The second-round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks does not begin until late Sunday night, but the drama begins right now. On Saturday afternoon, Marc-Andre Fleury‘s agent, Allan Walsh, shared on Twitter a photo of his client getting impaled by a sword.
The sword’s blade is inscribed with the name of Vegas coach Pete DeBoer, who had just announced that Robin Lehner would start in net for the Knights.
The tweet in question:
— Allan Walsh (@walsha) August 22, 2020
And just in case it ever disappears or you are blocked by Walsh, here is that image in full.
The provenance of the image is not clear. The sword impaling Fleury does not appear to be — and this is important — Andúril, Narsil, Ice, Longclaw, or Glamdring, though it does look like a bastard, or hand-and-a-half knightly sword. On second thought, never mind, this part is not important at all.
Fleury, 35, has played two games this postseason, one a round-robin win over the St Louis, the other a round-one win over Chicago. Fleury made 26 saves on 27 shots in that appearance, but he has not hit the ice since. Robin Lehner, 29, has won five of his six postseason appearances, with the lone loss coming to Chicago despite a .917 all-situation save percentage.
Walsh is known for his flair for the dramatic. He famously dumped on then-coach of the Capitals, Adam Oates, after his other client, Jaroslav Halak, did not appear in a game against his old team. The agent’s previous tweet was a retweet of SinBin.Vegas musing about the goalie stack ranking in Vegas.
Marc-Andre Fleury hasn’t lost in regulation to Vancouver in 14 years.
I asked about opponents and lineups with that in mind. This was DeBoer’s exact quote.
“When I think about it, I don’t think it changes our roster decisions or our line makeups, at least not for Game 1.” https://t.co/2krnbcWRuX
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) August 22, 2020
By way of Elliotte Friedman, it seems like the team is going to pretend this never happened.
Vegas opens Game 1 of its Vancouver series tomorrow. Fleury remains with the Golden Knights and the team appears inclined to ignore his agent’s post. You don’t see this every day in the NHL.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 22, 2020
We will see. Game 1 is Sunday night.
