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Handshakes for Marc-André Fleury: Chris Nilan “would have hit him in the face”
Félix Forget
Handshakes for Marc-André Fleury: Chris Nilan “would have hit him in the face”
Credit: On Thursday night, at the Bell Centre, the Minnesota Wild defeated the Canadiens by a score of 4-0. It was a fourth consecutive loss for Martin St-Louis’s men… but that was not the story of the evening, far from it. In fact, the story of the night was in front of the Wild’s net. Marc-André […]
On Thursday night, at the Bell Centre, the Minnesota Wild defeated the Canadiens by a score of 4-0. It was a fourth consecutive loss for Martin St-Louis’s men… but that was not the story of the evening, far from it.

In fact, the story of the night was in front of the Wild’s net. Marc-André Fleury, the last of the great Quebec goalies, was playing his final career game at the Bell Centre.

And the fans made sure to show him some love for the occasion.

And after the game, when the goalie completed his shutout, the players from the Canadiens all stayed on the ice to shake hands with the goalie. They wanted to show him their respect.

That said, even though it was praised everywhere, it did not make everyone happy either. During an appearance on Tony Marinaro’s Sick Podcast, former Canadiens player Chris Nilan admitted that he would probably have reacted differently if he had seen such a thing happen as a player:

I would have punched him in the face. — Chris Nilan

We know that Knuckles is never one to hold back, and he explains his point by saying he has nothing against Fleury in particular. In fact, what he didn’t like was seeing the Canadiens show love to a guy who had just made the club look bad on the ice.

He explains that in his time, that didn’t happen… and it clearly shows how things have changed.

We know that Nilan always gave his all to defend the Canadiens logo when he played for the team, and he would clearly have preferred to see the team respect itself a little more.

In essence, we understand his point… but we know how respected Fleury is in the NHL, especially in Montreal. A strong reaction from the fans was to be expected, and I think the Canadiens players felt the same way because they hold the goalie in high regard.

But indeed, it is true that this is not something we could have seen when Nilan was jumping on the ice. Yes, the NHL has really changed in that respect over the past forty years.


In brief

– The atmosphere seems good at the Canadiens.

– J.T. Miller did not take long to make his presence felt with the Rangers.

– Positive words for Jakob Pelletier.

– Things are going well for the Canadiens prospect in Russia.

– The Stars have a lot of resources.

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