Marc-Andre Fleury’s return, Zach Fucale’s bizarre record chase and more goalie weirdness

Goalies are weird. This is established science, based on decades of watching these guys twitch and talk to their posts and be Dominik Hasek. But it can be a beautiful kind of weirdness, and that was the theme of the weekend.

Let’s start with the strangest story of all: Zach Fucale’s pursuit of one of the least impressive records in NHL history. The 26-year-old Caps third-stringer had debuted in November with a shutout, and was making his second career start on Saturday. That put him in line to establish two new marks for the longest shutout streak to start a career. In terms of minutes, the list is a motley crew led by Matt Hackett, who never actually had a shutout. And if Fucale could record two official shutouts in his first two starts, he’d somehow be the first NHL goalie to do it. Ever.

Through one period in Minnesota, Fucale’s streak endured. He kept it going in the second, long enough to break Hackett’s minutes mark. But then, midway through the period, it happened. Zach Fucale finally gave up a goal.

Kind of. We’re not actually sure. Because this was the goal:

That’s the first goal allowed by the Capitals with Fucale as the goalie of record. But you may notice something missing from Zach Fucale’s first goal against: Zach Fucale, who was on the bench on a delayed penalty. So the minutes streak continued, but nobody seemed quite sure if he could still record a shutout in a game in which his team allowed a goal but he didn’t.

As it turned out, it didn’t matter, thanks to Mats Zuccarello beating Fucale on a real goal with a minute left in regulation. The Wild went on to win in the shootout, meaning Fucale takes the first loss of his career by a 3-2 final in a game in which he was his team’s only goalie and gave up one goal.

Not quite as weird, but probably a bigger story in the grand scheme of things, was Marc-Andre Fleury’s return to Vegas. The beloved former Knight made his first start since last summer’s controversial trade, facing off against old friend Robin Lehner and the team that stuck a sword in his back. He won, because of course he did, making 30 saves along the way. If you’re keeping track, that means the Hawks lost to the Coyotes and beat the Golden Knights in back-to-back games, because this league makes sense.

In other goalie news, we had a save of the year candidate from Joonas Korpisalo. Alex Nedeljkovic had a 25-save period for the Wings in Los Angeles. Jack Campbell answered the eternal question of what it would look like if the Leafs got great goaltending while blowing a 4-1 lead. Martin Jones had 44 saves even though you don’t remember which team he plays for now. Fucale himself had a highlight-reel stop. And just to make sure nobody thought any of these guys could be normal for a few minutes, we had this happen in the final minute of a tie game:

still thinking about this one pic.twitter.com/lrjjBBaZAS

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) January 9, 2022

I’m starting to think that people who voluntarily sign up for a life of having vulcanized rubber shot into their bodies at 100 mph might be a little bit, uh, different.

Not especially different: This week’s rankings, which have settled into a bit of midseason stasis …

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The Athletic Hockey Show: Oilers, Penguins, Chets, and a new award

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- Digging through the wreckage in Edmonton
- Trying to figure out the Penguins
- We invent a brand new NHL award that absolutely needs to happen
- How cool was that Cale Makar goal?
- Lots of listener emails, including an explanation of that Devils replay debacle
- The NHL's best-ever Chet
- Remembering Eddie Shore's overnight blizzard adventure to get to a Bruins game
- (Also, see if you can pinpoint the exact moment the NY Times news breaks as we're recording and we have to no-sell it)

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)

Six teams that are surprisingly good, and six bad ones that can draw hope from them

It’s a new year, which means that as a hockey writer I’m legally obligated to conjure up a metaphorical fresh sheet of ice. It’s a new beginning, and the possibilities are limitless. Anything can happen, right?

Well, no, not anything. Your favorite might be terrible, and you should feel sad about that.

That’s the thing about a new year — it doesn’t coincide with a new NHL season. In hockey terms, we’re almost halfway through this chapter and that sheet of ice isn’t all that fresh, and while there’s still plenty of time left to go, several teams are already out of hope. One conference already has pretty much its entire playoff picture locked up, and almost half the league is all but out of the race.

If you root for a team that’s having a disappointing year, where can you find hope? The good news is that you may not have to look far; it could be coming from one of the next teams you play. So today, let’s look at a half-dozen teams that are exceeding expectations so far this season, and then pair them up with a team that could use some positive vibes.

Fair warning: Some of these pairings will be natural fits, while others might require a bit of a stretch. Either way, it’s the time of year to be optimistic. Or at least be able to plausibly fake it. Let’s do this.

The rebuilding team that’s on the right track but will obviously still need to be bad for a few years

When you’re doing a full rebuild, you generally know the timeline. You strip it all down, bottom out for high picks, and draft a few potential stars. Then you have to suffer through a few more years of losing with the young guys, because you can’t just flip a switch and go from the bottom of the league to waltzing into a playoff spot.

Except when you do. Every few years, a team skips a few steps and goes from bottom-dweller to legitimately good almost overnight. It’s rare, but it’s the dream scenario for the (many) teams that are rebuilding at any given moment.

The 2021-22 inspiration: Anaheim Ducks

A year ago: The Ducks were a 100-point team just three years ago. But they’ve been under .500 since, and while that landed them guys like Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, all the smart people knew they’d be a write-off this year.

But then…: Troy Terry turned into Mario Lemieux, John Gibson turned back into John Gibson, Zegras invented a new way to score, and the Ducks rebounded from a 2-4-3 start to win eight straight and move into contention for the Pacific title. Most of us still didn’t believe in them, but the big collapse hasn’t happened yet. At the very least, they’re going to be in the playoff race for most of a season where they were supposed to be bottom-dwellers. Oh, and Mason McTavish is on the way.

Possible 2022-23 candidate: Ottawa Senators.

This is a bit of a backhanded compliment, because Sens fans were told they wouldn’t be in the running for this sort of pick this year, the first of Eugene Melnyk’s promised five-year run of unparalleled success. That hasn’t happened, and it looks like the Senators are headed for another year in the bottom five. But a lot of the pieces are in place, and more are on the way, and it’s not hard to imagine it all finally clicking to create a playoff contender next year.

The one caveat is that they don’t have a Gibson-like answer in goal, but that’s what the trade market is for. Give this team some real goaltending, and does a sudden surge really seem all that more impossible than it would have for this year’s Ducks?

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Puck Soup: We're back, we think

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- The NHL returns from an extended break
- Scoring is through the roof and the Dead Puck era is finally over
- The season goes off the rails in Edmonton
- The Winter Classic was a lot of fun
- Another record for Alexander Ovechkin
- A heartwarming story (and an awesome hat) with the Canucks and Kraken
- Brock Lesnar meets Wayne Gretzky
- OUFL outdoor game stuff
- Also I get to read another Manscaped ad

>> Stream it now:

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Weekend rankings: A fun Winter Classic between the Blues and Wild, the Oilers keep losing, and Brock Lesnar shows up for some reason

It might not have been an actual classic, but it was pretty good. After a few weeks of barely any hockey, we’ll take that.

The 2022 Winter Classic between the Blues and Wild was freezing cold and sloppy at times, but that’s not a bad combination if you’re looking some entertaining hockey. We got ten goals and a 6-4 final that will make it sound sort of close even though the Blues ran away with it in the second. Even better, the game didn’t get postponed due to COVID, the ice held up well enough, and we didn’t have to stop the game due to glare because it turns out that when sunlight is your enemy, playing your outdoor game in Minnesota at night is a pretty solid avoidance strategy.

I don’t know if this happens to you, but there’s always a moment after the spectacle of an outdoor game where I have to remind myself that these games count in the standings. This year, that part matters more than usual, with the Wild and Blues battling for top spot in the Central. That makes it a big win for the red hot Blues, who’ve collected 17 of 20 points in their last ten, and a tough one for a Wild team that’s starting to struggle.

You get the feeling that a lot of us are sleeping a bit on the Blues, who are still the last non-Lightning team to win the Cup. Their fans have certainly made that case, I’m told. Spoiler: There’s still going to be only one Central team in the top five this week, and it’s still the same one it always is, but we have to give St. Louis credit for an impressive road win here.

Also, whatever this was all about:

You call this cold?! #WinterClassic pic.twitter.com/NXWH5ys00u

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 1, 2022

There are two more outdoor games on the way, with the Predators hosting the Lightning in February and the Leafs and Sabres heading to Hamilton in March. But did any of those teams make this week’s rankings, he asked, in a half-hearted attempt at a segue.

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