Objectively speaking, the Minnesota Wild's final regular-season game against the Ducks Tuesday was a crucial one. They needed to gain a single standings point, by hook or by crook, to clinch one of the West's suddenly competitive wild card spots. The Blues won their game, clinching their own spot, and a regulation loss for the Wild would've left their fate in the hands of the pursuing Flames, who have one more game left. Subjectively speaking, it was even more important for everyone involved that the Wild lock down that point so that Marc-Andre Fleury could get a proper home send-off.
Fleury, 40 years old and playing his 21st and final season, has been on something of a farewell tour as Minnesota's backup. He's been honored in every city, and opponents have formed handshake lines just for him. He's a one-man NHL institution, the rare first-overall goaltender pick way back in 2003, and one of just two players left who played before the lockout. He's been a rock: second all-time in wins and games played. He won three Cups with the Penguins, though, for my money, his most impressive feat was having a career year at age 36 with Las Vegas, winning his first Vezina after most of his contemporaries had already hung up their pads. He's also (and this is a technical term) a good dude, beloved by teammates, fans, and media. He was never truly a dominant netminder, and I think that humanity only made him more endearing as he handled various goaltender controversies and benchings and one unceremonious Vegas eviction with nothing but equanimity. He easily could have retired then, but he still enjoyed playing hockey and so put in the work for a woeful Chicago team, and was rewarded with a third lease on life in Minnesota. The Twin Cities embraced him, as had all his previous homes, and it was as good a situation as any to go out on.
The problem is, the Wild needed to win this game, and when they need to win a game, Filip Gustavsson is going to be between the pipes. So it looked like Fleury was not going to get one last chance to don the mask, especially as Minnesota trailed Anaheim late. But with their net empty, the Wild and Joel Eriksson Ek broke through with 20.9 seconds left to clinch OT and a playoff berth.
With that drama settled, Fleury could get his denouement. Gustavsson went to head coach John Hynes and offered to cede the net to Fleury for overtime. Fleury wasn't expecting it. "Very surprised," Fleury said. "I’d been sitting there for a few hours. But it was good from Gus and Hynesy to let me go in. I’m happy I got to play just a little bit more at home."
With family and friends in attendance, Fleury skated out for the extra frame to the delight of the crowd, and immediately shut down a Ducks power play. He made five stops (he's got 27,188 now, if you're counting) and Matt Boldy scored with 18 seconds left. Rather than swarm Boldy, the victorious Wild skated right to Fleury, who had just picked up win No. 575, one of his shortest and sweetest.
Barring injury or meltdown, Gustavsson will be the guy every night in the playoffs, so this was likely it for Fleury. It couldn't have played out much better. "It was fun just to go one more time out there and play the game I love," Fleury said.
The Wild now turn their sights toward a first-round matchup with the Golden Knights, a tall order for any team, let alone one that had to scuffle its way into the playoffs after a hot start. ("Competitive stamina" was the euphemism Hynes coined to describe what was required in the team's second half of the season.) But a lot of those struggles came while Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov were injured, and now they're back and healthy. If they're 100 percent, and if Boldy keeps firing on all cylinders, and if Marco Rossi keeps developing and Mats Zuccarello keeps denying the aging process, the Wild have as much firepower as anyone. The "boring" allegations have been beaten. Let's see if they can shake the "first-round exit" ones as well.
