Marc-André Fleury displayed youthful confidence and fluidity on Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre, perhaps his last visit to Montreal. He took the opportunity to move within six victories of Patrick Roy and second place on the all-time list.
The day before, Corey Perry scored his first goal of the season in Toronto, a fourth point in as many games, and he even allowed himself to taunt the crowd and the colossus Ryan Reaves.
At 38 years old, Fleury and Perry are two of the six survivors of the formidable 2003 vintage, one of the best in the history of the National Hockey League.
Ryan Suter and Joe Pavelski still play a leading role in Dallas, especially Pavelski, 77 points last year, Jeff Carter is hanging on in Pittsburgh and Brent Burns remains a key defender in Carolina, playing over 23 minutes per game since start of the season and got three points in four games.
This vintage produced 16 players who played more than 1,000 games and four players with more than 1,000 points: Eric Staal, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Pavelski. There are also around ten captains and four goalkeepers in the top sixty in terms of victories, Fleury, Jaroslav Halak, Brian Elliott and Corey Crawford. Jimmy Howard isn’t far behind at 67th.
In 2002, seven players over 1000 games and none over 1000 points. In 2004, there were eight 1000 game players and only two 1000 point players, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.
Every player drafted in the first round played at least one game in the NHL, a singular feat. Only three, Hugh Jessiman (2), Marc-Antoine Pouliot (192) and Shawn Belle (20) have played fewer than 200, and 29 of the 38 second-round picks have played at least one game in the National League, and ten played 400 or more (Loui Eriksson, Kevin Klein, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Carle, Shea Weber, Corey Crawford, B. J. Crombeen, Maxim Lapierre, David Backes and Jimmy Howard.
In 2002, only 17 players selected in the second round reached the NHL for even one game, and 19 in 2004.
Eric Staal, Patrice Bergeron, Marc-André Fleury, Corey Crawford, Dustin Brown, Corey Perry, Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Seabrook, Braydon Coburn, Dustin Byfuglien, Mike Richards, Nathan Horton all helped their respective teams win the Cup Stanley.
Most of the members of this vintage have won trophies. Brent Burns won the Norris in 2017 and has been a finalist twice. Shea Weber has been a finalist three times, Ryan Suter and Dion Phaneuf once each.
Corey Perry won the Hart Trophy as the team’s most valuable player in 2011 and Ryan Getzlaf was a finalist in 2014. Patrice Bergeron won the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward six times and Ryan Kesler once .
Marc-André Fleury finally got his hands on the Vezina Trophy in 2021, at age 36, after an exceptional season in Vegas. Perry won the Maurice Richard Trophy with 50 goals in 2011.
The winning team of this vintage happens to be Anaheim, undeniably. They didn’t draft until 19th overall. They got their hands on two players with more than 1,000 points and 1,000 games, Getzlaf and Perry, thanks to the flair of the Ducks’ chief recruiter at the time, Quebecer Alain Chainey.
The Bruins didn’t draft until 21st overall, but they found the best player of their crop, Patrice Bergeron, only retired a few months ago, already a legend. The Flyers also hit the mark with Jeff Carter at 11th and Mike Richards at 24th.
San Jose had the 6th and 16th overall picks, they opted for Milan Michalek and Steve Bernier. They recovered in the seventh round with Pavelski, fourth scorer in his group behind Eric Staal, Bergeron and Getzlaf, and perhaps the first by the end of the season since he is only 61 points less than the leader.
The Canadian held the tenth overall pick and took a risk with Andrei Kostitsyn. After a promising season of 26 goals and 53 points early in his career, Kostitsyn saw his career derailed by his unsavory lifestyle. He finished his career in the Czech Republic in 2021.
Montreal also held two second-round picks, and chose Cory Urquhart over Patrice Bergeron at 40th overall. Although he got his hands on two players with more than 500 games in the NHL, Maxim Lapierre at 61st and Jaroslav Halak at 271st, we can talk about a failed draft for Trevor Timmins in his first experience as a scout chief.
Who will be the last of the Mohicans among Fleury, Perry, Pavelski, Burns, Suter and Carter? It will be necessary to highlight the event…
The good news: the Canadian has allowed only 5 goals in three tied games since the start of the season and has scored 8.
The bad: the Canadian allowed five shorthanded goals, two power play goals, for seven in total, and scored one on the power play and one on the penalty kill for two.
Montreal therefore ranks 25th in power play efficiency with a rate of only 9.1%, in addition to having allowed two goals to the Wild on Tuesday with an extra player, and 24th in power play efficiency with a low rate by 73.7%.
Martin St-Louis recently admitted to not having had time to refine these two aspects of the game since taking office in 2022 because he wanted to devote his time to teaching the main collective principles on numerical equality.
The time may soon come to devote more time to this aspect of the game.
