MONTREAL — Marc-Andre Fleury won three championships with Pittsburgh, was honored as the NHL's top goalie while playing for Vegas and is currently putting the finishing touches on a Hall-of-Fame career from the Wild's crease.
But before all that, Fleury was a kid growing up an hour outside of Montreal whose dad André woke him up in 1993 to watch the Canadiens clinch the Stanley Cup.
"Everything started around here or close to here a long time ago," Fleury said. "It's amazing how fast time goes by, right? I feel very fortunate that I've had the chance to play here many times."
Another opportunity is looming, with Fleury scheduled to face the Canadiens on Tuesday in what could be his last NHL game at Bell Centre, but that's not the only significance behind the start.
By making his season debut, Fleury will officially resume the countdown to becoming the second-winningest goaltender of all time.
"Everyone knows what's at stake when he's in net," winger Marcus Foligno said. "We're really amped up for [the game] and excited. I'm sure he is, too. You want to just take it as another game, but there's a lot riding on the line."
At 544 victories, Fleury needs only eight more to pass childhood idol Patrick Roy for the second most in NHL history.
Fleury is also 15 games away from 1,000, a rare milestone for netminders that only three have achieved.
Although Fleury's been on the bench to start the season, backing up Filip Gustavsson in the team's first two games, the Wild are mindful of his impending accomplishments and President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin feels they're important to acknowledge.
"If you don't care about that stuff, you're going to lose your players," Guerin said.
Plus, if Fleury is approaching Roy's win total, that means the team is having success, too.
"He's earned the right to play in Montreal [on Tuesday]," Guerin said. "We'll figure it out. If he wasn't a good enough goalie, he wouldn't be playing in the league anymore. But he's still a very good goalie."
The Wild haven't been along for the entire journey since Fleury was drafted first overall in 2003 by the Penguins, but they're with him at a key juncture.
In Foligno's mind, that can spark the team.
"You want to get it done," he said. "You don't want to wait until later on. You want to do it early and really set a fire under your team. He's going to appreciate, too, knowing how desperate we are to win for him, and that's just the chemistry you want on a team."
That togetherness could come in handy right about now.
Matt Boldy will be out week-to-week because of an upper-body injury suffered in the 7-4 loss at Toronto on Saturday; already, the Wild are missing captain Jared Spurgeon, who was hurt in the preseason. The only extra player on the road trip is defenseman Dakota Mermis, so the Wild will play 11 forwards and seven defensemen vs. Montreal, with the team planning new pairings: Jake Middleton with Brock Faber and Jonas Brodin next to Calen Addison.
Still, the spotlight will be on Fleury, which is nothing new for the 38-year-old.
"He's a legend in the hockey world, and then you come to Quebec and it's another step," said Wild forward Frederick Gaudreau, who was born 50 miles east of Montreal in Bromont, Quebec. "He's probably one of the most famous Quebecers ever, I would say. Hockey's so big here, and he's one of the biggest that ever played the game from Quebec.
"Yeah, he's, I think, bigger than we all believe."
Fleury won't decide his future until after the season, when his two-year, $7 million contract will expire, but this could be the beginning of the end.
Either way, Fleury is chasing history back where the climb started.
"Looking forward to it," Fleury said. "It's always been obviously a very special place for me to play in. Always been a big hockey fan, a big Canadien fan, so it's always an honor playing in this building."
