INSTANT ANALYSIS: Fleury Achieves Career Milestone on Full-Circle Night

Marc-Andre Fleury is forever cemented as one of the NHL's all-time best netminders.
On Thursday night, he joined Martin Brodeur (691) and Patrick Roy (551) as only the third goalie ever to reach 500 career wins, doing so faster than either in just 901 career games.
"You saw the names... It's unbelievable," interim head coach Derek King said. "You're not going to see this often."
"Still have goosebumps thinking about it," Fleury added of the moment.

POSTGAME LINKS
GAMECENTER: CHI at MTL
RECAP: Fleury Picks Up 500th Win in Shutout of Canadiens, 2-0
RELEASE: Blackhawks Acquire Gabriel
HIGHLIGHTS: Blackhawks at Canadiens
GALLERY: Blackhawks at Canadiens
INSIDER:Candid Convo with Interim GM Kyle Davidson

FLEURY 500

The win is the goal heading into any game, but the poetry in front of the Blackhawks as they entered Centre Bell on Thursday night was something they weren't going to let pass up. Fleury, one win away from an elite goaltender threshold, was starting in net just an hour away from where he grew up and facing the team he idolized as a kid.
"I think everybody knew that we wanted to win for him," King said. "That made it special, especially he's in his backyard."
"It's amazing. It's so fitting that he gets the win here in Montreal, too," Jonathan Toews added. "The greats that he's joined with 500 wins just in the home of so many great goaltenders here in Montreal. Pretty cool for everyone in that locker room. I think we all feel pretty honored to be part of that one."
Another low-scoring affair from Chicago, the new norm under Derek King, saw the Blackhawks take a 1-0 lead into the third period, with the inevetable pressure creeping into everyone's mind. Henrik Borgstrom scored to double the lead with eight minutes left on the clock, and as the final minutes down, Fleury made 10-bell save after 10-bell save to make sure it was the night.
With 20 seconds to play, the fans in Montreal started to chant "Fleury! Fleury!", recognizing the history they were about to witness for one of their own, a Quebecois. His teammates mobbed him in the crease when the clock read triple zeroes and the opposing crowd erupted even louder as the public address announcer congratulated Fleury on win No. 500 and announce him as the game's first star -- not bothering to round out the group.

"I didn't think they liked me too much here. I've been booed and yelled at a lot throughout my career. I don't know why, but this building, I've always had a tough time winning games," Fleury said. "Meant a lot, meant a lot. To touch so many people from Quebec, being proud of me being from here, it was cool."
"This was great. What a classy thing with the Has fans," King said. "We thought we'd stay on the ice just as coaches just to maybe give him some knuckles, but the fans -- I've never seen anything like that before. I thought it was great. The Monreal fans, and then our players were jumping up and down. I'm glad it's over with, that he got it."
All in all, it was a full-circle moment for the inevitable future Hall of Famer -- someone who never thought he'd play in the league, much less become one of the best to ever do so.
"The NHL always seemed too good for me, too far ahead. I never thought I was actually going to make it. I just kept playing, trying my best and having fun with it," he said. "Since the beginning of my career, it's always special when I come to Montreal and play here just because I've grown up idolizing them... My friends, my family, everyone's watching. A lot of them were at the game tonight. It's fun.

SNAP CITY

While the offense as a whole hasn't been firing at a high rate over the last few weeks in front of Fleury and Kevin Lankinen, some key contributors have snapped significant scoring droughts over the last eight days.
Dominik Kubalik snapped a 17-game scoreless drought a week ago Thursday in Washington. Kirby Dach ended a 17-game slump of his own on Tuesday against the Rangers. And Jonathan Toews netted his first of the year in Montreal, shattering a 25-game run without a tally.
"It felt good," said Toews of his first regular-season tally since March 5, 2020. "The guys almost wanted to jump on the ice and celebrate, that's probably not a good sign."
It was an admittedly frustrating start to the season offensively for the captain, who now has 10 points (1G, 9A) in 26 games, but hopefully Tuesday's monkey-off-the-back goal will spark something special.
"It was great to see Jonathan get one," King said. "Now he can kind of take a deep breath and hopefully that snowballs into more. "