Zizing 'Em Up: Fleury's march up NHL wins list

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Sunday he will use his extensive networks of hockey contacts to write his weekly notes column, “Zizing ’Em Up.”

TORONTO -- Marc-Andre Fleury's climb up the NHL wins list has the goalie quickly approaching legendary Hockey Hall of Fame member Patrick Roy, who is second.

And fans around the League, especially in his native province of Quebec, realize just how special his career has been.

About 55 miles southwest of his hometown of Sorel, Bell Centre in Montreal was filled with chants of “Fleury, Fleury” on Tuesday during a 5-2 victory by his Minnesota Wild against the hometown Canadiens. Not only did the crowd understand the 38-year-old goalie is closing in on Roy, it also understood that it may have been Fleury’s final NHL game in Montreal (the Wild don’t play there again this season).

Fleury’s 545th NHL victory puts him six shy of Roy’s total of 551. Once he surpasses that, the only goalie ahead of him will be another one of his idols, Martin Brodeur (691).

Asked lightheartedly by NHL.com if he’ll set his sights on Brodeur once Roy is in the rearview mirror, Fleury laughed out loud.

“Yeah, right,” he said, smiling. “Good luck with anyone ever reaching that.

“You never know what can happen, but I don’t think anyone will ever touch that record.”

Fleury’s pursuit of Roy for the second-most victories has been a reminder of just how remarkable Brodeur’s win total really is.

After Fleury, the closest active goalie on the list is the New York Rangers backup Jonathan Quick, who is 17th with 376 wins, 315 behind Brodeur. The 37-year-old is in the twilight of his career.

Behind Quick among active goalies is Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers, who has 362 victories -- 329 wins shy of Brodeur. For perspective: Even if Bobrovsky were to get 40 wins per season for the next five, the 35-year-old would still be 129 short of Brodeur.

“Like I said, good luck with that,” Fleury said with a chuckle.

Sure, records are made to be broken. Wayne Gretzky’s record for goals (895) seemed almost untouchable for a time but Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin now has 822 -- 72 behind Gretzky.

Brodeur’s record seems much more unobtainable, Fleury said. And Brodeur, the New Jersey Devils executive director of hockey operations, humbly seems to agree.

“It’s definitely going to be hard,” Brodeur said in a phone interview. “Organizations baby their goalies a lot now because it’s such an important position that they need two guys.”

Brodeur cited the situation with Devils goalies Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid as an example.

“Trust me, I’m in that position right now on the management side, and I know how hard it is for goalies to play that much,” said Brodeur, who played at least 70 games in a season 12 times in his Hall of Fame career. “And when you have a good one you want to save him a little bit in case something happens. So, just by saying that, guys will play less and less games moving forward. And that’s why it will be hard to get close to that wins record.

“It’s not that guys today are not capable of doing it. I just think it’s because the body of work is spread out over different guys. The days of guys playing over 70 games like I did are long gone.”

A three-time Stanley Cup champion and four-time Vezina Trophy winner voted as the NHL’s best goalie with the Devils, Brodeur had 125 shutouts in his 22 seasons and shares or owns 12 NHL records. The late Terry Sawchuk ranks second with 103 shutouts, another indication of how some of Brodeur’s marks will be difficult to break.

Still, for him, the wins mark is most meaningful.

“It’s about the team,” he said. “They’re the ones in front of you, blocking shots, sacrificing their bodies. A goalie win means the whole team won, not just the goalie.”

From that standpoint, he’s been impressed with Fleury’s march up the list. The two have crossed paths many times and were teammates with Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

“I love how athletic he is,” Brodeur said. “He keeps shooters guessing. He studies them. He studies the game. Kind of like me. The game has gone to where goalies are more about positioning and keeping the same technique. But with him, you never know when a pad stack is coming. He’s fun to watch. You never know what’s coming.”

Kind of like Brodeur was when he played.

“Yeah, I can see the similarity,” he said.

As for Fleury, he admits catching Roy would be special.

“It’s not something I think about every day,” he said. “The media brings it up a lot. It’s something I’d like to achieve, but my main focus is trying to win every night.”

He’s been successful at doing that for a lot of nights throughout his career, so much so that he must pinch himself sometimes that he’s gotten to this point.

“If you would have told me as a kid I would be challenging one of Patrick Roy’s records one day, I’d have told you you were nuts!” he said with a laugh.

In the end, as Roy’s total looms closer, that suggestion wasn’t so crazy after all.

FLOWER POWER

Ask around the League, and the verdict is almost unanimous: Fleury is the biggest practical joker in the game. As such, we asked him what his favorite pranks have been over the years.

(Note: Some individual names involved have been omitted to protect the guilty.)

1. Hotel room high jinks: “I just love the hotel pranks. I just figure if you’ve got time to kill, you’ve got to sneak into somebody’s room. I think taking everything into the hallway out of somebody’s room, that’s classic. But I needed help. Loved the reaction.” Who’s room was it? “I think it was Benny Lovejoy and Mark Letestu. It was in Buffalo when I was with the [Pittsburgh] Penguins. Brent Johnson and Matt Cooke helped me.”

2. Sid gets even: Sometimes prank victims get even, like his pal Sidney Crosby did. “He did it to me,” Fleury said with a chuckle. “When I was younger, I didn’t need to stretch. I was good. So, I had time to go out and tie bottles to the bottom of a guy’s car. So, they’d be driving to the airport and you’d hear “Ding, ding, ding.” So, I liked that one a bit. But then he did the same thing to me. I’m driving back downtown wondering why everyone was looking at me. Got some giggles out of that.”

3. Something’s fishy: “One time we had a team dinner. I went to the chef and asked if I could get the leftover fish from the kitchen and put it in containers. And then I put it into somebody’s car. It was a year-end dinner, so I put it under the seat with the lid off. And then he got into his car the next morning, and it was hot and sunny, and it stunk. It really did. It was early Pittsburgh days.” Whose car was it? “I don’t want to say because then they’ll get me back.”

4. Cold as ice: “I like taking someone’s clothes -- not suits -- wet them up, then put them in the ice machine for a while and it kind of freezes. Then you take them out and put them back in their locker like nothing has happened.” The key? “You need time. Morning skates are too short. You need more time.” Names of victims? “I can’t,” he said, laughing. “Again, then I start becoming the target.”

KANE IS ABLE

Decision day is getting closer for Patrick Kane.

After Dr. Edwin Su cleared him for contact, the forward has been skating in Toronto and Chicago, agent Pat Brisson said Friday. Part of those workouts includes going into corners with other players to test his surgically repaired hip.

“So far it’s been going great,” Brisson said. “He’s feeling great. And in the next couple of weeks, we’ll take the next step in the process.”

Brisson was referring to gauging interest and receiving official offers for his client, who is an unrestricted free agent.

Su, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, performed a hip resurfacing procedure on the forward June 1. Hip resurfacing is an alternative procedure to a total hip replacement; the damaged bone and cartilage are trimmed instead of being removed.

Brisson said Kane’s rehab is being overseen by Dr. Ian MacIntyre, a sports specialist chiropractor based in Mississauga, Ontario, who works extensively as a consultant for various NHL players and teams.

“Surgery is obviously important, but sometimes the rehab is more important,” Brisson said. “I can tell you that Pat is outstanding. We’re monitoring his progress and, like I said, in a couple of weeks we’ll move into the next stage.

“We’ve already had a lot of teams reaching out and saying: ‘Let us know when you’re ready to talk.’ Whether that’s Nov. 5, Nov. 7, sometime around then, it’s coming up.

“Once we know how Pat feels, we’ll take it from there.”

Kane, who will turn 35 on Nov. 19, has 1,237 points (451 goals, 786 assists) in 1,180 NHL games. He had 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists) in 73 games for the Chicago Blackhawks and Rangers last season with his ailing hip.

CAPTAIN LANDLORD

When John Tavares was an 18-year-old rookie with the New York Islanders in 2009, he was invited to live with veteran Doug Weight and his family.

For the next two years, the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NHL Draft welcomed the tutorship of the Islanders forward, who was more than twice the age of the phenom. Tavares would come home from practice and often play mini sticks with Weight’s kids. Other times, when he and Weight were watching hockey on TV, Tavares would ask that the game be paused so the two could discuss the X’s and O’s going on.

Weight’s frequent response: Relax and enjoy watching the game.

“I remember it well,” Martin Biron, a goalie with the Islanders in 2009-10, said last week. “Doug and his family were so good to him. They helped him adapt not just to a new league but a new life as well.

“That’s why it doesn't surprise me that John is now doing the same with a couple of the younger players with the [Toronto] Maple Leafs.”

Indeed, Tavares and his family have opened their own home to young Maple Leafs forwards Matthew Knies and Fraser Minten.

Knies, 21, moved in with Tavares late last season after leaving the University of Minnesota and signing with Toronto. Minten, 19, joined Knies at Chez Tavares during training camp.

“It shows what a great captain he is,” said Biron, now a broadcaster for Buffalo Sabres. “Being a good captain goes beyond what you do on the ice, and John is showing that.”

Tavares joked that he has ulterior motives.

"Yeah, instead of hiring babysitters I just hire good guys from the team," he said before breaking into a wry grin. "It's been great.

"For me to come full circle in a way, it’s great. And for Fraser, just trying to figure out his living situation and getting him out of the hotel. He and ‘Kniesy’ have really kicked it off playing together and spending time with one another, and my boys love it.”

So do Knies and Minten.

“It says a lot about him,” Minten said of Tavares. “He wears that ‘C’ for a reason. He’s a great dude and a great player as well. It’s very nice for him to open up his house to us.”

Both players said there are plenty of mini sticks games with Tavares’ two sons, Jace, 4, and Axton, 2. Daughter Rae was born in April.

They also revealed Tavares has brought in a chef to cook some of their meals.

Full circle, indeed.

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

“Maybe I need to buy some glasses.”

-- Maple Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov after being beaten by two long-range shots he admitted not seeing in Toronto’s 3-1 loss to Florida on Thursday.

THE SUNDAY LIST

Earlier this month, Columbus Blue Jackets play-by-play man Jeff Rimer announced he would retire at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. The 72-year-old’s broadcast career spanned over six decades including 47 years in the NHL as pregame, intermission and postgame host along with calling games for the Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals. Prior to that, he worked with Hall of Fame announcers Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin for the broadcasts of the great Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the mid- to late-1970s. In honor of his outstanding run, we asked Rimer Saturday to list his three favorite players to watch over the decades.

1. Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens: “When he would get the puck and start flying down the right wing, his blond hair flowing behind him, he would bring fans out of their seats … including me.”

2. Pavel Bure, Florida Panthers: “In my time calling Panthers games, you quickly appreciated how dynamic and skilled he was. He shared a lot of similarities with Lafleur, including the anticipation of fans that something special might happen every time he touched the puck.”

3. Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets: “He’s known as a power forward but that was only one layer of his game. He scored an incredible goal against the Coyotes (Jan. 17, 2008) in which he weaved around and through the defense & the goalie. Easily my goal of the decade.”