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SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Marc-Andre Fleury made his NHL debut in 2003, Macklin Celebrini was nearly three years away from being born.
On Thursday, the two combined for a bit of statistical novelty as the San Jose Sharks phenom and the league’s youngest player scored on the Minnesota Wild goaltender — the NHL’s oldest.
“Good for him,” Fleury said with a laugh, when told about the stat.
Celebrini, the top pick in the NHL draft, scored twice in the Sharks’ 5-2 loss to the Wild. At 18 years old, Celebrini is more than two decades younger than Fleury, who has been in the league for 21 years and has indicated this will be his last season.
“He’s been in the league longer than I’ve been alive, so it’s been amazing to watch his career,” Celebrini said about Fleury. “Obviously, the runs he had with Pittsburgh and Vegas, and even him in Chicago and now Minnesota. He seems like a great personality, and it’s been fun to watch his off-ice antics as much as his on-ice.”
Celebrini’s first goal came when he was in the right spot at the right time on a 3-on-2 rush. His second was a wrist shot, a no-look goal that whistled past Fleury’s glove, off the crossbar and in. The 18-year-old had a team-leading seven shots and his second multi-point performance in three career games in what was his best game yet of his young career.
“He’s got good awareness of where guys are at,” Fleury said. “He’s got a good shot. That last goal, I love. I wish I could get it back, but (it was) still good. Right at the bar above my head. I’ll be looking forward to watching him.”
Fleury himself made history Thursday by playing in his 1,029th career game, tying Patrick Roy for most among NHL goaltenders.
He also won what could have been his last game in San Jose, and is on an eight-game win streak at the Shark Tank. Fleury backstopped the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup in 2016, winning the championship in Game 6 in San Jose.
He said he’ll have fond memories of the building.
“The atmosphere in the Tank is always good when the playoffs come around,” Fleury said. “It’s buzzing. Even in the regular season, they’ve had a good team for so many years while I was playing, and it was always a tough game coming in.”
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