Flower power: Marc-Andre Fleury records 400th career win

Las Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury joins an elite club after securing 400th career win on Monday.

The Flower continues to bloom in the Las Vegas sun as Marc-Andre Fleury recorded his 400^th career win on Monday with a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Marc-Andre Fleury, or as he is known as “The Flower” by his many fans around the league is only the 13th goalie in the history of the league to win 400 games. This puts him ahead of some of the most legendary goalies to ever strap on the pads including Dominik Hasek and Mike Vernon. He is also joined by fellow league veterans Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo as the only active goalies in the league to have over 400 wins.

This win marks Fleury as one of the most successful goalies to ever play the game, which will not be a surprise to Pittsburgh Penguins and now Las Vegas Golden Knights fans. Fleury spent 13 years with the Penguins organization before coming over to the Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.

In his time with the Penguins, Fleury amassed three Stanley Cup Championships on four trips including two back-to-back championships in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. Even with age and setbacks within the team from a new, younger goaltender in Matt Murray, Fleury performed well in his final year with Pittsburgh.

His season was capped off by a 49-save performance in a 5-2 victory in the series-clinching Game 5 of the first-round of the playoffs against Columbus. He also added a shutout in Game 7 of the second-round against the heavy cup favorite Washington Capitals. This was his last game before handing the reigns to Murray permanently, as he backed him up for the remainder of the playoffs.

Fleury has become revitalized as the face of the franchise for the breakout Las Vegas Golden Knights. He is currently posting a 2.15 GAA and a 0.930 SV%. Contextually speaking, the lowest GAA Fleury ever posted for the Penguins was 2.29 in 2015-16 and his highest SV%? — A whopping 0.921 which he achieved in two separate seasons (2007-08 and 2015-16). He has a career 2.56 GAA and a 0.913 SV% which makes his play this season even more outstanding.

Fleury has also been able to jump back into play without missing a beat this season. The goaltender missed 25 games at the start of the season to a concussion. This being a result of taking an Anthony Mantha knee to the head on Oct. 13. 

The Flower has escaped the dreaded goaltender injury curse that has plagued the Golden Knights, to create a monumental season. The expansion team that no one ever thought would do much has broken pretty much every expansion record. The Las Vegas Golden Knights currently sit third in the entire league with a 45-19-5 record. They currently have 95 points behind only the Nashville Predators and the continuous league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. They have 98 and 100 points respectively.

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The success of the team comes from a combination of many things. Fleury is a key piece in the puzzle that is the Golden Knights. Expect Gerrard Gallant and his team to rely heavily on him going into the playoffs.