Marc-André Fleury Returns to Pittsburgh for Final Time

13 seasons, 691 games, 375 wins and three Stanley Cup Championships. Marc-André Fleury is set to return to the place where he started his legendary career on October 10, 2003. When Minnesota squares off against Pittsburgh tomorrow night, Fleury wants to treat it like any other game, but it will be anything but that. The NHL’s second-winningest goaltender and owner of 1,027 games played has seen everything this game has to offer, except for a final send-off in Pittsburgh. So how will the sure-fire Hall of Famer handle tomorrow? “Take a deep breath, take a good look around and soak it all in,” he said during his media availability at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. Fleury admitted that as he’s gotten older, he is getting “softer” with his emotions, but reminded us all that his main focus is to win and “put on a good show here one last time.”

When asked about tomorrow night’s game, Minnesota Head Coach John Hynes cited Fleury’s chase to 552 wins and his 1,000^th game a season ago, and how his team will be ready to rise to the occasion and understands how to handle the moments and emotions that will come with the game.

After Minnesota’s practice concluded this afternoon, Fleury took the ice with youth players from Penguins Excel Program and made a few nostalgic glove saves on shootout attempts from kids in the program. As former teammate Sidney Crosby told media today, “Fleury means a lot to me, the organization and the fans.” As great as he is on the ice, Marc-André Fleury is an even better person off the ice, and the short appearance with the youth players was a glimpse of the kind of guy he is.

As much as he wants tomorrow to be just another game, it simply won’t be. Fleury’s wife, kids, mom and numerous friends will be in the building to watch him take the ice in Pittsburgh one final time. As he summed it up, it will be a “special night.”