Perfect goodbye for Marc-Andre Fleury in goalie's final game with Penguins
James Fleury hasn’t really spent much time in Pittsburgh.
And for good reason.
He wasn’t born yet when his dad, Marc-Andre, left town for a professional opportunity out west in 2017.
So, any impressions the 6-year-old has of his father being a civic treasure in this part of the planet are largely formed by YouTube videos or stories told second-hand.
On Saturday, James, along with big sisters Estelle and Scarlett, got a first-hand account of how their father captivated this city and vice versa.
In front of a smitten sold-out preseason crowd, Marc-Andre Fleury — five months removed from officially retiring as an NHL goaltender — unofficially retired as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins via a 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena.
Appearing in the third period, as scheduled, Fleury stopped all eight shots he faced. Prospect Sergei Murashov started the contest and improved his preseason record to 1-0-1 by stopping 12 of 13 shots during the first 40 minutes of play.
Lines to enter the facility stretched around the block formed by Center Ave. and Washington Place approximately two hours before the opening faceoff. When Fleury took to the ice for warmups, unintelligible screams were only interrupted by orderly sing-song chants of his surname.
A similar scene followed when Fleury furiously raced onto the ice to open the final period as if he was trying to put the final touches on victory in Game 7 of a furious playoff series against a heated rival like the Washington Capitals or Philadelphia Flyers, as a nearly two-minute standing ovation greeted him.
His first save — a denial of a wrister by Blue Jackets forward Hudson Fasching with his springy left leg — elicited another chorus of “Fler-EEE! Fler-EEE!”
Other pleas of “One More Year!” fell upon deaf ears due to other faulty body parts.
“Thank you,” Fleury said when asked for a response to the suggestion. “I’m tired. My hip’s sore. I’m going to take a little break.”
Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, who vowed to offer a stout defensive effort for his longtime teammate, scored his first goal of the preseason at 5 minutes, 20 seconds of the second, and forward Rickard Rakell put the hosts in the lead with his first during a power-play sequence at 19:58 of the second.
In the third period, forward Ville Koivunen provided a buffer with his first goal at the 8:56 mark, and Rakell struck again on an empty net at 17:32.
“It was the coolest preseason game I’ve ever played in,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “It was cool. (Fleury) is a person who is so revered in this organization, in this city. I don’t necessarily think he wants the attention. But I know he appreciates it. We appreciate him.”
That appreciation was manifested earlier this month when Penguins management signed Fleury to a ceremonial professional tryout contract and offered him the opportunity to play in a preseason contest. As the game drew closer, coaches presented him with the choice of when he would step in net.
“They asked me if I wanted the first or third (periods),” Fleury said after a morning skate in Cranberry. “I thought in the first, I would be a little warm or loose after warming up. Then, I thought in the third … winning the game, that’s something I want to be able to do again.
“I would love to just be able to win a game.”
The Penguins won a lot when Fleury was in net for games of consequence. During regular-season play, he recorded the most goaltending wins in franchise history with a 375-216-68 record.
And during the postseason, he guided the club to its third Stanley Cup title (2009) and had prominent roles in the fourth (2016) and fifth (2017) championships before leaving to join the Vegas Golden Knights via an expansion draft.
Before Crosby became the Penguins’ would-be savior as the top overall selection of the 2005 NHL Draft, Fleury inhabited that station as the top overall selection in 2003.
“You understand that pressure, that expectation that comes with that,” Crosby said. “And you kind of grow up in the league together and try to figure things out. You’ve got to go through some learning situations. With that, you grow and get better. The fact that we’re all able to play so long, it’s so rare. With the expectations and winning together, all that stuff, it makes it all the more special.”
Saturday’s celebration of Fleury was the latest of several special presentations the franchise has staged in saluting its vivid history in recent seasons.
Career milestones such as 1,000 games or 1,000 points have been the focal point of nostalgic revelry honoring Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang over the past half-decade. And in February 2024, the Penguins finally retired the No. 68 of Jaromir Jagr.
Considering the franchise was largely divorced from Jagr for nearly 23 years and still doesn’t have much of a relationship with its first franchise goaltender, Tom Barrasso, recognizing the man called “Flower” in such a rosy manner is seen as vital by those doing the celebrating.
“It’s important to (offer) the proper goodbye,” Letang said. “‘Flower’ is still a name that navigates through the streets of Pittsburgh. You see jerseys, you still hear stories. You go to restaurants and people come to you, they’re still talking about him still. To have a proper send-off is really important.
“Our organization has a lot of history and I think we have to honor that.”
Much of the successful parts of the Penguins’ history came with Fleury wearing the organization’s logo on his chest.
When he arrived, wins were almost as rare as sellouts and the franchise only had two Stanley Cup championship banners.
Upon his departure in 2017, tickets were hard to get and the banner total had inflated to five.
He left this place much better than he found it.
“It wasn’t me, it was altogether,” Fleury said. “We grinded early through those tough years. It makes you learn that you don’t want to go back to those times and losing all the time because it (stinks). You are miserable. You are mad every day. The fact we had some good young guys — (Jordan Staal, Max Talbot, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Colby Armstrong), so many guys — that helped the process.
“Definitely something I will look back when I’m done … I’ve been done. I’m proud that we were able to do it, turn around and win (championships).”
That success led to Fleury being honored on plenty of occasions in Pittsburgh when he returned as an opponent while skating as a member of the Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild over the previous seven years.
But it didn’t feel comfortable. Especially to him.
“Every time I played here with other teams, I always felt a little bit weird coming in and playing here,” Fleury said. “This time, it felt normal, like it used to. A lot of nerves too. I didn’t want to mess up for the guys. I wanted to keep them in the game. So, it was fun.”
On Saturday, James Fleury was able to experience the fun history between his father and Pittsburgh.
“He’s 6, so he hasn’t seen or remembered much of my career,” Marc-Andre Fleury said. “I thought it was cool to have a chance to bring him in the locker room, sit at the table, eat with the guys, be near the ice and watch practice up close.
“Both (daughters) were born here. We can show them around because they were pretty young when we left (in 2017). Show them around, where we stayed, where we lived, the rink, the people and what Pittsburgh means to us.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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