ST. PAUL – Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was not starting on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks for a preseason game at home. He wasn’t backing up Filip Gustavsson either.
So Fleury’s boredom sparked an idea that turned into a dare.
“I was having a little talk with the staff in the morning,” Fleury said. “Just looking for things to do and I got a little bit of a dare I guess, so.”
Fleury waited for the perfect time though. He let the ice crew do their thing the first two times they went on the ice but he decided to join them the third time during the first period.
With the Wild down by a goal Fleury skated by the bench and yelled to the Wild players, then he went on with his job of shoveling the snow off the ice.
“I don’t know. I went by and yelled at them a bit, but I didn’t want to laugh or smile too much,” Fleury said. “Just kinda kept doing my job. I had snow to pick up, so.”
What did he say?
“I saw him skate by the first time, then the second time he skated by someone yelled, that’s flower! Obviously, the whole bench cracked up, pretty funny,” Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm said. “He was like let’s f—ing go boys as he skated by.”
It worked. The Wild preceded to score right after Fleury skated by the bench and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 7-2 win after scoring five goals in the second period.
“Just to wake up a bit. You know,” Fleury said on why he said what he did. “We’re down by 1 there, so gotta get going. We did though. Freddy got one pretty quickly afterward and the guys got five, so it was good.”
The mustache and wig were Fleury’s idea though. He brought both props from home and figured it would be a good enough disguise.
Photo Credit: NHL on ‘X’
“Yeah I looked for it at home, and I had some stuff. Thought I would hide my face a bit,” Fleury said. “I thought I could go unnoticed but I don’t know, something leaked so the camera found me too.”
As a goalie would, Fleury decided to wear his goalie skates when he was shoveling because that is what he was used to the most. Falling down was a concern but losing his mustache was a bigger concern to him.
“Yeah, I skate better with goalie skates. I didn’t want to fall or something. I was worried about losing my mustache along the way, but we had good glue.”
Wild head coach John Hynes was also locked in on the game and said he didn’t even notice what Fleury did until after the game in the coaches’ room.
“I didn’t notice until after. I wish I knew when it was going on. Nobody said anything on the bench,” Hynes said. “I didn’t even know until later, like after in the coaches’ room.”
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