The Wild enjoyed a productive goalie tandem a season ago, albeit one that evolved beyond what they might have expected as the year went on.
Forget the history books; Marc-Andre Fleury is here to save the Wild now
Veteran Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury became the Wild's No. 2 option in the playoffs last year and entered this season ostensibly in the same place. But his recent play could change that.
November 8, 2023 at 9:16PM
Marc-Andre Fleury began the year as the clear No. 1, but by virtue of Filip Gustavsson's play it became a methodical goalie rotation as the Wild hit their stride during the final two-thirds of the season. The Gus Bus started rolling so well that he was the obvious choice to take the net in the playoffs, getting five of six starts in a tough series loss to Dallas.
Gustavsson got a three-year contract in the offseason and entered this year as the No. 1 option in a time share that had the feel of a likely 65/35, not 50/50 playing time split.
Fleury, in the final year of his contract and perhaps the final season of an illustrious career, would comfortably chase some all-time goalie leader records and keep the crease warm until top prospect Jesper Wallstedt was ready to join Gustavsson as the new tandem.
But now? Plans seem to be evolving again, as I talked about on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
The Gus Bus has a flat tire, or two, if we are to extend this tortured metaphor. Even after a season-opening shutout, Gustavsson's goals against average is a ghastly 4.89. In his last game, he gave up three goals on four shots before giving way to Fleury.
At that point, the Wild were down 3-0 to the red-hot Rangers and were already on a four-game losing streak.
From there, Fleury steadied them enough that the Wild rallied for an improbable but important 5-4 shootout win during which Fleury made key stops to get to overtime and to win the extra point. And then he was solid again Tuesday in a 4-2 win over the Islanders that qualified as one of their most complete efforts of the season.
Fleury is now just five wins from passing Patrick Roy for second place on the all-time wins list for goalies. But forget about that for now — or at least put it on the backburner.
What's more important is that the Wild might need whatever Fleury has left to give in the present while Gustavsson battles through his funk and Wallstedt — who won't turn 21 until next week and is off to a good start in Iowa — continues to develop.
Here are four more things to know today:
*Not all of the Wild's struggles to keep the puck out of the net are on the goalies, which was evidenced by the blue line shakeup Wednesday that involved two trades.
*Vikings QB Josh Dobbs posted a wonderful TikTok video after leading the 31-28 comeback victory. I asked him about it on Wednesday.
"I usually do my own, but I didn't do that edit. I did pick the song. I did pick the Creed," Dobbs said, referring to the band that has been an improbable good luck charm for the Vikings. "I definitely have to take credit for that part."
*Discipline for Michigan and head coach Jim Harbaugh in the sign stealing fiasco could be coming as early as this week.
*Columnist Chip Scoggins will join Thursday's podcast to talk about his latest excellent long feature — a story that will also go online Thursday morning.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
