Tag: Marc-André Fleury

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Fleury shares sad update on his future after being eliminated in Game 6.

NHL

The Minnesota Wild were eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention on Friday night, and although there will be plenty of discussion about how things went down in this series, we’ll table that discussion for another time. That’s because on Friday night, following the Wild’s elimination at the hands of the Dallas Stars, many fans were openly wondering about the future of veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury remains under contract with the Wild for the 2023-24 NHL season, having signed a two year deal with the Wild in the summer of 2022, but is coming off a rather underwhelming season by his standards. Fleury was just OK during the regular season with a 2.85 goals against average and a .908 save percentage, but even those underwhelming numbers fell off a cliff come the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Fleury recorded a brutal 7.00 goals against average and a .774 save percentage in his lone start in Game 2, and although he would appear once more in relief of Filip Gustavsson he finished the 2023 playoffs with a 5.48 goals against average and a .811 save percentage.

On Friday, following the conclusion of Game 6 and his team’s outster from the playoffs, Fleury appeared to admit that all of this had taken a toll on him when he openly spoke about the end of his career in the NHL.

“That might be it,” said Fleury of playing out the final year of his contract.

It’s not hard to see why such a poor season would take a toll on a proud Stanley Cup champion like Fleury, but hopefully a more successful campaign in the 2023-24 season will leave the usually jovial netminder feeling rejuvenated.

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Wild call up rookie goaltender after losing Game 4.

The Minnesota Wild suffered an ugly loss in Game 4 of their opening round series against the Dallas Stars, one that was marred by a major controversy in the final moments of the game. In spite of that though you would expect the Wild to shake off the loss and hopefully bounce back in Game 5, but it seems the loss may have been the catalyst for a big change on the backend for the Wild.

On Monday, the Wild announced that they had called up rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt to the main roster from the Iowa Wild. It isn’t unusual to see players known as ‘Black Aces’ added to the roster, but they usually come in several at a time and the lone addition of Wallstedt today has raised some eyebrows.

Despite that, Wild insider Mike Russo is reporting that Wallstedt is only being brought in as extra insurance for the team and will be the third goalie moving forward.

When the move was announced there was some minor concern that Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson may have tweaked something, but most of the speculation actually surrounded veteran Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury struggled mightily in the lone playoff appearance he has had thus far for the Wild this season, so much so that there was legitimate reason to believe that Wild head coach Dean Evason may have lost faith in the experienced netminder

Fleury recorded a brutal 7.00 goals against average and a .774 save percentage in that lone outing, so if it is indeed the case you could hardly blame Evason for wanting to keep his options open.

Wallstedt is a former first round pick of the Wild, selected 20th overall at the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, and has no NHL experience under his belt thus far. He recorded a 2.68 goals against average and a .908 save percentage over 28 games with the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League this season.

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Marc-Andre Fleury “pissed off” after terrible Game 2

The Score

The good news for perhaps the most popular teammate in the National Hockey League today is that he’s now appeared in his 17th straight postseason. The bad news was that it was a performance that he’ll want to forget about immediately. 

The Minnesota Wild decided to start veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes for last night’s Game 2 of their Round 1 playoff series against the Dallas Stars, giving Filip Gustavsson the night off and a chance to stay fresh for Game 3. And needless to say, it wasn’t his best outing.

By the time it was all said and done, seven pucks found their way past Fleury in what would eventually be a 7-3 loss, trying the series at 1-1 apiece after the Wild had stolen Game 1 in double overtime. And as he typically is, Fleury was his own worst critic afterward. 

“Embarrassing on my part, giving up seven goals like that in the playoffs,” Fleury said, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

I want to come in and give a chance to my team to stay in the game and win. That’s not what I did. I gave up too many goals. I think we had to open up to try to come back in the game, and we gave up more chances, but bottom line, I didn’t make any good, key saves in the game.”

Fleury would finish the night with 24 saves on 31 shots, and admitted to being angry at himself at not being able to repeat Gustavsson’s performance from Game 1. 

“He was tremendous, awesome that last game,” Fleury said of his teammate. “I just wanted to do my part and my job tonight … and I didn’t. That pissed me off.”

“Wish I could’ve stepped up, give him a break and give him a win to keep going.”

The Wild and Stars continue their series in Game 3 from Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday night. 

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Wild makes significant lineup changes minutes before puck drop!

NHL.com

Despite goalie Filip Gustavsson’s great performance in Game 1 of the first-round series against the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild has just announced that Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start for Game 2.

Team insider Michael Russo for The Athletic believes the change is due to Gustavsson playing double overtime on Monday and wanting to keep him fresh. 

On Monday night, the 24-year-old Swede stopped 51 of 53 shots, lifting the Wild to a 3-2 double-overtime road win in his NHL playoff debut.

Head coach Dean Evason has repeatedly indicated he thinks there’s a role for both netminders on this run and this is what he meant as he chose to start Flower for Game 2 just moments before the start.

On top of that, forward and overtime hero Ryan Hartman will not play tonight.

Minnesota leads the series 1-0 heading into Wednesday’s Game 2 in Dallas.

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Wild reveal starting goaltender and lineups for Game 1

Bally Sports North

The quest for the Stanley Cup officially begins tonight for the Minnesota Wild, who will be looking to advance past the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2015 when they took down the St. Louis Blues. 

They’ll be taking on a familiar rival in the Dallas Stars, who happen to feature former Wild mainstay Ryan Suter on the blue line. The series will be getting underway deep in the heart of Texas tonight at American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. 

And not surprisingly, it will be goaltender Filip Gustavsson who will be getting his first taste of playoff hockey. He was the first goaltender off the ice in this morning’s practice, the sure sign that he’ll be getting the nod in net. Meanwhile, it will be veteran Marc-Andre Fleury serving as backup.

It sounds as though they’ll be taking it game by game for who ultimately gets the start between the pipes, however. 

“I said it was an easy decision last year, because I thought — we thought — both goaltenders can play,” head coach Dean Evason said. “It’s the same situation. Both goaltenders have been absolutely fantastic for us this year. Fantastic. So the decision that we’re going to make is a difficult decision, but it’s an easy decision because they’re both extremely great goaltenders that the team has confidence in.

“We’ve used them both all season. There is no reason why we will not continue to do that. We’ll monitor game by game, as we always have.”

Gustavsson enjoyed a strong season in his first full year with the Wild since being traded for Cam Talbot this offseason, racking up a 22-9-7 record with a 2.10 goals against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts.

Meanwhile, here are tonight’s projected line combinations: 

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello 

Johansson-Gaudreau-Boldy

Foligno-Steel-Nyquist

Duhaime-Dewar-Reaves

Middleton-Spurgeon

Brodin-Dumba

Merrill-Faber

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Marc-Andre Fleury gets revenge on Filip Gustavsson.

Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune

The Minnesota Wild will be relying heavily on their strong goaltending tandem of Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury when the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs officially get underway, but if the two goaltenders are feeling any pressure they aren’t showing any outwards signs of it.

In fact, Fleury and Gustavsson appear to be in the middle of an all-out prank war as they head into the playoffs with Fleury being the latest to fire off a shot at his fellow teammate. On Saturday, the Wild players who hit the ice were greeted by a bizarre sight as a mock representation of Gustavsson had been erected in the net, and I’m sure you can guess who the man behind the prank was.

If you zoom in to the picture, I thought the face that I presume Fleury drew himself was particularly amusing.

It was of course notorious prankster Marc-Andre Fleury, but in this case it sounds like he may actually have been provoked by Gustavsson.

You see Fleury recently had his socks sewn together by a sneaky prankster, but the veteran goaltender had been left unaware of who had pulled off the stunt. That was at least until Gustavsson outed himself during a recent interview, something that no doubt led to Fleury’s act of revenge on Saturday.

In fact, Fleury specifically mentions that he usually doesn’t target his goaltending partners, but Gustavson’s own prank appears to have prompted a change to that rule.

“I never go for my partner,” said Fleury when learning of the prank. “But I’ve got to give it to him… He must be big-time.”

Not only is this hilarious from the perspective of fans on the outside looking in, but it is also likely doing wonders to keep things loose and jovial as the Wild gear up for a tough first round playoff matchup against the Dallas Stars.

We likely haven’t seen the last of this little prank feud between the two goaltenders either, and quite frankly I can’t wait to see how Gustavsson will respond to this latest stunt from Fleury.

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Marc-Andre Fleury uses Tinder to pull epic prank on teammate!

Bruce Kluckhohn / Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has made a name for himself as the best prankster in NHL history. So much so that Joe Smith of the Athletic wrote a full article on the net minder’s top pranks. While fans have heard about some of the beloved goalie’s best jokes, there is one that stands out in the article because it’s rarely been shared out to the public before.

And it’s epic.

Smith was told by some former players and coaches that Fleury played matchmaker by pulling a hilarious prank on one of the trainers using the Tinder app. Rich Tocchet then a Pittsburgh assistant coach and now in charge of the Vancouver Canucks’ bench, revealed how Fleury managed to get a hold of one of the trainers’ phone only to download Tinder and fake message a woman.

“Tocchet recalls Fleury’s fake message: “‘I’m (a trainer) for the Penguins, we won the Cup last year, if you want to come to the game,’ That was the long and short of it.

“(Fleury) got her front-row seats, club seats. He rolled out the red carpet for her. They were packing the bus up, and the girl was with the families in that section and waiting. So (the trainer) walks by her and has no clue. She’s like, ‘Do I give him a hug or say hi?’ He was like, ‘What is this girl doing?’ That was all Flower! But they ended up dating for a couple months, so the story turned out really good.”

Fleury revealed how he got a hold of the trainer’s phone during free time and was glad that the staff member got a date out of it.

The article recaps the best pranks by Flower, but this one, is quite hard to beat in my book.

On Wednesday, Fleury pulled another prank, because no birthday is safe with Flower: 

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