Marc-Andre Fleury, a 16-year playoff constant

The unbridled joy sometimes makes you forget the sheer constancy that is Marc-Andre Fleury.

The smile, the effervescence that lights up whatever arena he steps into, sometimes belies the magnitude of his Hall of Fame resume, the work that has gone into producing such a resume.

But the proof is there. In the record books. Fleury had already established a record for consecutive playoff appearances by an NHL goaltender last year with Vegas at 15. When he skates onto the ice for his first playoff game this spring for the Minnesota Wild, his 16^th straight playoff season, he’ll not only further distance himself from the rest of his goaltending peers but slide into a tie for eighth all-time for consecutive playoff appearances among any NHL player, ever.

We admitted during a recent conversation with Fleury that it is still a bit jarring looking at him in his distinctive Wild garb. Maybe a bit jarring for him, too, as it turns out.

“For most of my career I didn’t move too much, so it’s still new for me to be changing teams so often in the past year,” Fleury said during a recent off day as his Wild continued their seesaw battle with St. Louis for second place in the Central Division. “It is still weird. First game we played was against Vegas in Minny and I was looking at the Jumbotron and in my head I was still thinking I was with the Vegas side.”

Throughout our conversations, there are frequent chuckles and laughs. Of course, what else would you expect from a player who has always worn his joy for the game on his sleeve? Even when we bring up the game that started this improbable streak, his first NHL playoff game in Ottawa in April of 2007.

What does he remember of that moment?

“Not much actually. I don’t know,” Fleury said. “I just remember it was Ottawa. And I know we lost that series right? But I couldn’t tell you much about it. I just remember the atmosphere. How cool it was. Louder than it was during the season but I don’t remember the score or how the game (went) and all that.”

Does he want us to remind him?

“Uh, sure,” he said.

Crazy part is we were there covering that game. Not that we could remember the details, either. We had to look them up.

The emerging young Penguins, a surprise playoff team after collecting 105 points during the regular season, were in Ottawa for a first-round series matchup against a Senators team that was headed to the Stanley Cup final.

It was a hard lesson in NHL playoff life. Fleury gave up six goals and was yanked during the third period in favor of Jocelyn Thibault and the Penguins lost 6-3 en route to a five-game series defeat. It was the first playoff experience for that young batch of Penguins who would go on to become dynastic; Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Fleury.

“I tend to forget those performances,” Fleury said after he’d been given this brief history lesson, again with a laugh.

He did point out that the Penguins beat Ottawa the following season in the first round. Which is true. Of course, the 2007-08 season marked the first of back-to-back trips to the final for Fleury and the Penguins, the Penguins winning it all in ’09. Funny how those are much easier to remember.

Fleury would have a hand in two more Cup wins in Pittsburgh in 2015-16 and 2016-17 before becoming the first true star of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, helping them to an improbable berth in the 2017-18 Stanley Cup final.

Now he will be entering the playoff fray once more, this time as a member of the Wild, acquired by his old teammate Bill Guerin, who was part of the ’09 Cup-winning team in Pittsburgh before going into management with the Penguins and ultimately becoming the GM of the Wild.

Fleury still thinks of the quick-witted Guerin as a player more so than his boss. The fact that he’s still chirping guys in the Wild locker room when he passes through suggests Guerin is the same person at heart today he was as a player.

“Billy’s awesome. I was fortunate to play with him and obviously had a good a relationship with him. Definitely helps when you move somewhere and you know someone. It helps the transition to make it a little smoother,” Fleury said. “He was always very witty. It is a bit weird to have him as a boss but he’s a great guy.”

Also a pretty shrewd judge of goaltending talent as it turns out.

The Wild are on another heater as they head down the stretch and, as of Wednesday boasted the sixth-best points percentage in the NHL, second in the Western Conference only to Colorado.

Acquiring a top goaltender at the trade deadline rarely happens in part because the crapshoot that is adding key players of any kind late in the season is exacerbated by the fact goaltenders are different. Their acclimatization period to a new team is generally longer, sometimes taking an entire season.

Yet Fleury has fit seamlessly, as it turns out. He’s gone 6-1 with a .921 save percentage, and it’s fair to suggest he’s helped Cam Talbot back into a nice groove of his own, giving the Wild a formidable one-two punch between the pipes.

“Winning a few games always helps,” said Fleury, who added an impressive assist on the game-winning goal in a recent overtime win.

“I’m not sure the difference between me and (Nicolas) Deslauriers or (Jacob) Middleton that we got (at the deadline), a forward and a ‘D,’ exactly what goes through their mind,” Fleury said of the transition to a new team, new systems late in a season. “I think for me it’s mostly playing the puck around the net with the ‘D’ and guys’ habits around the net or especially on the penalty kill, what guys like to do, where they like to go. And you learn from that and then you get some consistency a bit in your game and they’re not always trying to find the puck. So it’s just little things. But I don’t have to worry about the forecheck or the neutral zone regroup. There (are) not many systems to be on top of.”

Has he memorized all the numbers of his teammates so he knows what to do with the puck?

“I don’t think I could tell you everybody’s number,” he said. “I’m not so sure. I think it’s just, you look at them and you get to know them fairly quickly that way for sure. You don’t need to know their number to know who’s coming though.”

It wasn’t long after the trade was announced that Wild jerseys showed up at the Fleury house. The kids are now eight, six and three and will be staying in Chicago until the end of the school year, although they’ve already made a visit to Minnesota where Fleury is ensconced in a hotel for the time being during their spring break. Fleury also made it home during an off day and there are regular video chats.

But this is all part and parcel with moving mid-season, which is something Fleury has never had to go through in his career.

There are lots of reasons Fleury’s arrival in Minnesota has upped the anticipation for the coming postseason inside the Wild organization and throughout a fan base that has seen its team advance beyond the second round just once in franchise history back in 2003.

There is his resume, of course. He ranks fourth in wins all-time in the playoffs. His 16 playoff shutouts are tied for third all-time. He’s played in the third-most post-season games all-time, 162.

But there is something less tangible that might be equally important and that’s his presence, the wisdom of his years. He approaches the playoffs pretty much the same as he always has but with the benefit of knowing what is ahead even, if what you know is that you can’t plan for everything that’s about to happen in a playoff series or a playoff year.

“I think obviously more experience right? Older. Maybe I know what to expect, how it’s going to look like, so I have an idea,” Fleury said. “But going into it I don’t think I change much. Just try to relax and get some sleep. I feel like you don’t just turn on a switch for the playoffs. It’s like, the work that you’ve put in for the past few weeks, for the seasons, for the past few years, I think all that is going to help you have success.”

What was true in Vegas – the cues that the Golden Knights took from Fleury – will be the same in Minnesota.

“I don’t know, but I’ll try my best to lead by example right? To help this,” Fleury said. “But you’ve got to stay even-keeled during the playoffs. Doesn’t matter what happens in a game. Or in the period.”

But something maybe more important is the idea that this is supposed to be fun, an experience, not some sort of torture.

“I think: remind them to enjoy,” Fleury explained. “After going to the final in ’08, winning in ’09, I was thinking, ‘It’s good, I’m going to do this all the time.’ But you don’t always have the opportunity. So I think you’ve got to make the most out of it every time you have a chance and enjoy it.”

He recalled earlier in his career how having some veterans come into the locker room to remind the team about that lesson was important. Guys like Guerin who arrived before the 2009 Cup win. Fleury is that player now in Minnesota as he was in Vegas before that.

“Along the way we get some veterans that remind us other teams are trying to win too,” he said with a chuckle. “Everybody has the same goal, you know? It’s not a given you’re going to get there all the time, and you’ve got to enjoy the process, enjoy the process of getting to the playoffs, playing in the playoffs, and not look too far ahead and just focus on the short-term and enjoy it while you can.

“I think playoffs is always a fun time of the season and every game it’s intense and the atmosphere in the buildings, it’s always buzzing, it’s always loud and stuff,” Fleury added. “I like our team. I like the way we look, the way we’ve been playing. Obviously there’s a lot of good teams in the playoffs and it’s never easy, but that’s why winning feels so good, right? Because it’s so hard and you end up winning games and it feels great.”

Fleury is 37 years old. He is coming to the end of his current contract.

Will the offseason mean another move? Or a new deal with his old pal Guerin?

He said this week he’s not thinking of retiring, that he’s enjoyed the game too much to think about retiring just yet.

Those are questions to be answered another day.

Still, Fleury admitted he does take stock occasionally on how this has all unfolded for him.

“Some days, some days I do,” he said. “I would say I feel very blessed and fortunate that I got to do what I love for so long. It’s not given to everybody right? I feel very fortunate to still do what I do and still have fun with the guys. I don’t think I would have done well in an office, so I’m very lucky to be able to play hockey for so long.”

His teammates and fans might say they share that very same feeling about Fleury.

______

POINTSBET IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

PointsBet Canada has officially launched in Ontario! Get a $25 free bet just for signing up right here!

______

Marc-Andre Fleury, a 16-year playoff constant

Recently by Scott Burnside