WILD WEDNESDAY - Fleury’s Feat and Tank?
Fleury’s Feat
Marc-André Fleury makes history in a Wild sweater! On Monday night, he became the second winningest goalie in NHL history by recording his 552nd win of his Hall of Fame career, passing Patrick Roy. Even though Fleury does not look a day over 25, he will have to settle for second place as Father Time will not allow him to catch the incredible 691 wins posted by Martin Brodeur.
In typical Fleury fashion, he moved into second place by posting his 74th career shutout and his 29th win against the New York Islanders in the 5-0 victory. As always, Fleury was having fun and took time to thank his goal posts for helping him out even while the puck was still in the zone, a trait he learned from watching his idol, Roy.
The recognition Fleury is receiving is well deserved as he will go down as one of most recognizable and popular goalies to ever play the game. He has gained respect across the league from teammates, opponents, fans and the media.
“He’s a better guy than a goalie and that says a lot,” Mats Zuccarello stated after the game on Monday.
Tank You, but No
When Dean Evason was fired, a lot of the Wild fan base wanted to embrace the tank, but when they hired John Hynes, the team went 11-3 and hopes of a playoff run were alive and well again. Then, injuries hit. They have now only won two of their last ten games and the tank crowd is back louder than ever. Well, here’s the deal. Young players are going to play their hearts out no matter what. Players like Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime are playing for their careers and are not going to purposely lessen their efforts to help their team five years down the road.
Sure, the Wild could trade players to tank, but that does not guarantee the players they would receive in a draft would be anywhere near as good as the players they let go. We all know the NHL draft is a crapshoot.
Just to show how things can change in the NHL, the Florida Panthers had a record of 19-20-4 on January 13th of last year and were out of the playoff picture. Today, the Wild have a record of 18-20-5, also out of the playoff picture, but we can all remember the Florida Panthers playing in the Stanley Cup Final last year.
The same can be said about the Edmonton Oilers this year. They had one of the worst records a month into the season and they have now won 11 in a row, which not even a Gretzky team accomplished. Now, many pundits are proclaiming them as Stanley Cup favorites after declaring them a total bust just weeks ago.
While the Wild have shown some extremely rough patches, they are not worth giving up on yet. That is why I believe true fans would never cheer for their team to lose.
The Silent MVP
After the Wild gave up 21 goals in their last four games before Monday night, it may be no coincidence that the first game Jonas Brodin returned to the lineup the Wild shutout the Islanders. Brodin is probably one of the most underrated defensemen in the league. While he isn’t a Quinn Hughes or a Cale Makar, he excels at shutting down other team’s best players and may be the Wild’s most valuable player besides Kaprizov.
Scary Weekend Ahead
We will know a lot more about the Wild’s future as they embark on a notoriously tough road trip this weekend. They face the Lightning, Panthers and Hurricanes, which historically has not gone well for them as they dropped all three games on the trip last year. Hopefully, the momentum from Monday night’s win will carry over into the road trip since there is no room for error.
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