When Fleury first arrived in Minnesota, he took off. He was setting records, racking up wins and making huge saves. The Wild fans even started a few celebration for him, by throwing flowers on the ice, which makes me question why that was never done before.
While Fleury started extremely well in Minnesota, he finished rather poorly. In 4 of his last 5 games he had a .893 save percentage OR BELOW, including an embarrassing loss to the Arizona Coyotes. That's not what you wanted to see from a goalie who was supposed to lead you to the cup.
Cam Talbot on the other hand, who handled the majority of the teams workload before Fleury arrived, was thriving at the end of the season. Since March Talbot has gone 13-0-3 and has not lost a game in regulation, which includes 3 shutouts. He has looked much better than Fleury as of late.
But despite outplaying Fleury and going 32-12-4 for the Wild this season, they have decided to go with Fleury to start game 1.
Marc-Andre Fleury skating into the starter's crease for #mnwild� Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) May 2, 2022
POLL | ||
Who would you have started? | ||
Fleury | 208 | 58.6 % |
Talbot | 147 | 41.4 % |
List of polls |