Marc-Andre Fleury will visit PPG Paints Arena for presumably the final time in his decorated career on Tuesday when his Minnesota Wild conclude a seven-game road trip against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It was not immediately known if the three-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender will be in net against Pittsburgh, the team that selected him with the top overall pick of the 2003 NHL Draft. Fleury spent his first 13 seasons with the franchise and serves as its all-time leading goaltender in games (691), wins (375) and shutouts (44).
The 39-year-old previously said that he intends to retire following this season.
“I’m lucky we’ve got a couple days in town, so it’s good to walk around a bit, see some old faces. Not that they’re old (laughs), but it’s people I haven’t seen in a while, right?” Fleury said on Monday. “So, it’s always special coming back, and looking forward to (Tuesday’s) game.”
While it’s uncertain whether Fleury or former Penguins draft pick Filip Gustavsson will be between the pipes on Tuesday, the Wild know they can count on forward Kirill Kaprizov.
Kaprizov is riding high on the strength of five straight multi-point performances, which is one shy of the franchise record set by Mats Zuccarello in 2021-22.
Kaprizov notched a pair of assists about five minutes apart late in the second period of Minnesota’s 7-5 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon. The 2020-21 Calder Memorial Trophy recipient as the NHL’s top rookie has collected three goals and eight assists during his five-game point streak.
Marcus Foligno scored his first two goals of the season on Saturday in a game in which the Wild saw their four-game winning streak and season-opening seven-game point streak (5-0-2) come to a halt.
“It’s frustrating to lose in a good game,” Foligno said. “… I’m more just happy we’re getting offense going and it’s nice to finally cash in.”
Minnesota’s offense could stay hot versus the struggling Penguins, who have yielded 21 non-shootout goals during their five-game losing skid (0-4-1).
Pittsburgh allowed four second-period goals in a 4-3 setback at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
“There were just breakdowns of us being on the wrong side of the puck and not covering the most dangerous areas on the ice, in front of the net,” Penguins forward Rickard Rakell said.
“Giving up so many easy scoring chances. I mean, there were obviously some tough bounces for us, but I mean, we got to prevent that. That was just, like, one after one after one. We got to find a way to settle down, restart.”
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic cautioned against sounding the alarm, however.
“We’ve only played 10 games so far, but the next 10’s going to come fast, and same thing after that,” Nedeljkovic said. “So, we’ve got to find a way to nip it in the bud right now and regroup and look for a good, strong effort at home on Tuesday.”
Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin ended a four-game point drought by collecting one goal and two assists on Saturday. The former MVP leads the team in assists (11) and points (14).
Fellow forward Bryan Rust sustained a lower-body injury on Saturday after being checked into the boards by Nils Hoglander. Rust’s availability for Tuesday’s game remains unknown as of Monday evening.
Minnesota captain Jared Spurgeon could make his return to the ice on Tuesday following a six-game absence due to a lower-body injury.
