COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the Blue Jackets play in Pittsburgh on Saturday night vs. the Penguins in preseason action, the game will have much more meaning than the typical preseason game.
That’s because it will be the final game for Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender retired at the end of last season, but he signed a professional tryout contract with the Penguins to allow him to play one last game for Pittsburgh.
The Penguins drafted Fleury first overall in the 2003 NHL Draft, and he started 536 career games for the Penguins, going 375-216-68 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
One of the things Fleury was best known for was being a prankster. In fact, one of his last prank victims was Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli.
When the two were teammates for Canada at the World Championships this past summer, Fleury, sewed the cuffs of Fantilli’s pants together so he couldn’t put them on after a game. Rookie first-round pick Porter Martone revealed the prank during an interview at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo back in June.
“I don’t know why Martone felt needed to tell the media there. That was kind of funny,” Fantilli said laughingly at Blue Jackets media day earlier this month. “At the beginning of the tournament, I told Flower that I would like a stick if that was fine for him. And I told him he could prank me for the whole tournament if he felt like it.
“I definitely got what I asked for. It was fun, really, really cool.”
The game will be televised on NHL Network at 7 p.m. Eastern.
While Fantilli doesn’t know if he’ll be on the ice for that game, he said he was excited to be part of the sendoff for the future Hall of Fame goaltender.
“I’m really happy he’s gonna get that game against us,” Fantilli said. “It’s gonna be really, really cool, him to be back in Pittsburgh. Obviously that’s how everyone’s gonna mostly remember him is how great he was on those runs. So he’s an amazing guy to be around. I mean, I’ve never really seen anyone enjoy being around the rink as much as that guy.”
Fleury has faced the Blue Jackets in 26 regular season games, with most of them coming after Columbus moved into the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference in 2013-14. In those games, Fleury was 15-7-2 with a 2.32 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
After being selected in the 2017 expansion draft, he played four seasons for the Vegas Golden Knights and led them to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. He had a brief stint in Chicago to start the 2021-22 season and then finished that season and played his last three with the Minnesota Wild.
All three of his Stanley Cups came with the Penguins.
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