The veteran goalie and his Vegas Golden Knights will play the Capitals for the first time Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN) since losing in five games to them in the Stanley Cup Final in June. It's a game Fleury has circled on his calendar.
"I'm looking forward to it," Fleury said Monday after the Golden Knights lost 4-2 to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. "Of course they beat us last year. I think if we can give it back to them for one year, it would be nice."
The loss to the Capitals grates on Fleury every time he sees clips of the Washington celebration. He watched highlights all offseason of Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin doing keg stands from the Cup and center Nicklas Backstrom celebrating with it in Sweden.
"I'm still not over it," Fleury said. "When you watch tapes of them celebrating and stuff, it still [stinks]. But it's a new season, right? You start from scratch. Different year."
Their second season hasn't started the way the Golden Knights would have liked. They are 1-2-0 through their first three games and have been outscored 10-6. Fleury was beaten four times on 17 shots in the loss to the Sabres.
"When you lose, it doesn't matter what the score is," Fleury said. "I'm confident in our group of guys that if we play the way we should, we'll be successful.
"We can rebound. We have a great group of guys. But it's still not fun to lose no matter what part of the season it is. Every point matters, no matter when you get them. Everything's so close at the end of the season. You need to get points whenever you can. The start of the season is important."
