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  • Will Fleury Get In A Goalie Fight Before Retiring?

    Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
    Mikki Tuohy

    By Mikki Tuohy -

     

    Last season, Marc-Andre Fleury almost got the NHL goalie fight he’s been itching for. When the Minnesota Wild played the St. Louis Blues on March 15, 2023, Fleury was within sniffing distance of his first fight since junior hockey. Unfortunately for Fleury and the fans, the refs quickly stopped the potential goalie fight. 

     

    Will Fleury ever get his NHL goalie fight before he retires? I can think of at least one fan who would love to see it.

    Fleury is no stranger to goalie fights. He was involved in two of them while he played for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL. Both of his fights even came during the same season, but after breaking a knuckle and missing six weeks of hockey time, he’s been a bit more cautious about who and when to fight.

     

    When Fleury played for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014, he had a run-in with Montreal Canadiens goalie Peter Budaj. When a fight erupted in Fleury’s crease that soon turned into a full-on scrum, Fleury and Budaj started yelling at each other. When Budaj skated to the blue line and started taking off his gear, Fleury obliged. Unfortunately, Fleury had barely shed any gear when a ref caught up to him and stopped the fight before it could start.

    In 2023, Fleury was close to a fight with San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer just four days before what could’ve been the goalie match of the century against Jordan Binnington. In this instance, though, there wasn’t enough of an inciting incident to push Fleury into a full-blown fight. After Evgeny Svechnikov stopped deep in Fleury’s crease and Marcus Foligno sent him a physical message, Reimer came out to the blue line. However, Fleury declined to fight. It wasn’t an egregious enough offense.

    Only four days later, though, Binnington lit the powder keg in Fleury. Known for toeing the line because of his short fuse, Binnington was upset when Ryan Hartman tripped over his pad while on his way to celebrate a goal. Binnington was already on edge because he’d just let a fifth goal in, so he skated to the celebrating group of Wild players and hit Hartman in the face with his blocker.

     

    As the remaining Blues players jumped in and help their goalie, a ref managed to drag Binnington out of the scrum. At the same time, however, Fleury was already skating at full speed down the ice. He dropped his gloves and gently set his helmet on the ice as he approached. All the other hockey players on the ice stopped to watch, unable to take their eyes off such a rare event. Fleury, who happened to have a microphone on during this game, was encouraging Binnington to come at him.

    Trying his best to evade the other ref who came to try and restrain him, Fleury danced around the ice, trying his hardest to grab onto Binnington and get him away from the official dragging him around the ice. That was the best chance Fleury’s ever had of a goalie fight. Unfortunately for both Fleury and all of the fans, the officials put their foot down and separated the goalies. As the refs escorted Binnington off the ice, a heavy round of booing followed the officials who were still straightening out the mess on the ice. Fleury even tried to convince the referee that a goalie fight “would be fun” and would “get the crowd going a bit.”

     

    The real question was, if a goalie fight is something both goalies want and fans want to see, why was there such an effort to quash it? While fighting is discouraged, it is still legal. Eliotte Friedman said, “If you watch fighting now in the NHL, once a player loses a helmet, the linesmen really make moves to get in there.” While that is supposed to be the rule, there are plenty of fights where the helmets come off, and the officials don’t step in. 

    Friedman made one more point, which was interesting from a Wild standpoint. “I think that Fleury was injured in junior in a fight before,” he said, “and I think there has been real worry about what would happen if Fleury got hurt in a fight and Minnesota lost him for the playoffs.” There is the benefit of hindsight now, knowing how the playoff goalie situation went. But even more interesting is this subtle idea that Fleury isn’t concerned for his well-being despite his previous injury. 

    The officials should trust Fleury with his judgment in this situation. He’s been injured in a fight before and understands the ramifications. He also has turned down previous fights or been slow to answer the bell as he assessed the situation didn’t warrant a fight. 

    This time was different. While Fleury can get physical and will retaliate if someone (like Svechnikov in the video above) gets too close, he doesn’t have a temper like someone like Binnington does. If he’s decided to fight, it isn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. Just like other aspects of his job tending the net, Fleury has taken in the information of the moment and made a quick but informed decision on what he needs to do next.

    One other point of speculation would be that Fleury was the problem. He’s a legendary goalie and future Hall-of-Famer. Could his status as a generational goalie be a subconscious part of the officials’ decision? Would the fight still be stopped if he’d been lower on the “best goalies of all time” list? We’ll never know.

    Fleury has entered the 2023-24 season on the last year of his contract. At age 38, his future is uncertain. Retirement could come as soon as the end of this season. Will Fleury ever get a chance for an NHL fight? If he wants one, then hopefully, he’ll get his chance.

     

    By Mikki Tuohy  

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    vonlonster67
    4 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    Evason is going to coach the team in front of him, he doesn't set the roster. If Sammy Walker is playing far better than Rossi, Johansson, or Zuccarello, I'm sure he would be ecstatic to have him on the roster.

    Evason isn't going to be excited to play someone who is inferior just to get them experience. Players can develop outside of the NHL. Kaprizov came in NHL ready. Boldy didn't spend much time in the AHL.

    There are a lot of teams that will let young players struggle and try to figure it out at the NHL level. The Wild GM and coach both believe in developing players at lower levels so that they are more NHL ready when they arrive than many other teams. As much as it would be interesting to see the young players, they'll get more ice time in the AHL, and can develop there too, possibly more so than they would getting 12 minutes per night in the NHL.

    The owner and GM don't want to play losing hockey. The coach and Wild players are on board with playing winning hockey. Fans don't always agree with it though.

    The roster may be set by the group BG put together, but DE has to plug n play, react, adapt, reset, restructure, tear down, build up, develop.....TIMELY!

    Is he really doing that? Is he getting the most out of this team or is it like last year....ahh chucks, "I don't need to talk to the guys" or do anything...they take care of it???? Do they? It didn't look like that last year on the ice in Dallas. THEY  were all lost at sea with that glazed over look under their visors to include KK. 

    Coaching, leadership, drive.....WAS GONE!

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    Imyourhuckleberry
    33 minutes ago, vonlonster67 said:

    Coaching, leadership, drive.....WAS GONE!

    It was a disappointing finish, and maybe another coach could have had them look better in the last couple of games, but do you think any coach could have driven the Wild to win the Stanley Cup last year?

    When Eriksson Ek was healthy, the Wild kept winning in the regular season even without Kaprizov, who most consider to be their best player.

    Eriksson Ek and Shaw were out in the playoffs. Nyquist was one of their best players, but he had just returned from injury. Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Hartman, and Foligno were all playing through injuries, or had just come back from one, if everyone believes Kaprizov was not hurting at all during the playoffs. Once Eriksson Ek was confirmed out, and Kaprizov was playing as a shell of himself, I don't know that a winning formula existed.

    Dallas had the better team for that series, and they advanced to the conference finals because they had a very strong roster. I don't think Vegas had a tougher opponent on their way to winning it all last season than Dallas. A lot of that had to do with Boston falling to Florida early in the playoffs, but no team in the West was more of a challenge than Dallas.

    You could say Edmonton was fairly close. Vegas went into OT in both of the first two games against Dallas though, and if either of those went to Dallas, that series might have gone 7 games. Edmonton won their games outright without going to OT, but lost all of their games in regulation.

    I'm not saying that Evason is the best coach in the NHL, but I would argue that he's likely better than average. The Wild have exceeded expectations for these buyout seasons with him as coach. The fact they were able to get ahead 2-1 in a playoff series against a better roster suggests that he is doing something right.

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    vonlonster67
    13 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    It was a disappointing finish, and maybe another coach could have had them look better in the last couple of games, but do you think any coach could have driven the Wild to win the Stanley Cup last year?

    When Eriksson Ek was healthy, the Wild kept winning in the regular season even without Kaprizov, who most consider to be their best player.

    Eriksson Ek and Shaw were out in the playoffs. Nyquist was one of their best players, but he had just returned from injury. Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Hartman, and Foligno were all playing through injuries, or had just come back from one, if everyone believes Kaprizov was not hurting at all during the playoffs. Once Eriksson Ek was confirmed out, and Kaprizov was playing as a shell of himself, I don't know that a winning formula existed.

    Dallas had the better team for that series, and they advanced to the conference finals because they had a very strong roster. I don't think Vegas had a tougher opponent on their way to winning it all last season than Dallas. A lot of that had to do with Boston falling to Florida early in the playoffs, but no team in the West was more of a challenge than Dallas.

    You could say Edmonton was fairly close. Vegas went into OT in both of the first two games against Dallas though, and if either of those went to Dallas, that series might have gone 7 games. Edmonton won their games outright without going to OT, but lost all of their games in regulation.

    I'm not saying that Evason is the best coach in the NHL, but I would argue that he's likely better than average. The Wild have exceeded expectations for these buyout seasons with him as coach. The fact they were able to get ahead 2-1 in a playoff series against a better roster suggests that he is doing something right.

    I didnt expect the Cup last year, but winning game one in Dallas, then starting Flower, then going up 2-1, Dallas adapts and adjusts.....we keep going with "what works", no changes.

    He loses focus, loses his f'n mind on the officials, distracts the team.....we could have beat Dallas without all that, even down Ek and Shawsy. I wouldn't expect to get past Vegas.

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    AKwildkraken
    12 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

    Did Goligoski look worse than last year, like he needed to retire?

    On the second goal he looked tired.  Granted it seemed it was a long shift and they were playing at a mile high in altitude.

    I think his instincts are still there, just the body was slow to react.  I thought his passing and breaking out of the zone was iffy, but looked fine in the offensive zone.

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    mnfaninnc
    9 hours ago, AKwildkraken said:

    On the second goal he looked tired.  Granted it seemed it was a long shift and they were playing at a mile high in altitude.

    I think his instincts are still there, just the body was slow to react.  I thought his passing and breaking out of the zone was iffy, but looked fine in the offensive zone.

    If they pair Goligoski and Addison together this year, every shift will bring anxiety. I'm still hoping before the season that Guerin tells Goligoski that it is time, and he won't lose any money (might have to spread it out a little), that there is a place for him in the front office. 

    I'd feel real good if Goligoski's main priority was getting the defense ready in Iowa. He's got plenty of experience and success to garner the respect of all those guys. His age gap with them is enough too. The player is usually the last to know that it's over. He sees the decline as bad luck and if things would have bounced differently his play would have been the same. It is sad to see them hang on by a thread. 

    I hope in the handshake deal, that Guerin promised if it was time, he'd tell him. 

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