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GDT: G52: Wild @ Canadiens | 6PM

4-0 win away from home with our best player, a top 6 forward, and a top 4 D injured.

Marc-André Fleury shutout in his final game at Montreal.

Unreal scenes. The Quebecois really stand by their own, huh?
 
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Congratulations, MAF. Well deserved. Nice to get a shutout.
Fourth line scores again, PK was 100% for the second game in a row and Shore got his first Wild goal. Freddy got an EN goal and Öhgren got his first of the year.
Öhgren now has 2 NHL goals, both of them GWG .

Next up is Ottawa, final game of this 2025 Canadian tour. After that, 2 days off and then travel to Boston next tuesday.
 
Sweetnut said:
Congratulations, MAF. Well deserved. Nice to get a shutout.
Fourth line scores again, PK was 100% for the second game in a row and Shore got his first Wild goal. Freddy got an EN goal and Öhgren got his first of the year.
Öhgren now has 2 NHL goals, both of them GWG .

Next up is Ottawa, final game of this 2025 Canadian tour. After that, 2 days off and then travel to Boston next tuesday.
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You forgot Rossi's 1g, 1a 2p night....
 
Got to hand it to the team. If they give consistent effort, and play smart like they are, then they won't sink too far in the standings. Brodin coming back will be gravy. Marat seems to be playing a bit more creatively.... having Lauko on his line helps a bit, i think. Rossi looking really good. Skilled, opportunistic, and workmanlike.
Foligno looking better, as is Freddy.
Boldy .... he's not exactly grabbing the spot as the best forward on the team.


Not too getting too high, though. Toronto is a good team, but looked listless when we played them. MTL was worse.
 
AKL said:
These refs are hot dog water
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Oh! It's so watery. And yet... there's a smack of hot dog to it!
AKL said:
Well that's not true because Matt Murray won two of his three Cups in Pittsburgh.



It means that his only hall of fame metrics are the ones that come from playing for a long time. All the stats that the broadcast crew tries to pimp, most GP, most minutes played, total wins, etc. And yes, most of them come from being a starter for a long time, but he started in Pittsburgh when they didn't have any better options, until they had a better option, then he was pushed out. He was moved to Vegas because they didn't find anything better, until they found better and he was once again famously pushed out.



In terms of league wide rankings for goalie sv%, let's look at his finishes (for goalies with 40+ GP):

2005-06: 19th
2006-07: 21st
2007-08: DNQ, 35 GP
2008-09: 18th
2009-10: 27th
2010-11: 11th
2011-12: 21st
2012-13: 18th (lockout year, lowered GP threshold to 20)
2013-14: 17th
2014-15: 13th
2015-16: 9th
2016-17: DNQ, 38 GP (Matt Murray was 6th this year as the starter)
2017-18: 2nd (First year in Vegas, this was a legitimately great year for him, but he was also on a really good team)
2018-19: 15th
2019-20: 16th
2020-21: 3rd (Another shortened season, lowered the GP threshold to 20, won the Vezina this season)
2021-22: 21st (Chicago+Minnesota year)
2022-23: 14th (The year Gus was 2nd in the league sv% with 37GP)
2023-24: 30th (Gus was 26th)

Some more key points:
  • The Cup he did start for in Pittsburgh (2008-09), among 13 goalies with 6 or more GP in the playoffs, he was 10th in sv%
  • He was on the bench for the 2015-16 Cup run, he started 1 game that spring, played in 2, Matt Murray won them that Cup but Fleury somehow gets credit for it
  • In the 2016-17 run, he played the first two rounds, was 7th/13 in sv% for the same 6+GP criteria, Murray had to come in and close it out, Murray was 1st/13
  • 2017-18 he did finish 2nd/10 in the playoffs, Vegas made it to the Cup final but lost
  • 2020-21 Vegas made the conference finals iirc, Fleury was 11th/13
  • When you look at the entirety of his career, from 2007 to now, he's led the league in GP with 904, but his sv% among goalies with 450+ GP during that span is 16th/30, right around where Devan Dubnyk and Cam Talbot are
  • Looking at % of game started with over .900 sv% during that time, he's 18th/30

This is what a compiler is. Out of 21 seasons, he's had 2 that are, compared to his peers, great seasons, including playoffs. The rest of the time he has been league average.

He's won 1 Vezina trophy in 21 years. In the time since his first season, Hellebuyck has won 2, Bobrovsky has won 2, Brodeur has won 2, Tim Thomas has won 2, and obviously a slew of others have won 1 as well.

He's just not anything special. He's "one of the good guys" as you said earlier, and he's played a long time, and because of those two things, people think he's one of the greatest goaltenders of this generation. I suppose if you're someone who heavily emphasizes longevity, then absolutely, but he's only rarely been among the best ability-wise. He has largely been, as I said, an average (starting) goaltender in this league.

And there are certainly arguments to be made that most of his accomplishments that people point to (the Cups, the Vezina) are primarily because of situations he was in, and not because he himself elevated those teams.
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I never claimed he was as good as the best goalies in the NHL - in fact I strongly implied the opposite, that's what the whole save% rebuttal was about. I just claimed that he was good enough that teams desired to have him play the position for 22 years straight. He had stretches where he was really bad, stretches where he was great, but mostly he was somewhere in between. There were goalies ahead of him in save% many of those years who won't deserve a Hall nod because they didn't do anything particularly remarkable, so there's no story to tell. Fleury's got a story, and that's the most important part of entertainment. If he had retired or had fallen off enough to not be signed again 10 years ago, he wouldn't have a great story. Sure, he was a compiler, but I don't see that in a strictly negative light. His longevity is a feat unto itself.

Anyway, I like his play style, I like his story, and I am happy for him. I wish more goalies were as entertaining as he is. Tonight was a great night for him, and I hope he can hold onto that feeling as long as possible.
 
BagHead said:
I never claimed he was as good as the best goalies in the NHL - in fact I strongly implied the opposite, that's what the whole save% rebuttal was about. I just claimed that he was good enough that teams desired to have him play the position for 22 years straight. He had stretches where he was really bad, stretches where he was great, but mostly he was somewhere in between. There were goalies ahead of him in save% many of those years who won't deserve a Hall nod because they didn't do anything particularly remarkable, so there's no story to tell. Fleury's got a story, and that's the most important part of entertainment. If he had retired or had fallen off enough to not be signed again 10 years ago, he wouldn't have a great story. Sure, he was a compiler, but I don't see that in a strictly negative light. His longevity is a feat unto itself.
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Look, I'm not trying to badger anyone into hating Fleury. You opened the door by mocking how they talk about him, I walked through it. This is the part I was mainly responding to with the big post:

BagHead said:
I agree he's well above average,
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He's been an average starter, but he is a good guy and he's had a good career, and there are good stories along the way. I think everybody should like him because he doesn't really give anyone a reason not to like him. And highlighting how average he's been isn't necessarily an attack on him.

I mean, one of my favorite players of all time is Marco Scandella. Obviously I'm good with average players.
 
What an awesome game to watch in more ways than one. The team is maintaining the high quality play even in a back to back. The passing, the skating in these past two games is incredible. It's almost like after getting Kap back for those few games had everyone on the team let out a breath of relief and relax a bit too much. Everyone thought someone else will step up and their whole game was desynced.

Now with the assurance of not having Kap for at least 12 games the message is clear. Tighten up and step up. Finally the 4th line deserves the tag "energy line". And everyone else has elevated their focus, elevated their passing and effort level to what it was for most of the season. And they convert on the chances they are given even though the PP is not really clicking right now. They do it 5v5. I would even argue the team - the whole team - is playing better right now than they have at any point of the season. It's a joy to watch when the forecheck works and passes out of the zone connect. Reminds me a bit of Vegas and how they play.

And then you have the Fleury story, just great stuff. Big props to Montreal and their fans, what a tribute. This will mean the world to Fleury.
 
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