Ryan Hartman has the impression that he and the Minnesota Wild players are not giving enough to allow goaltender Marc-André Fleury to join Patrick Roy for second place in history for victories.
The Quebecer only needs six wins to reach the mark of 551 of the former Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche. However, valuable opportunities have been wasted so far this season.
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“We have a guy who is six games away from being No. 2, and we’re not doing enough. “It’s enough motivation to do our best every game,” Hartman told the Star Tribune after Sunday’s loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Fleury has won just one of his four starts, while maintaining a 3.25 goals-against average and an .888 save percentage. The problems are widespread for the Wild, who have the worst goals allowed per game average (4.11) in the league after nine games. It was also painful in terms of the chances allowed to the opponent and even at five against five.
The 38-year-old goalkeeper still has a lot of time ahead of him to join Roy, but this statistic is on the minds of his teammates. Hartman can’t wait to be able to celebrate Fleury’s feat, and above all, for the Wild to get back to their good habits.
“He’s going to get there, and I know he’s not thinking about it,” assured the striker. But I do, and I know other guys do too. We want to be there, witness this, do it for him and help him, but we haven’t really helped him.”
Now behind Filip Gustavsson in the hierarchy in Minnesota, Fleury should also compete in his 1000e career match this season. He is 11 duels away from this plateau only reached by three goalkeepers before him, namely Roy, Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo.