I Was Wrong About Marc-André Fleury.

As an enthusiastic fan of the Minnesota Wild, certain plays will forever be seared into my mind and remain there until I die...

First Round of the 2021 Western Conference Playoffs...

Overtime... Game One...

Knotted at zeros... Wild on the road in Las Vegas as the underdogs...

Marcus Foligno gets a piece of Jonathan Marchessault's pass near the Golden Knights' goal...

Jordan Greenway gathers the loose puck and brings it toward the backside of the Golden Knight's net...

Greenway passes it back to Foligno, who redirects it to Joel Eriksson Ek...

Eriksson Ek, about ten feet out, takes a shot that ricochets off Alec Martinez's skate past the Golden Knights' goaltender...

Elation... Wild pulls off a monumental Game One upset in Las Vegas...

The Golden Knights goalie quickly skates away, dejected, as the Wild players celebrate one of the most epic victories in franchise history...

The dejected goalie... Marc André-Fleury.

The Wild scoring this monumental goal on Fleury made it all the more pleasing for me. Don't get me wrong... I still would have been delighted if the same thing had happened to Robin Lehner, but doing this to Mr. Marc-André Fleury made it all the more joyous. I'm not going to lie; At the time, I truly hated Fleury. Not like I wanted terrible things to happen to him kind of hate, but if someone asked me my least favorite NHL players of all time during his time in Vegas, Fleury would have been one of the first three names out of my mouth.

Any hockey fan from the last twenty years knows about Marc-André Fleury. The man won three of Lord Stanley's Cups during his thirteen years while manning the net with the Pittsburgh Penguins. As he amassed wins in goal season after season for the black and gold, the idea of his enshrinement into the Hockey Hall of Fame went from a possibility to a near certainty. Fleury had already collected 375 career wins when his time in Pittsburgh was up.

While playing in Pittsburgh, Fleury was of no real consequence to me as a Wild fan. Perhaps only seeing him a couple of times a year, he was enjoyable to watch, and it was quite apparent he was a great goalie. Even when the Wild lost to Fleury and the Penguins, it didn't feel like other regular-season losses. Losing to the Blackhawks is excruciating... Losing to the Avs is agonizing... Losing to the Penguins just stung...

Then, a really bad thing happened. The NHL went and decided to add new teams to the league, one of which would play its games in Las Vegas and be known as the Golden Knights. An expansion draft took place, and the Penguins left Fleury unprotected. The Penguins, wanting to shed Marc-André's contract, enticed the Golden Knights to select him by giving them a draft pick. Now Fleury, a goalie I respected up to this point, was in our conference. Wild fans would now get to know "Flower" a bit better.

Expansion teams typically suck. Regardless of the league, they are collectively not good. This was not the case for the Golden Knights. They were instantly good. Like, let's go ahead and make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in our first season of existence and allow our fanbase to avoid going through any of the growing pains good. They didn't win it all, but they mowed through the Western Conference with ease after winning the Pacific Division in the regular season.

Perturbed by the Golden Knights' instant success, Marc-André Fleury became the lightning rod of my growing disdain for this new Western Conference force. Sure, I saved some of it for Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson, but I wasn't running for the newspaper to check their stats every time the Golden Knights lost. I was looking to see who was in goal, only to be doubly excited when Fleury took the loss. I wasn't happy all that much, given Fleury was still playing stellar hockey and winning way more than he was losing. That just made me like him less... and less... and less...

In retrospect, my fiery-hot disdain for Fleury shouldn't have been so intense. The Wild were one of the few teams that were getting the best of Marc-André. Going into our epic seven-game playoff series in 2021, the Wild had a 3-6 record versus the Golden Knights' version of Fleury. Pundits even pointed to this as they gave the Wild a fighting chance to win the series.

After Erikkson Ek's monumental goal in the epic overtime win during the opening game of the series, Fleury went on lockdown. He gave up just three goals in three games, all wins for the Golden Knights. After fighting back to win the next two and even the series, the Wild headed to Vegas for the most exciting thing in hockey... game seven. Confidence was outwardly high for Wild fans, but deep in our collective minds contained vast amounts of doubt. Fleury at home in a do-or-die game... An unbiased fan, unblinded by their fandom, would have put their money on Fleury. And they would have been correct. Damn you, Fleury.

Marc-André, in all of his netminding glory, won the Vezina and Jennings at the season's end... and as a thank you, the Golden Knights traded him to Chicago. Although Fleury's time in Chicago was short-lived, it never really felt like he belonged there. The Blackhawks were awful out of the blocks and quickly fell out of playoff contention. As a hockey purist, it didn't seem right that Fleury played in meaningless games this early in the season, but the petty side of me enjoyed seeing Marc-Andre lose. Rumors of his exit from the Windy City picked up steam as the Blackhawks were pivoting to a rebuild. Despite those rumors, Marc-André chugged along, winning his 500th career game in goal and achieving a victory in net against every NHL franchise. Personal success didn't appear to fulfill Fleury as a hockey player, but winning did. A potential landing spot for one of the NHL's greatest goalies emerged... Minnesota.

As trade whispers became trade rumors, I found myself with entirely new feelings when dealing with my hockey arch-nemesis. I wanted Fleury on the Wild. I wanted him to protect our goal. I wanted him in the green, red, and gold. It all became apparent as the semi-self-aware person I claim to be. My prior behavior was that of a child who desired something a peer had that they lacked. Like the first kid in the neighborhood who got the Millennium Falcon for their birthday, we all wanted it too but were mainly mad at the kid for getting it first.

The Blackhawks eventually went through with trading Fleury to the Wild, and the results have been mixed during his nearly 100 games in Minnesota. There are flashes of his usual brilliance, followed by mediocrity. Sometimes, Marc-André looks like the undisputed best choice in goal for the Wild, while other times, his age shows through. Nevertheless, as this Wild fan gains a complete understanding of the Flower, the focus on the stats begins to blur as the man comes into focus. He is so much more than his amazing and often unorthodox saves. He much more than being one of the most talented goalies to have ever existed. He is infinitely more than his 500+ wins in net.

During Marc-Andre's time with the Wild, I have been fortunate to acquire a different perspective on a player I once despised. This perspective is one I may never have gained if Flower had not ended up playing in Minnesota. Fleury is, by all accounts, a fantastic teammate. Fleury's lighthearted (to borderline psychotic) pranks and antics are legendary (ask Brandon Duhaime). He is principled. In one instance, he wore a custom-made mask during warmups for Native American Heritage Night as a tribute to his wife, facing potential fines in the process. The man looks fulfilled being part of a team. Despite not being at the same level he once was, I am honored he became part of my beloved Minnesota Wild.

Marc-André Fleury is retiring at the end of this season. In the process, the NHL is losing an absolute legend. My biggest regret as a passionate hockey fan is that I didn't allow myself to enjoy his complete greatness earlier.