Habs Highlights: Canadiens Fans Give Marc-Andre Fleury Ovation

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, a game that would feature Sorel-native Marc-Andre Fleury starting at the Bell Centre for the final time of his career.

Head coach Martin St-Louis was forced to ice new pairings due to Kaiden Guhle’s unfortunate injury, which led to Arber Xhekaj receiving a promotion to play alongside Lane Huston on the second pairing, while Alexandre Carrier and Mike Matheson were tasked with first-pairing duties, and Jayden Struble completed the third pairing with David Savard. Rafael Harvey-Pinard made his season debut, while rookie Jakub Dobes was given his seventh career start.

It wasn’t a particularly notable game for the Habs, but Fleury came to play, registering the 76th shutout of his career during the 4-0 win by the Wild.

Slower Than Slow

The first period was quite interesting, in the sense that there was absolutely nothing of interest to discuss. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two teams finish a period without having generated a single high-danger chance between them, but that was the case on Thursday.

The Habs failed to generate any speed through the neutral zone, and to make matters worse, when they did get a half decent chance, they threw it away, just as Patrik Laine did when he tried to force a pass to Christian Dvorak during a 2v1.

Compounding Mistakes

The second period was slightly better, in the sense that the Habs actually managed to register a couple of high-danger chances at 5v5. The bad news is that the Wild had seven of their own, including two goals. You’d be hard-pressed to blame Dobes for either scoring play, especially since the Canadiens made a series of mistakes to make life easier on the Wild.

There was a brief moment in the third period that would have led you to believe the Canadiens were interested in fighting for the two points that were on the line, but Fleury stood tall during the rare scoring chances for the home team.

Marc-André Fleury’s big save on Josh Anderson: pic.twitter.com/3kcpkUHuR2

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 31, 2025

I have no doubt some will blame the officiating for Thursday’s loss, but the Canadiens can’t control the referees. They can, however, make better decisions while on the ice. The effort level, in particular, left a lot to be desired.

Montreal showed signs of life late in the third period, but it was too little, too late. The referees did not force the Habs to take the three quarters of the game off. That’s a recurring issue the Canadiens will need to address in the near future if they want a chance to fight for the final Wild Card spot in the East.

The Habs have lost almost every single puck battle tonight.

Minnesota with a well-earned 3-0 lead: pic.twitter.com/IHzotGsUrE

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 31, 2025

Highlight Of The Night

Even though it was a night to forget for the Canadiens, Thursday did offer a great moment, as the Bell Centre faithful gave Fleury an ovation to signal their appreciation for an impressive career, not only in the NHL, but in international play as well.

Any NHL player reaching 1000 games is evidence of a great career, but a goaltender reaching 1000 games is the signature of a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

The Bell Centre gives their tribute to Marc-André Fleury with a lengthy standing ovation from the Montreal faithful 🥹 pic.twitter.com/d1lOYxQLu9

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 31, 2025

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Sunday. They will face the Ducks in Anaheim, with the puck drop scheduled for 4 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.