ANALYSIS: Blackhawks Rally Around Fleury in Netminder's Return to Vegas

The motivation for the team as a whole was pretty simple on Saturday night in Vegas.
"We owe it to Flower to come out and play a full 60 and get him a win tonight," Kirby Dach said before the game. "He's been our backbone all year and there's more than a handful of games that he's won for us. So we need to step up."
Saturday's game was Marc-Andre Fleury's game.

POSTGAME LINKS
GAMECENTER: CHI at VGK
RECAP: Fleury Leads Blackhawks to Victory in Vegas, 2-1
HIGHLIGHTS: Blackhawks at Golden Knights
GALLERY: Blackhawks at Golden Knights

ALL FOR FLEURY

As soon as Fleury committed to the Blackhawks this summer, taking a few days to discuss the potential move with his family after being traded from Vegas in late July, you can bet that Jan. 8 was circled on his calendar. It was undoubtedly circled on the calendars of the Golden Knights faithful, who quickly idolized their franchise's first starting netminder from the moment he was taken in the expansion draft back in 2017.
Saturday night was an emotional one on all fronts for Fleury and everyone inside T-Mobile Arena as the future Hall of Famer returned to his second NHL home for the very first time. A pregame video tribute and a standing ovation left Fleury visibly teary-eyed before the opening puck drop.

"Oh, yeah. Geez. They had me going a bit," Fleury said with his trademark smile after the game. "Just the whole time was very special. Even before the game, on the bench, doing my little routine in the empty arena and in warmup having so many people close to the glass with signs and jerseys and stuff. It was awesome."
Whether it be the emotions or the screen of bodies in front, Vegas beat their friend-turned-foe as a Ben Hutton point shot off a draw rose above Fleury's shoulder for an early 1-0 Golden Knights lead. The goal served as an early moment to re-focus -- 'That's it,' Fleury recalled thinking in the moment -- and from there he was perfect, making 27 straight saves the rest of the way.
Chicago got scoring from perhaps unlikely places as Jujhar Khaira netted his third of the season early in the second and then Riley Stillman his first of the year later in the middle frame. Defensively, the team shut everything else down -- with some crucial stops from Fleury along the way -- and kept a lot of the Vegas action to the exterior of the rink en route to the 2-1 win.
"Just solid. That's a good hockey team and they put us on our heels at times, but there was no panic, really," interim head coach Derek King said. "We looked a little chaotic at times, but we held our own. Flower made some saves when we needed it, obviously, and then we had some contributions from other guys. It was great."
Fleury put an exclamation mark on the victory in the final minute of play as Vegas pulled former Blackhawk Robin Lehner for the extra attacker. A cross-crease pass made its way to Evgenii Dadonov on the weak side of the ice, but a diving Fleury made a chest save moving post-to-post to deny the late bid for the equalizer, quite literally saving his best save for last.
Despite taking the full two points away from the home crowd, Fleury was saluted as he left the ice after the game, just like he was in Montreal after winning his 500th NHL game last month. In sports, he's a rarity as someone who is hard to root against. Who he is as a person and as a player universally earns the utmost respect from teammates, fans, even on-ice enemies -- anyone he has crossed paths with over his 18 NHL seasons.
"I'm very lucky and fortunate to still play hockey and to do what I love," he said. "To have the respect of my teammates and the fans and people in the community, that means a lot to me. It's something I want when I leave the game. I don't want to just be known as a hockey player. That's why it's sometimes emotional for me to have those nights."

CONNOLLY BACK IN ACTION

Forward Brett Connolly returned to the Blackhawks lineup on Saturday night after serving a four-game suspension for interference during Dec. 18's game in Dallas.
That game was the veteran's second NHL game of the season after a lengthy stint in Rockford to start the year and in his first shift of the game, delivered a mis-timed hit on Stars defenseman Tanner Kero. The hit knocked Kero unconscious and the blueliner was stretchered off the ice. Connolly was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit, one that left him visibly shaken on the ice immediately afterwards and long after the game. He spoke for the first time since the incident on Saturday morning.
"It's unfortunate. All that matters is that he's OK," said Connolly, who told reporters he's had conversations with Kero since the incident. "I was as shocked as anyone when it happened. It was not an enjoyable experience to see that for anyone. Just happy that he's OK and that he's going to recover and make a full recovery… it was nice to just have fluid conversations with him to tell him that I honestly did not mean to do that."
"I know he's not a dirty player," Stars' head coach Rick Bowness said the night of the hit. "I coached him in Tampa and he's a great kid. It's just hockey, Brett Connolly would never intentionally hurt anyone, so I don't hold that against him. It's unfortunate that happened."
In his first game back, Connolly logged 12:23 of ice time and tied a team-high with three shots on goal.