The Wild traded Secret Santa gifts at practice last week, and whoever picked Marc-Andre Fleury decided the goaltender should receive a cane adorned in pink flowers.
“I plead the fifth,” Brandon Duhaime said when asked if he was behind the present.
After all, Duhaime had been the target of a recent string of practical jokes that screamed of Fleury’s handiwork. Twice in the same TV interview after the Wild’s win at Boston on Dec. 19 Duhaime praised Fleury’s performance at 50 years old (he’s 39), and a couple days later Duhaime’s dress shirt went missing.
When the team reconvened after the holidays, Duhaime was spotted in white boots instead of his normal footwear.
“They’re pretty comfortable actually,” Duhaime said. “Fit really nice.”
Fleury, a well-known prankster who switched former Penguins teammate Kris Letang’s home and away helmets just last month when the Wild were in Pittsburgh, denied his involvement when asked about the tricks against Duhaime — “Wasn’t me,” he said — but he embraced the cane schtick, even wielding it as a goalie stick during practice.
But the cane symbolized more than Fleury’s age; it also represented his experience.
On Sunday, the future Hall-of-Famer played his 1,000th NHL game, and his workload is likely to increase: With fellow netminder Filip Gustavsson injured, Fleury will chase another milestone as the Wild’s go-to goalie, the kind of role that led him to these rare feats.
“He’s ready for it,” coach John Hynes said. “He practices hard. He works hard, so looking forward to seeing what he can do here.”
Based on Fleury’s track record — recently, with the Wild overall and during his entire NHL career — the Wild’s crease is in good hands.
Although the Wild dropped Fleury’s 1,000th game to Winnipeg 3-2, the effort continued a streak of competitive starts by Fleury, who is 6-6-2.
Before that, he backstopped the Wild to their most impressive victory of the season at Boston (a 4-3 overtime thriller) and then completed the sweep in the rematch four days later.
Since arriving as a trade deadline pickup in 2022, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Quebec native is 39-24-6 in the Wild’s net to rank 550-321-93 through 20 years in the league also with Pittsburgh, Vegas and Chicago — a tenure that includes three Stanley Cups with the Penguins (2009, 2016 and 2017) after they drafted Fleury first overall in 2003. Fleury also earned a Vezina Trophy in 2021 when he was crowned the NHL’s top goalie.
“When you have a goalie like that, you have a chance to win every single night,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby told reporters last month. “He played 60-plus games for multiple years. It’s not easy to do. He’s been pretty consistent for his whole career.”
‘The best teammate’
Fleury’s next win will move him into a tie with Patrick Roy for the second-most victories of all-time and with another win after that, he’ll trail only Martin Brodeur (691).
But by suiting up for No. 1,000, Fleury already joined the two goalies he grew up watching in exclusive territory.
Fleury is only the fourth goaltender to log 1,000 games and the first to hit the benchmark since Roberto Luongo in 2018.
“It’s not so much about the 1,000 games,” Frederick Gaudreau said. “It’s about how he’s done it. He’s the best teammate I’ve ever had. Still having fun. He looks like he’s 20 years old, taking every practice, every game.
“He’s the best person, best teammate. I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to share a locker room with him for a few years already.”
The Wild plan to celebrate Fleury at a future date, but they recognized the achievement in real-time, too.
Players wore T-shirts honoring Fleury and when it was time for warmups, the team let Fleury have the ice to himself before skating after him — giving him the solo lap that goalies typically present to rookies ahead of their NHL debuts.
“They got me,” said Fleury, who’s in the final season of a two-year, $7 million contract and is waiting until after the season to decide if he’ll retire. “Usually, I’m the one that let the young guys go.”
Support from home
Signs acknowledging Fleury lined the boards during the pregame skate, including a few held up by Fleury’s children.
His family is who came to mind in a moment like this.
“My wife and [three] kids,” said Fleury, who also was serenaded with a standing ovation from the crowd during a break in the action. “My dad, who’s not here anymore. He was a big hockey fan. My sister, my mom, but those friends that helped me through my ups and downs throughout my career. I’ve met so many great people. I’ve played for a long time. So many great teammates, staff. … Tonight again so many people cheering for my time out there. I got some goosebumps and some butterflies.
“I don’t think no other job in the world can give you that.”
The attention isn’t going away.
Aside from needing only two wins to surpass Roy for second place, Fleury is atop the Wild’s depth chart while Gustavsson deals with a lower-body injury.
It’s unclear how long Gustavsson will be sidelined; Hynes expected to know more about Gustavsson and Kirill Kaprizov, who was also hurt Saturday at Winnipeg, on Tuesday when the Wild face against Calgary at Xcel Energy Center.
“I hope everything goes well and quickly for him,” Fleury said. “Gus is a huge part of our team and good buddy. I guess that’s why there’s two goalies. Things have been going better, I think, lately. I think the team’s been playing good, too.
“We just gotta keep building one day at a time, one practice, one game at a time.”
In Fleury’s case, those days and practices and games led to history, and the journey isn’t over.
“Just the way he carries himself, his attitude, coming to the rink to work every single day with a smile on his face and bringing energy to this room,” Letang said, “they’re pretty rare those guys that they see every single day as a new opportunity to get better and to enjoy playing hockey.”