On Tuesday, the Xcel Energy Center witnessed a final outpouring of gratitude for an icon. After Leo Carlsson clanked a goal off the legendary posts, Marc-Andre Fleury gave them one last heartfelt thank-you pat.
Of course, maybe that was overshadowed by the 19,000 in attendance roaring as the magical, surprise end of Fleury’s regular season career played out.
No screenwriter could have come up with the ending of Game 82 of the Minnesota Wild’s season. For a moment that heightened, that perfectly designed to give the crowd a collective release of tension, you’d have to turn to the experts.
The writers for pro wrestling.
Tuesday’s game felt engineered to lead the State of Hockey to go from “It’s So Over” to “We’re So Back,” and then pushing it to another level altogether. The Wild were locked into a 1-1 contest until midway through the third period, letting a team of jobbers in the Anaheim Ducks hang around. They wasted two back-to-back power plays, all on a night where babyface Zeev Buium, a power play specialist in college, sat on the bench.
Then, with 11 minutes left, the Ducks went up 2-1, and the Wild found themselves in a position to be doomed by a familiar formula: working hard, controlling the play, but ultimately unable to get the one goal that counts most.
That feeling crept through the X as the minutes ticked down, until there were 20 seconds left. On a 6-on-5 that may have determined the season, Joel Eriksson Ek whacked in a rebound to lift Minnesota into the playoffs.
19,000 fans shifted immediately from dread to relief. So did the 23 players on the Wild bench. After weeks, the team openly and repeatedly had to ask themselves Are we gonna blow this?, they got their answer: No. Their spot was finally secure, and the team got to celebrate after a long, grueling, injury-filled 82-game season.
Amid that elation, imagine having Filip Gustavsson’s presence of mind. Incredibly, Fleury’s moment wasn’t pre-planned. After a tense 60 minutes of hockey, Gustavsson thought to bench himself and give Fleury a last send-off in front of Wild fans. Gustavsson’s bit of (Ric) Flair didn’t just take the arena by surprise. It shocked John Hynes, and it shocked Fleury, who came in cold and on short notice.
This prompts the question: Does Gustavsson have a side-hustle where he throws on a singlet and does cage matches as “The Gus Bus”? How else do you think of that?
Even crazier, for a team that came 20 seconds from getting dropped by the Ducks, the Wild showed they had an extra gear to win it for Fleury in overtime. Minnesota’s 30th-ranked penalty kill valiantly stopped a 4-on-3, thanks to some key clears from Freddy Gaudreau, Jon Merrill, and Zach Bogosian, as well as Fleury showing off his arsenal of signature moves. On the offensive side, Kirill Kaprizov pulled off a spin move to try to score, Mats Zuccarello just missed a one-timer, and Matt Boldy called game to get the ultimate pop from the crowd.
It was a one-of-a-kind finish for a one-of-a-kind goaltender. All goalies have their own quirks, but Fleury’s show up in a flashy style that looks more improvisational than technical, which made him your favorite goalie’s favorite goalie. He’s the fourth goalie in NHL history to log 1,000 games, and with the way goalie workloads are trending, he might be the last. It’s very possible that we’ll never see someone like him again, and the fans at the X have always known it.
The State of Hockey instantly fell in love with the Hall of Famer, with fans throwing him bouquets of flowers following his first home game. He got a massive ovation both before and after overtime. There was no doubt how much the Wild loved their prankasaurus teammate, but Gustavsson’s gesture in that moment shows just how deep that feeling goes. For that overtime, we saw the realization of Bill Guerin’s vision of what can happen when a team truly plays for each other.
What does that mean going forward? Right now, it means they’re facing the Vegas Golden Knights starting this weekend. There aren’t going to be any guarantees against Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, and a gigantic Knights blueline. But for five minutes between Eriksson Ek and Boldy’s goals, there was some magic at the Xcel Energy Center, and for Tuesday, that was enough.
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