invite family and friends and show them how grateful he is for all the support they gave him over the past 20 years.”
Fleury’s longtime agent Allan Walsh made sure to add that just because it could be his last start in Montreal doesn’t mean it will be.
“Marc-Andre made it crystal clear on the first day of training camp that decisions about his future will be made at the end of the season,” Walsh said. “He really does not want every game he plays on the road this season to be consumed in every city with ongoing speculation about his future. He loves to play, he wants to help the Wild win games. I know he prefers the narrative not to be about him. Knowing Marc-Andre the way I do, it would not surprise me for him to keep playing several more years.”
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Fleury rooted for the Canadiens as a kid. He didn’t go to a lot of games, but he said he still remembers how excited he was to see one of his heroes, Martin Brodeur, play at Centre Bell as a visitor. And he smiled as he recalled his late father, Andre, waking him up at age 8 to watch the final minutes of Patrick Roy and the Habs’ Game 5 win over the Los Angeles Kings in the 1993 Stanley Cup Final.
“I was old enough to understand,” Fleury said. “Good memories. … It’s always been a very special place for me to play in. Always been a big hockey fan, a big Canadien fan, so it’s always an honor playing in this building and the way the fans reacted (two seasons ago) when I was with Chicago, that was pretty amazing, too.”
Fleury was drafted No. 1 by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003. Three Stanley Cups, five All-Star Games and a Vezina and Jennings Trophy later, he is still humbled he gets to do this job as he enters his first start of his 21st NHL season.
But as much as that’s an honor for him, it’s maybe more so for his mom and sister.
Marylene is two years younger and is his biggest fan … and linemate in summer beer-league hockey. Marc-Andre said his sister is actually a better forward than he is, but in his defense, he said with a big laugh, “she plays all year round. I just play in goal.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of my brother,” Marylene said. “He never gives up. His dream was to play in the NHL, and now he’s been 20 seasons in the league. I still love watching him play and see him smiling after flashing the leather.”
Most importantly, she’s proud of the person he is, of the father he is to his three children, of the husband he is to Veronique LaRosee, the girl she once set him up with.
That’s right. Fleury was so smitten yet so nervous to ask the girl who lived down the road to go to a school dance when she was 14, his sister did so instead. They went to the dance, and then started dating in high school. They’ve been together for 21 years, 11 as husband and wife.
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“Veronique was on the same school bus as us,” Marylene recalled. “Marc was too shy to make a move, so I initiated the communication and told her about my brother’s feelings for her. I guess it was a good thing. They’re still together and have three wonderful kids.
“He’s loved and admired because he has respect for everyone, he takes care of others and he’s always positive. He’s a good person and it’s fun to be around him. I’m grateful to have a brother like him. He’s never changed and has stayed humble.”
Like most siblings, Fleury said he and his sister fought a lot as kids. But when he left at age 14 to play midget and then went to Cape Breton to play major junior a year later, the distance made them closer. They realized how much they missed each other. Today, he said, “she’s my greatest friend.”
“My favorite childhood memory is when we were playing street hockey with our friends,” Marylene said. “Every day after school before dinner, we were playing outside until my mom called us in. We also played a lot of hockey games in the basement.
“He was my big brother, so he had fun practicing wrestling moves on me. He never gave me a chance to win when we were playing together. But as my mom would tell you, he was a good kid, kind and polite. He was also a good student.”
Not only could this be Fleury’s final season, but it also could be special because of the milestones that are in reach.
He needs 15 games to become the fourth goaltender in NHL history to reach 1,000. He is 44 contests short of matching Patrick Roy for the third-most at 1,029.
He has played 57,046 minutes and 7 seconds and is within reach of the top three in NHL history and certainly the top four. He’s 110 minutes from passing Terry Sawchuk for fourth. He needs three shutouts to move into a tie with Ed Belfour (76) and Tony Esposito (76) for the 10th in league history.
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And with 544 regular-season wins, he’s eight from passing Roy for the second-most all-time.
Sixty-four of those have come in a shootout, the most in NHL history.
Roy and Brodeur were the goalies Fleury idolized as a kid, and he’s proud that he has game-used goalie masks of each in his home.
Wild general manager Bill Guerin is cognizant of the fact that the team needs to give Fleury enough action this season to reach some of these milestones.
“We have to be mindful of that,” Guerin said. “It’s important. If we’re not mindful of that, we’re not respecting the player. You’ve got to respect what a player’s done and pay attention. Patrick Roy’s one of the greatest of all time, so what does that say about Flower? It’s amazing what he’s been able to accomplish. His career is a lot to celebrate. People love him here.”
Fleury is still as competitive as ever. Just look at his last start of the preseason, a shootout win in Chicago in which he went 3-for-3 but tripped Connor Bedard, helped guide Taylor Hall into the end wall and fired a puck at Lukas Reichel after clinching the Wild win.
Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury tonight in the shootout stopping Bedard and Taylor Hall. 🌸🌸🌸 pic.twitter.com/BHXaroc4ND
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) October 6, 2023
Some thought it was funny. Blackhawks fans? Not as much.
Last week, Fleury took The Athletic through what he was thinking.
“First of all, my sister kept telling me about good (Bedard) was, so I knew I had to bear down,” Fleury said. “I was happy to stop him. But then I thought the play was over and he tried to bring it back to shoot, so I had to tell him, ‘That’s enough,’ and I got a little piece of him. Hall skated into me and I stood my ground. And (Reichel), he shot at me on a rebound. I had to remind him there’s no rebounds in a shootout.
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“I have fun still and I want to win, and it’s fun when you win.”
That’s what Fleury is hoping for Tuesday night in what could be his last game in front of fans he cherishes. It’ll be a weird lineup to backstop, with Jared Spurgeon still sidelined by an upper-body injury and now Matt Boldy out week to week with an upper-body injury.
GO DEEPER
Wild's Boldy week to week with upper-body injury
The Wild will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, double-shifting Kirill Kaprizov and filtering other forwards and maybe a defenseman or two at winger on the Marcus Johansson-Joel Eriksson Ek line. The blue line was so lousy in Saturday’s 7-4 loss in Toronto, coach Dean Evason shuffled the deck in Monday’s practice, taking his two best defensemen — Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber — and putting them on separate pairs to make it: Brodin-Calen Addison, Jake Middleton-Faber and Jon Merrill–Alex Goligoski with minor-leaguer Dakota Mermis working in.
Fleury is 26-13-6 in his career against the Canadiens with a 2.93 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage. He’s 11-6-3 in Montreal with a 2.70 GAA, .910 save percentage and two shutouts in 20 starts. He stopped 26 of 27 shots in his lone start in Montreal as a member of the Wild almost exactly a year ago.
Fleury said his mom gets very nervous coming to games. Same with his sister, but, “I love them here because they care about me doing well.”
“Got to get the win,” Fleury added. “Got to get the two points and that’s what matters. And hopefully you can put on a good show for them.”