Marc-Andre Fleury’s farewell tour took an emotional turn Tuesday night playing his final game at PPG Paints Arena, the home of his first NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The 39-year-old, who announced last summer this 2024-25 season would be his last, capping off a 21-year, 1,000-plus game career, got the start for the Minnesota Wild, turning aside 26 of the 29 shots he faced to secure a 5-3 victory.
Penguins fans serenaded him with chants of “Fleury! Fleury! Fleury!” after the win, honouring the goaltender who helped the franchise win three Stanley Cups. His former teammates Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang took to the ice as “Flower” got his flowers, later getting a microphone and thanking the crowd himself
“I feel very fortunate. Thank you guys.” an emotional Fleury said to the crowd after hugging Crosby and Letang. “Those were some of the best years of my life, and I really appreciate it. It’s so hard to say bye, but thank you so much”
Fleury was named the first star of the game, throwing his stick over the boards to some lucky fans who sat across the Wild bench.
His storied career saw him spend 11 years with the Penguins, hoisting the aforementioned cups, while perenially being one of the top goaltenders in the game, despite never winning a Vezina Trophy during his tenure in Pittsburgh. His time there would end when the Vegas Golden Knights selected him in the 2017 expansion draft, sparking a resurgence in his career, culminating in his first Vezina Trophy.
That came after the 2020-21 season in which he posted a 26-10-0 record, a .928 save percentage and a stunning 1.98 goals against average. He had a 45-game cup of coffee with the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2021-22 season, before the Wild acquired him later that season.
Fleury sits second on the NHL’s all-time wins list with 563, and is fourth in games played for a goaltender, one behind tying Patrick Roy, and 17 away from securing second on that list, passing Roberto Luongo’s 1,044.
He could go down as the last goaltender to ever play over 1,000 games in their career, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli opined on Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Fleury may be the last of a dying breed of true workhorse goalies. He’s one of four to ever hit the 1,000-game mark, and let’s be honest, with the way workloads are handled now, he could be the last to ever hit 1,000 games.
Frank Seravalli: I said that last year when he did, there’s never going to be another goalie who hits 1,000 games ever again. First off, you’d have to start as an 18-year-old like Fleury did, then you’d have to play a ton of games for a really long time, and the math just works against anyone trying to achieve that.
I think he’s also really well positioned on the all-time wins list, and I don’t know anyone who will be catching him soon.

Injuries continue to mount for Avalanche

Whoever used a Monkey Paw to hex the Colorado Avalanche is getting their money’s worth, as yet another member of their top-six has fallen due to injury.
Already down the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin, Jonathan Drouin, and Miles Wood, one of the players who emerged in their wake, Ross Colton, has been placed on the injured reserve and he is expected to miss up to two months, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday.
Colton, who has racked up a team-leading eight goals and nine points through the Avalanche’s first 10 games of the season, blocked a shot in Monday’s 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, seen in a walking boot after the game. It’s forced Colorado into a more than uncomfortable spot, so much so that defenceman Oliver Kylington will be playing in the forward corps, Bednar revealed in a radio hit Wednesday.

Chychrun day-to-day for Caps

The Washington Capitals are in wait-and-see mode regarding defenceman Jakob Chychrun, who is being considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
It was sustained during Tuesday’s game against the New York Rangers early in the first period. The defenceman appeared to receive contact along the boards chasing a puck, leaving the game after just two shifts, Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell highlighted. It ended Chychrun’s night after just 1:50 of ice time in which he coughed up two giveaways, but had a takeaway.
Chychrun is poised to be one of the league’s top free agents next summer, currently in the final year of a six-year, $6.4-million contract. Eight games into his tenure with the Caps, he’s scored two goals and four points.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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