Flower and Gus

Through the years, the Minnesota Wild has succeeded upon solid duos between the pipes. This year's goaltending tandem of Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson is no different.
At 37 and 24 respectively, the one-two punch in the crease comes in the form of veteran experience and inexperience. While experience is something the Wild coaching brass will lean on for the bulk of the season -- Fleury getting the lion's share of starts -- the entire team knows the importance of having two capable goalies.

"We trust both our guys," Head Coach Dean Evason said. "We have confidence each night in putting either one in."
Minnesota's general manager, Bill Guerin, said Fleury thrives on playing but reining that passion in will be in the best interest for the longterm team success.
"If he could, he'd play every day," Guerin said. "But we love what Gus brings to the table and his game. He's not just a guy to go in and eat minutes and give Fleury a break. He's a goaltender that we are counting on to bring us wins, too."
THE STYLES
Goaltending coach Freddy Chabot said that while from a bird's eye view each goaltender looks to have different styles of play, they actually are very similar in the way they make a save.
"At the end of the day they do the same thing, they just look different," Chabot explained. "Flower is a really quick goalie, so he looks more like a reflex goalie, and Filip looks more like a positional goalie.
"But the drills we do in practice, they are both the same. I don't demand anything different from one or the other. It just may not look the same to you, but to me, the demands are the same to both."
Gustavsson said the one thing he admires most about Fleury when he's in the crease is his ability to maintain a mental toughness that comes from experience.
"You see him let in seven goals in the first game and gets pulled in the second game after one period allowing four goals, and you see him get mad at himself and that stuff but then come back for the fourth game and look like none of the pressure got to him," said Gustavsson.
"It's just normal for him. That mental strength to do that is something I would love to learn."
Fleury said letting in 11 goals in four periods isn't the ideal way to anoint oneself to learn mental forte, but he agrees his bounceback is attributed to his adversity faced in his career.
"Throughout my career I've had lots of good times, but also bad times. Tough times," Fleury said. "I think those are the ones you learn to work your way out of. You learn what not to do and how to come back from it."
MEET YOUR GOALIES

Marc-Andre Fleury
Age: 37 (38 on Nov. 28)
Drafted: 2003 PIT, 1st rd. (1st overall)
Joined the Wild: 2021-22
Nicknames: Flower (Fleury means 'blooming flower' in French)
Top hockey movie: Slapshot ("but translated in Quebec French the swear words are different") and Goon
Superstitions: "Similar breakfast, same warmup, same lunch, always a nap, suits for the game will be changed but if one loses then it goes to the back of the line. Morning skate I switched net because I was like, forget this. Just little things."
Favorite thing about Minnesota: "I like the nature, the green trees and fall is beautiful."

There's such a youthful exuberance about Marc-Andre Fleury. From his infectious and constant smile and laughter, to his pranks and jovial locker room demeanor, it's no wonder that the veteran is playing like a goaltender in his 20s rather than his 30s.
"I learned a bit earlier in my career that I play my best when I have fun and I'm relaxed," Fleury said with his patented grin. "That's when I usually have the most success. Coaches sometimes have told me to be more serious, more aggressive, be mean, but you can do that a couple games or two, but to me it's not sustainable. For me, I play better when I'm relaxed and having fun."
Fleury enters his 19th season with a long list of accolades amassed throughout his NHL lifetime. A 530-306-2-86 overall record through 933 starts, he has compiled a 2.58 goals against average and .913 save percentage in 55,495 minutes played. He was the 2021 Vezina Trophy winner, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins. His decorated career includes multiple trips to the All-Star game, and his name etched into league record books along the way.
"I think the win column was something I was chasing," said Fleury, who ranks third in the league in wins behind Patrick Roy (551) and Martin Brodeur (691). "That 500 was a big number, right. To me, to be reliable to win, win often and consistently, you're happy, teammates are happy, coaches are happy, fans are happy -- everybody is happy and I think that's a good thing. It feels good inside."
In addition to chasing the inner happiness, Fleury has maintained longevity in his career due to his impeccable attention to his health and diet.
"He's in absolutely phenomenal shape," Evason points out. "He doesn't look like and doesn't feel like a 38-year-old man. We'll monitor, because I'm sure there's going to be times where, not just because he's an older guy but we monitor all our players their rest and workload. But he's a guy that could go every night if we let him."
Adds Chabot, "I don't think you see too many guys his age that move the way he does and be as quick as he is. He's just gotta trust what he has and keep but as you get older you gotta take care of those qualities and work a little bit harder on mobility and speed to keep that explosiveness he has."
Fleury laughs and said his regimen certainly has changed as his age does.
"I don't think I stretched until I was like 25, and then when I turned 30 I had to do more, and at 35 more stuff," Fleury said with a laugh. "I feel very fortunate to be where I am and to still be playing."
Filip Gustavsson
Age: 24
Drafted: 2016 PIT, 2nd rd. (55th overall)
Joined the Wild: 2022-23
Nicknames: Fil, Gus, FilJonken (given to him by an old trainer due to the lateness to turn his gear in to the laundry)
Top hockey movie: The Mighty Ducks trilogy
Superstitions: None ("It feels like if I would mess up my routine I would screw up the whole day")
Favorite thing about Minnesota:Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts and Foods and the fact that St. Paul is a big city but small city with lots to do.

Filip Gustavsson grew up watching his dad play defense in their hometown of Skellefteå, Sweden. That's when the hockey bug took hold. From there it was using the Gustavsson home's hallway as the perfect knee hockey runway.
"No one wanted to be goalie in floor hockey," Gustavsson recalled. "And my younger brother is way more stubborn than me, so if I forced him to be in that he just wouldn't come out of his room and play, so I started goalie in that hallway actually."
Gustavsson split time between forward and goalie growing up, until deciding he liked playing an entire game in net more than offensive shifts, making the netminder commitment at age 12.
Gustavsson made his NHL debut in relief for the Ottawa Senators on March 17, 2021, and his first start and subsequent career win coming five days later on March 22 in a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Since then, Gustavsson has started 33 games, going 16-17-0-4 with a 2.89 goals against average and .909 save percentage. He also recorded his first career shutout in a 3-0 win at Vancouver on December 10.
"He comes with a great attitude and has been working really hard on his game," said Chabot. "He's making a good impression on everybody and his play has been good and getting better every game. The wins are going to come."
Gustavsson said he's simply trying to soak it all in this season and improve his game day by day.
"It was a tough start there the first two games for the team, but I think we all have really come together and performed better and better each game," he said. "I think everyone in the room gets along so well and we all want to see eachother do well, that even when things don't go our way, we know it's going to be ok.
"I'm excited to be a part of this team and excited to see where we can go."
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