Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) warms up prior to a game against the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, April 4, 2019.
Thursday, April 4, 2019 | 10:35 p.m.
Of course, the Golden Knights would have rather won Thursday’s game at T-Mobile Arena. They lost to the Arizona Coyotes 4-1, but they accomplished their biggest goal.
They got their goalie back.
Marc-Andre Fleury hadn’t played in nine games and looked sharp in his return, making 37 saves and giving a boost to a team that will rely heavily on him in the playoffs.
“It’s fun to get back into it and see a game situation,” Fleury said. “A few times I think I made some saves I was happy with, got a little smile.”
Fleury was the biggest reason that Vegas’ inaugural season lasted as long as it did. In the first three rounds of the playoffs, Fleury had a 1.68 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage. If the Golden Knights are going to make another deep run, they’re going to need a healthy Fleury.
Before Thursday night, they didn’t know they had that. Practice is one thing, but until they see him in a game, which they hadn’t since March 15, they couldn’t be sure. He assuaged any concerns of that, looking for most of the evening like last postseason’s Fleury.
“He’s right back to where he was,” defenseman Deryk Engelland said. “He kept the game a lot closer than it was.”
Fleury did surrender four goals, but the defense didn’t do him many favors, turning the puck over next to him twice and knocking into him to let in a score. Even in the third period when the outcome of the game was decided, Fleury made multiple big saves to give the team a reason to smile even after it skated off the ice with a loss.
The result of the game didn’t matter much. The Golden Knights were facing a team scratching and clawing to get into the postseason, and the desperation showed in the Coyotes. They traded blows in the first, but Arizona took over in the second and scored four unanswered goals to win.
“He got lots of shots, lots of work, more than I’d like him to get. But he looked real good, real sharp,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I’m disappointed in the way we played, but we’ll get through it.”
The Golden Knights finished with a 24-12-5 home record, five wins shy of last year’s record at T-Mobile Arena. They will open the playoffs on the road next week instead of at home, and if they advance deep in the postseason, they'll likely have to do it without home-ice advantage in any series.
But they will have a healthy Fleury. And as long as they have him on his game, they will be just fine.
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