SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Marc-Andre Fleury made his NHL debut in 2003, Macklin Celebrini was nearly three years removed from his birth.
The two together provided some statistical novelty, as the San Jose Sharks phenom and the league's youngest player met the Minnesota Wild goaltender – the NHL's oldest.
“Good for him,” Fleury said with a laugh when she learned the statistic.
Celebrini, the top pick in the NHL draft, scored two goals in the Sharks' 5-2 loss to the Wild. At 18, Celebrini is more than two decades younger than Fleury, who has been in the league for 21 years and has indicated this will be his final season.
“He’s been in the league longer than I’ve been alive, so it’s been great watching his career,” Celebrini said of Fleury. “Obviously the runs he had with Pittsburgh and Vegas, and even with him in Chicago and now Minnesota. He seems like a great personality and it was just as fun watching his antics off the ice as it was on it.”
Celebrini's first goal came when he was in the right place at the right time in a 3-on-2 rush. His second was a wrist shot, an unremarkable goal that shot past Fleury's glove, off the crossbar and into the goal. The 18-year-old had a team-leading seven shots and his second multi-point performance in three career games was his best game of his young career.
“He has a good sense of where the guys are at,” Fleury said. “He has a good shot. I like the last goal. I wish I could get it back but it was still good. Right at the bar above my head. I’m looking forward to watching him.”
Fleury himself made history by winning his 1,029th birthday. career game, making Patrick Roy the most NHL goaltender.
He also won what may be his final game in San Jose and is on an eight-game winning streak on Shark Tank. Fleury was the backstopper for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 Stanley Cup, winning the championship in Game 6 in San Jose.
He said he will have fond memories of the building.
“The atmosphere in the tank is always good when the playoffs come around,” Fleury said. “It’s buzzing. Even in the regular season, for as many years as I played, they had a good team and it was always a tough game before the game.”
