LAS VEGAS — Marc-Andre Fleury admits he smiled watching Jonathan Quick.
While Fleury’s expansion Golden Knights were sweeping Quick’s Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Quick still made some brilliant saves. Fleury was standing 200 feet away, watching another multi-time Cup-winning goalie doing his thing.
“He’s fun to watch, very spectacular,” Fleury said at a media session after the Golden Knights moved on. “He does things I wish I could do.”
Fleury’s mindset is exclusively about next shot that comes his way. Always has been, always will be. While Quick stood on his head and showed why he’s one of the best goaltenders of this generation, Fleury calmly waited. The guy who won three Cups with the Penguins, the most recent last year, was his normal, composed self while he anticipated the action coming back his way. But Fleury has always been able to have fun in the moment.
All series, Fleury was key in continuing Vegas’ never-ending quest to destroy the NHL’s time-space continuum. No goalie who plays as well as Quick did — a .947 save percentage and allows seven goals in four games — should ever lose a series, let alone be swept. But Fleury was so good that he was able to smile about Quick’s dominance.
After all, Fleury was somehow better. He posted a .977 save percentage, stopping 127 of 130 shots. He recorded two shutouts and let up only three goals. He’ll lead the Knights into a second-round date with the Sharks this week.
Vegas’ run as a first-year expansion squad is one of hockey’s best stories ever, and Fleury’s been the quiet engine keeping them going.
How does it feel to have Fleury in goal?
“It’s calming. It is really calming,” Vegas forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said during the Kings series. “He’s been like this all season.”
On a roster with guys who have something to prove this season, Fleury might have the biggest chip on his shoulder. Before the Golden Knights were a twinkle in the eyes of the hockey gods, Fleury was a 24-year-old Stanley Cup-winning goalie for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. He was their goalie of the present and future.
But the next seven seasons didn’t result in such joy. Fleury flopped in playoff after playoff, and the Penguins stalled out after their ‘09 championship. When they won again in 2016, Fleury was the backup. Injury played a role in him losing his job to the younger Matt Murray.
Fleury has been an incredible comeback story on his own.
He showed glimpses in 2017, after Murray injured himself in warmups before Game 1 of a first-round series against the Blue Jackets. This time, at 32 years old, a more experienced and veteran Fleury guided the Penguins back to the Eastern Conference Finals. Fleury got benched after a four-goal disaster in the third period of Game 3 against the Senators, and he didn’t take the net again. But he went out on a high point when Pittsburgh won it all.
The lasting image of the Penguins winning Game 6 in Nashville remains Fleury, helmet off, being the last one to join the celebratory dog pile, knowing he once again was not the epicenter of Pittsburgh’s success. And with the Golden Knights on the horizon, he probably knew it would be the last time he’d wear a Penguins sweater after 13 seasons. Fleury handed the Cup off to Murray after he got it, and it felt like a changing of the guard.
At 33, he was having the best season of his career even before he paced the Knights to a first-round sweep. His regular-season .927 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average were both career bests. He’s somehow been better than he ever was in Pittsburgh, at the exact moment Vegas needed someone to be a cornerstone.
Fleury doesn’t talk like a man with a chip on his shoulder.
“I’m not out there to prove anything,” Fleury said.
“I just want to win games and contribute to the success of the team. If I help them, help the team get wins, that’s all that matters to me.”
So far, mission accomplished. Fleury is the heartbeat of Vegas’ dressing room. The Knights follow his lead. Something about the dynamic has brought out Fleury’s best.
“Marc-Andre Fleury is our star player and he’s great,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “He does it every night for us, and that’s why we’re here.”
At some point, Fleury might take deeper stock of his incredible year. But he’s busy right now, guiding a team that never should’ve been here to new heights.
“Maybe over the summer when everything’s done, I’ll look back and reflect on this season,” Fleury said. “We’re still in the mood of playing hockey.”