Fleury has found peace since father’s passing

It took time for Marc-Andre Fleury to get over the loss of his father, who passed away in late 2019. The future Hall of Fame goaltender says the NHL shutdown one year ago helped cope at a tough time. (Photo courtesy: Vegas Golden Knights)

LAS VEGAS -- It's been an honor to cover some of the greatest athletes who've graced Las Vegas at some point during my writing career.

And yet I'm still not sure I've met someone like Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Now in their fourth season in the city I've been a part of for 49 years, it's always been refreshing to interview the future Hall-of-Fame netminder. Whether it's been a 1-on-1 at his locker, or among the throngs of media who pile around his domain at City National Arena after practices or T-Mobile Arena after games.

You would think this guy would be tired of it by now. Eh, who am I fooling? Nobody wants to answer the same trivial questions on a daily basis, so he's likely a little tired of us. He just doesn't show it.

When you meet Fleury and get to know him on any level - on the record or off of it - you understand his character is even better than what you've heard. I can't tell you the number of times I needed one question answered, but when the recorder went off he and I ended up talking for 10 or 15 minutes.

Whether it was the time he grinned ear-to-ear because two little girls attending practice at City National made him glitter-laced signs and gave them to him, or times we've talked about how much he's enjoyed being in Las Vegas with his family, or swapped stories about our kids, or when we've talked about the proper muscle recovery and how we share the common practice of cupping therapy.

Fact is, I'm probably one of the dozens of reporters he's built a rapport with during his 17-year career because he treats everybody with the same kindness. He seems to make time for everyone. And believe me, our conversations have been aplenty.

It's the most recent one for me that was a bit tougher.

COPING... YEAH

On Jan. 3, 2019 - 37 days after Fleury lost his father Andre after a long battle with lung cancer - he spoke briefly to me about it during a 1-on-1 for a separate story, saying that getting back to normal with his teammates and talking about anything but his father's death made coping easier.

"We just got back to normal," he said then. "We don't talk about hockey much, we just go and think about something else and talk about something else."

This is why my appreciation for the greatest hockey player I'll probably ever get to interview runs a bit deeper after he approved a one-on-one interview for this month's theme at WGRamirez.com: "Coping with Loss."

When Fleury and I just spoke in late February, he admitted it took some time to get used to playing in games and not having his father to call. It was a tradition he enjoyed following games, be it directly afterward or the next day. It was something he looked forward to, quite frankly, any day of the week.

Those normal everyday conversations fathers and sons have, Fleury doesn't anymore.

"I've gotten used to living away from him, playing hockey," he said. "We have a busy life, so sometimes you kind of - not forget - but you get busy, right? So I think maybe you don't think as much about him. But still nowadays, driving in my car, wish I could give him a call and just chit chat a bit about life, about hockey, about family and stuff."

Fleury stopped, and as he's done often in his distinct and sharp French accept, abruptly ended his thought with a, "Yeah," as if to say, "next question."

This time it sounded a bit emotional.

Surprisingly, if there is one person who looks back at the world shutting down due to COVID-19 and is somewhat thankful, it's Fleury, who make no mistake loves being on the ice. But with so much he had to endure mentally and emotionally, cherishing moments with his wife Véronique, and their children, Estelle, Scarlett, and James became precious, and healing.

Holding it together professionally, as he always does, Fleury explained how it gave him time to reflect. It gave him time to grieve properly while spending time with his family. It gave him time to enjoy an elongated period time of normalcy while being a husband and father.

"It was a nice break in the season before the bubble," Fleury said. "(Then) it was a little bit easier to just play hockey at that time. I still had him in mind a lot during the bubble time. I feel like if he were here still I would thank him for helping me and stuff."

Again, under a collective breath, this one a bit easier to get out, "Yeah."

It still hurts, he told me. That's obvious. He said he'll always miss the man who was more than a father. That's obvious, too.

It's the coping with everything that comes with loss that Fleury had a difficult time with, in the beginning, and occasionally still does.

Being just one of the guys and staying out of the spotlight, if that's even possible when you're one of the world's greatest goaltenders, is more his wheelhouse. He enjoys a locker room with nobody but teammates in it, he enjoys playing dastardly pranks on them and his friends during road trips, and he enjoys the team dinners when no one else is around.

It's all part of how he was able to soothe that painful process in his life that enabled him to get back to playing the game he's enjoyed since he was a little boy growing up in Canada.

"It's pretty remarkable," said Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith. "A lot of it shows the character he has. From day one I've been able to play with him he shows up to the rink with a big smile on his face and he's happy to be there. He's had the same, really all the energy in the world every single day. I don't know how he does it sometimes, but that's just who he is. I just think that's why he's had so much success because he really enjoys showing up to the rink every day."

Yeah.

BLOOMING

Marc-Andre Fleury boasted a league-best 1.73 GAA on March 11, and continues to have a career season. (Photo courtesy: Vegas Golden Knights)

Fleury has had moments in his career where he's evolved and in some way resurrected his career more than once. After a couple of tough playoff runs in Pittsburgh, he was able to evolve his game and breathe new life into it. He's always embraced ways to improve on the ice. But when it comes to adapting and improving off the ice, it's a whole different animal in being able to find peace and comfort, while allowing that to translate into how you perform in games.

It would be foolish to think any athlete can compartmentalize everything in his or her life after something traumatic happens and be able to play. For Fleury, when not with his wife and children, his happy place is indeed on the ice. The amazing about Fleury is he's not only gotten through arguably the toughest period in his life, but he's gotten through it and gotten to be the best goaltender we've seen from him.

For someone in his 17th season, it might be easy for anyone else to say, 'I've had enough emotionally, I've completed what I want in this game,' and ride things out. It's the complete opposite with Fleury.

In fact, he's dug deeper.

After enduring his fifth-highest goals-against average for a season last year, at 2.77, the man the world affectionately calls Flower is blooming with what would be a career-best 1.73 GAA as of March 11, when he was placed on the NHL's unable to practice or play COVID protocol list. Last year he registered his third-worst save-percentage (.905); this year he's on pace to record his best, currently at .938.

How well is this season going? After a false-positive COVID test quarantined him to a hotel room for the better part of two days, and he was ruled okay to return to the team, he went out and beat the St. Louis Blues in their arena on back-to-back nights.

The correlation to his father's passing early during the 2019-20 season may or may not translate to what was an off-year for Fleury, but the numbers don't lie.

Last year, or this.

"I don't know if I'm surprised," Fleury said of his play. "I know that's what I expect for myself. I want to be good; I want to win and give my team a chance of winning every night. I've had a chance to play a little bit more with Robin (Lehner's) injury. It's been fun, it's been fun playing in there and battling every night to try to win those games. I feel like we are playing every other day, not much time to sit back and think about it.

"I think I let go a bit more before this season started. Obviously, last season I wanted maybe to do too much to prove what I can do. I still wanted to play a lot. I think this year I just tried my best in camp, tried to be in shape before camp, and just go play whenever I had the chance to play."

The 36-year-old has seemingly taken the things in his life that have happened and translated them into inspiration and motivation. And while it's the mark of a truly gifted athlete, it's also revealed a compassionate person that sees the big picture. Fleury knows and understands he's playing for more than himself. The three-time Stanley Cup champion is playing for his teammates, he's playing for his family, he's playing for the fans and the city of Las Vegas, he's playing for those who have gotten him to where he is in his career.

That perspective comes with age and it comes with maturity in his game. Fleury is at that point where he's playing so free and having fun, and totally aware of everything but not dwelling on it. It's quite impressive.

"I know I am very fortunate to be in Vegas, my family loves it here," Fleury said, adding that being here has been a helping mechanism during the grieving process. "It's a good year, it's a fun year, it's still early in the season. I guess I'm trying to enjoy all of it, and just trying to win some games. And now we'll get some fans back, right, so I think that's fun too. I feel like I definitely missed them a lot, missed the atmosphere and the excitement, the emotion you get when people are yelling. So I think the rest of the season will be more fun. It's a bunch of good guys on the team.

"There's not many years left."

Former Pittsburgh teammate Sidney Crosby extended me the opportunity to speak to him privately last year while I was working on the last feature I wrote about Fleury and touched on when he thought his close friend might put the goalie pads away for good.

"I think it's hard for anybody to know how you're gonna feel year to year," Crosby said. "I've seen guys who want to play until they're kicked out, and guys who want to play until they can't play at maybe the level they want to play at, and they're gonna go out on their own terms. I'm sure Flower's got some good years left in him so I'm sure he's not thinking that far ahead, but it'll be something, like anyone when you get to that point, you do what's best for you and your family.

"He seems like he's got a pretty good way of life here. I know his family loves it here, obviously, you see the way the fans treat him. He's become a big part of their team and the face of their team. I'm really happy to see him doing well and have a great set up like he does."

Fleury has the greatest reputation in hockey as the best teammate, the nicest guy, the hardest worker - all the intangibles you want in a professional athlete. And you don't know it until you meet a professional athlete first-hand, and spend time around them in some capacity, to actually comprehend that.

The hallmark of a caring person is how he or she values those around them, and not just the people in an immediate circle.

Fleury values people in general, which says a lot about the way he was raised, something that is usually passed down from parents. People that are referred to as the best teammates and the nicest people, carry the character traits and attributes Fleury was raised by and that he lives by daily. They're the same characteristics he said he hopes he's sharing with his children.

"There's ups and downs in our seasons with wins and losses and stuff, and I think it's important to stay even-keeled mentally through all this," Fleury said.

Yeah.