In his final game at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night, Minnesota Wild Marc-André Fleury earned a 4-0 shutout over the Montreal Canadiens.
The 40-year-old netminder made 19 saves for his 76th career shutout. The shutout pushed him to a tie for 10th all-time in shutouts. He’s set to retire at season’s end.
Jakub Dobes was busier at the other end. The rookie goaltender made 23 saves in the loss. The Canadiens suffered their fourth straight defeat.
Jayden Struble re-entered the lineup following a conditioning stint in Laval. He took the spot of Kaiden Guhle, who’s out indefinitely after surgery to repair a lacerated quadricep muscle. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard played his first game of the season in place of Michael Pezzetta.
But the night singularly belonged to Fleury. He was greeted warmly by the Bell Centre crowd during warmups.
Then in the third period, with the game ostensibly out of reach, announcer Michel Lacroix paid tribute to the future Hall of Famer. He received an even longer standing ovation.
It was a scoreless, uneventful first period where the Habs were outshot 8-3. At 3:03 in the second period, Liam Ohgren scored his first goal of the season against a stick-less Dobes to put the Wild up 1-0.
Only 2:06 later, a streaking Marco Rossi was the forgotten man heading to the net and he beat Dobes with a wrister off the rush to extend Minny’s lead to 2-0.
The Wild added to their lead early in the third period. After Fleury stacked the pads to rob Josh Anderson, at the other end Alex Newhook had his pocket picked by Devin Shore before the Wild forward beat Dobes cleanly to give the Wild a 3-0 lead.
With the game slipping away from the Habs, Dobes tried to keep the score close with an acrobatic glove save on Joel Eriksson Ek.
Coach Martin St. Louis pulled Dobes with more than four minutes remaining in regulation. With an extra skater, his club failed to mount any offensive pressure. Frederick Gaudreau capped a dominant night for the Wild with the 4-0 empty-netter.
Fleury was mobbed by his teammates after the final whistle blew.
While it was fitting that Fleury played the role of hero in his final game in his hometown, the Habs also served him the victory on a silver platter. They couldn’t muster 20 shots and once again struggled to draw any penalties. They’ve only had two power plays in the last three contests.
You could say the flagging Habs can’t wait for the 4 Nations Face-Off break in February, but they have another five games to play till then, including an always-tough California swing. If their current losing streak spirals out of control, they could find themselves out of the playoff picture before hitting the 12-day break.
The Liveblog commenters enjoyed the team’s promising start to 2025. Last night’s loss, though, was a reminder that there’s still plenty of season to go.
3. “Fleury deserves the shutout, we stunk tonight.” -Ryan Katz
2. “Regarding Kaiden Guhle injury I don’t want to sound negative but this definitely is not something you want to rush back from. The quad is so important in everything the leg does (or doesn’t do). I know far too well how hard it is to rebuild the quad muscle after surgery. All your power comes from the quads (and hamstrings). It has to be 100% healed and if that means we lose KG for the rest of this season so be it. He’s a bright star in the making on this team and a huge part of our future. This is the year we’re supposed to be in the mix. Next year should be the year we expect to be in the playoffs. Based on that we need KG fully healed by the summer so he’s building up his strength for more than 2 months before camp. We’ll have to make due with whoever we bring up from Laval. He’s got a great group around him and I’m sure he will be well taken care of. In meantime listen to your body Kaiden. It will tell you when you can start to push yourself. Come back strong and ready to go next season. You have a great future with the Habs.” -HabsSki Fan
1. “Well…. that was… I have no words. I like MAF, but this is NOT what I wanted to see, a boring 4-0 shutout. Good move to shake, though. How many Habs have played with MAF?” -Michael Way