CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — There was a time when Marc-Andre Fleury would take days like Friday for granted. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, too.
Days when the four players most closely associated with the Pittsburgh Penguins' run of excellence 2008-17 — an era in which they played for the Stanley Cup four times and raised it above their head in triumph three — would spend an hour competing against each other during training camp, gather for a picture afterward for whomever might stop by and think nothing of it.
Not this time. Not when it was the last time.
And it is, the second-winningest goalie in NHL history stressed, the last time.
Wearing a specially-made mask featuring various symbols of his 21-year career and the No. 29 jersey that may someday soon find itself hanging in the rafters at PPG Paints Arena, Fleury made it a point to drink in every last moment of his final practice as a professional ahead of a one-period cameo during the Penguins' preseason game against Columbus on Saturday.
Skating onto the ice in front of several hundred fans who chanted his name and carried signs like "We Came All The Way From Canada To See You Come Home," Fleury did what he did nearly every day of his two-plus decade stay in the NHL: he leaned into it.
There he was, theatrically flopping his signature yellow pads in an attempt to stop a Crosby deflection. There he was, laughing after robbing Letang with a glove save. There he was, making Malkin shake his head after turning the Russian star away from in close.
"That might be what I love the most (about hockey), just to be on the ice and have a lot of shots, see the guys a bunch (and) be able to chirp a little bit," Fleury said afterward while sitting in his familiar corner stall inside the club's dressing room. "Yeah, it’s a lot of fun for me."
The 40-year-old officially retired from the NHL as a member of the Minnesota Wild in the spring but signed a professional tryout contract with the Penguins earlier this month after being approached by Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas, who wanted the future Hall of Famer to take one final bow in the city where he remains beloved nearly a decade since leaving in the 2017 expansion draft.
While the pathologically upbeat Fleury joked afterward he wished he had more stamina, for about 90 minutes there were flashes of the form - and the style - that helped the Penguins morph from the worst team in the league when he arrived as the top overall pick in the 2003 draft to two-time defending Stanley Cup champions when he left.
"It’s just the enthusiasm," Crosby said. "I think the energy that he brings, it’s really unique."
The franchise relied on that energy, particularly early on in Fleury's 13-year stay. Wins were hard to come by in the early days as the Penguins poured the foundation of what came as close to a dynasty as the NHL allows in the salary-cap era.
Yet the losing and the pressure never seemed to get to Fleury. He simply kept moving forward. Six years after he arrived, the player universally known as "Flower" sealed the franchise's third championship by making a diving stop of Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom in the waning seconds of Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup finals.
The save - an athletically unorthodox act of desperation that encapsulated his talent - cemented Fleury's spot in Penguins history. And while he went on to have great success elsewhere, including guiding the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to the Cup finals in 2018 and winning the Vezina Trophy as the game's top goalie in 2021, Pittsburgh was never too far from his mind. Or his heart.
Every return trip to the city where he came of age over the last eight years felt a little strange. Not just for Fleury but for a crowd thrilled to see him while simultaneously hoping he'd lose.
Those mixed emotions for all involved are gone now and his unexpected (if brief) return represents a full-circle moment not just for Fleury, but the Penguins.
While Crosby remains a force at 38, Pittsburgh is no longer a playoff fixture. Dubas is overseeing a youth movement that includes young goaltenders like Sergei Murashov, who wasn't even born when Fleury made his NHL debut. Fleury spent a portion of practice kneeling alongside the 21-year-old Russian, listening and offering a little bit of advice.
Asked what that advice might be, one of the league's notorious practical jokers just laughed.
"'You better try hard, I’m coming to take your spot,'" Fleury said.
Only, he's not. Though he thinks his wife Veronique is "tired of him already," Fleury has not had any second thoughts about stepping away from the game he played so passionately and so well for so long.
"I've found out there's nothing else I can do. There's nothing else I can do that will fulfill that hole, right, of playing hockey," Fleury said. "But at the same time, I’m older, slower, more hurt, you know, a little more sore, and less flexible, less fast, maybe.
"Yeah, I think it’s time."
