Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Fleury leaves game during Golden Knights’ 4-1 win over Vancouver

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Steve Marcus

Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) and center Cody Eakin (21) defend against Vancouver Canucks left wing Jussi Jokinen (36) during the first period of their NHL game at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, March 20, 2017.

Golden Knights Defeat Canucks 4-1

Golden Knights left wing David Perron (57) falls over Vancouver Canucks left wing Brendan Leipsic (9) during the second period of their NHL game at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, March 20, 2017. Launch slideshow »

Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury left Tuesday night’s win over Vancouver after one period with what is believed to be an injury.

Backup Malcolm Subban led the team onto the ice and played the final two periods, making 20 saves to help Vegas to a 4-1 win over the Canucks.

After the game, coach Gerard Gallant didn’t provide an update on Fleury’s status, saying “I haven’t heard nothing yet. The trainers told me he’s not coming back to play and that’s it.”

Subban said he was informed that he would be entering the game somewhere in the middle of the first intermission, and told Lotus Broadcasting’s Ryan Wallis “(I) never want it to happen at the expense of an injury, I hope (Fleury is) doing OK.”

Fleury was hit in the mask or plastic throat protector midway through the first period on a shot by Canucks’ forward Brandon Sutter. He showed no signs of injury and finished the period, but has a history of concussions.

Fleury did not return to the bench at any point of the last two periods, and the emergency goalie was suited up in the tunnel that leads to the Golden Knights' locker room.

It was Subban’s first game action since suffering an injury to a finger on his left hand on Feb. 8.

“As soon as we realized Subban was going in, we talked to each other in the locker room and said let’s make sure we’re strong in front of him,” forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “Subban hasn’t played in a while and he needed us to play a strong defensive game in front of him.”

In a far-from-ideal situation, being sent on the ice in an emergency situation after more than a month off, Subban played admirably.

His first play on the ice came when Vancouver dumped the puck behind his net. Subban corralled the puck with two Canucks closing in on each side and calmly faked to one side and passed the puck to a teammate on the other.

“He was unbelievable,” Bellemare said. “The first play off the bench he made a really easy play for the defenseman. At that point I knew he was in the game.”

Subban stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced, allowing only one goal on a bad-angle shot by Sutter that snuck through Subban’s pads.

“The game felt pretty fast because it’s been a long time since I’ve played a game, but the guys did a good job of making it easy for me,” Subban said. “I was just trying to make every save one by one. The guys made it pretty easy for me. A lot of the shots were from the outside and there weren’t any hard shots.”

Jonathan Marchessault scored his 23rd goal of the season to open the scoring in the first period. It snapped an 11-game scoreless drought for him, his longest of the season.

Cody Eakin and Bellemare both scored to build the lead to 3-0 in the first period, and Tomas Tatar extended it to 4-0 in the second period.

“I thought we were in control of the game all night tonight and that’s real fun,” Gallant said. “For 60 minutes I thought we played great hockey.”

The Golden Knights are one point away from 100, and maintained their eight-point lead atop the Pacific Division, but the focus is on the health of their all-star goaltender.

In his absence, Subban played well. The question remains how much will he have to play going forward.

“(Subban) looked real confident,” Gallant said. “It’s been over a month since he played and I was really impressed. I was real happy with him. And that’s him. He’s an athletic guy, so he jumps in there and it seems like he never missed a beat.”

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