In Vancouver, the Chicago Blackhawks’ Marc-Andre Fleury made 40 saves in a 1-0 win over the Canucks on Sunday.
“It’s fun when it doesn’t go in,” Fleury said. “Definitely some help from my posts. I’ll buy them dinner, or maybe fresh paint. Just treat them a bit. They were good to me. I think they had like four or five posts. It’s fun, though. It’s a challenge and if I can keep the game close, I always believe we can get some goals and we did get a huge one there in the third.”
Chicago’s Brandon Hagel broke a scoreless tie at 4:12 of the third period for the game’s only goal.
“Unbelievable,” Hagel said of Fleury. “That’s the reason why he’s won [three] Stanley Cups and was a Vezina [Trophy] winner last year. It showed tonight and it was nice to have a front-row seat for it, that’s for sure. … His saves definitely give us a little bit more life on the bench, like ‘okay, this guy is going so we better pick it up a little.’ He definitely bailed us out.”
Chicago improved to 6-10-2.
“Your goalie is always a reflection of the team, right?” Fleury said. “We’ve been playing better. We had a rough one yesterday in Edmonton but other than that we’ve been playing hard, guys have been trying their best every night to defend better, not give up as many breakaways, 2-on-1s and odd-man rushes. We’ve done a better job of that the last week or so here and I think it shows the amount of goals that we give up.”
The Canucks dropped to 6-11-2.
“It’s frustrating that we lost tonight. I’m not disappointed in how we played,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “Probably take that game every night, probably win it eight or nine times out of 10.”
Thatcher Demko made 23 saves in the Canucks loss.
“They probably found their legs in the third,” Vancouver’s Connor Garland said. “… They found their legs and they pushed.”
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