Wild insider: Marc-Andre Fleury pranks Sidney Crosby, prospects at the World Juniors and more

Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury are the best of friends and will one day have their faces enshrined in the Great Hall at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

And as weve all learned over the years, there are few things they enjoy more than reigniting their prank wars.

Well, Saturday morning when the Minnesota Wild and Fleurys old Pittsburgh Penguins just so happened to be sharing the same Raleigh hotel, Crosby poked the bear once again and learned the hard way or funny way that he probably should not have.

Advertisement While the Wild were at their morning skate at Lenovo Center, Crosby and a few of Fleurys former teammates managed to get the key card to his hotel room.

They tiptoed in and moved some things around, Fleury told The Athletic after Saturday nights 4-0 win over the Canes.

Bad idea, especially since Fleury was backing up Filip Gustavsson and had a lot of time on his hands.

It sure worked out that the Penguins equipment bags happened to be stacked outside the Wilds locker room.

Maybe the Penguins staff expected Fleury to seek some payback because were told Fleury had to search long and hard for Crosbys bag.

He dug all the way to the bottom and voila, there was No.

87s stuff.

When Crosby arrived at the game Sunday night against Carolina , he discovered, were told, Vaseline all over his visor, his skate laces upside down and beef sticks inside his jock.

Fleury knew Crosby wasnt going to skate Sunday morning, so he decided to keep it tame.

He wouldnt mess with his old friend too much right before a game.

I just had a little fun, Fleury told The Athletic , laughing.

Wait! Ive said too much.

It wasnt me.

It was an enjoyable road trip for Fleury, who presumably played his final game in Washington on Thursday night since he claims hes retiring after this season .

Hes had a lot of battles with the Caps over the years, and in a cinematic ending, went mano a mano with fellow future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin in the shootout.

Fleury gloved Ovechkin down and the Wild took the first of two wins on the two-game Eastern swing.

FLEURY STOPS OVI FOR THE WIN!!! #MNWILD | #NHL pic.twitter.com/sxcJ1yivzu FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) January 3, 2025 Asked what it was like to get the best of Ovechkin in the end, Fleury said, Well, we still got one more game (in St.

Paul), so I dont want to get too cocky too early.

He got a goal in the game already, so that was enough.

I dont like getting scored on by him, but I love the battle over the years.

I think with Pittsburgh, especially, weve had so many big games here and we saw him in the playoffs quite a few times, too.

This building is fun.

Its always a good atmosphere, loud, and when you play against the best player in the world, its always a good challenge and brings the best out of you.

Alex Ovechkin on facing Marc-Andre Fleury: Its 20 years (playing) against each other.

Its always fun.

Its always a challenge.

Late in the game, Ovechkin said something to Fleury and they both laughed...

I told him I need one more.

He said you already got one.

pic.twitter.com/Z7sTNUqBOX Ethan Cadeaux (@Ethan_Cadeaux) January 3, 2025 Fleury truly is a treasure.

After the game in Raleigh, Fleury sought out the Canes Jordan Staal , his former Penguins teammate.

After each game, three Carolina players hold a meet and greet with season-ticket members, charity guests and dignitaries.

Staal happened to be one of the players doing the meet and greet Saturday night, so Fleury offered to sign and take pictures with all the fans there even before he showered up and hustled to the Wilds bus for the teams return trip to Minnesota.

Advertisement Just another legendary move for one of the classiest NHLers of all time.

Hes a guy (that) when hes gone, the game will miss him, Caps veteran Tom Wilson said.

Hes fun to have in the league.

Lambos time will come Carson Lambos, the 2021 first-round pick who has yet to play his first NHL game, was sent back to Iowa on Sunday with no Wild games until Tuesday.

Perhaps hell get to return Monday or Tuesday depending on the status of injured Jake Middleton , but it still was a good experience for the rookie to be around the team for a couple games and see how things operate even though he didnt get into game action.

It was a lot like Michael Milne, who did get to play one game, earlier this season.

Lambos was still excited to get his first career call-up.

I got drafted at 17, 18 and then 21, turning 22 soon now, so its a process, the young defenseman said.

I think earlier, after I got drafted, you wanna play right away.

But then I think my mindset sort of shifted to take it one day at a time and just be where my feet are and get much better ...

as good as I can every day with the opportunities I have.

I think in Iowa this year Ive kind of found my footing a bit and settled into a role of trying to move pucks to make a good first pass and defend hard and get pucks out of my end, try to add offense when I can, but thats secondary to everything else for me.

Lambos said he hadnt heard Bill Guerin had been saying for the last month that his time was coming because his game was so improved.

To be honest, I try to not listen to the noise and stuff like that, he said.

Ive felt pretty confident with my game this last month.

I really felt like Ive stepped up and been an effective player down there and Ive stepped into a pretty big role with our team.

So I think thats a good sign when youre getting more ice and more opportunities that something might be coming here.

Advertisement But with all that said, you cant really expect or think you deserve anything just because of how Im playing down there.

Just take one at a time.

Eric Staals No.

12 to the rafters No, no, not at Xcel Energy Center.

At Lenovo Center in Raleigh where the former Wild center played for 12 seasons.

Eric Staals No.

12 will rise to the rafters before the Hurricanes play the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

In Hurricanes/Whalers history, Staal ranks third in games played and second in goals, assists, points and power-play goals behind Hall of Famer Ron Francis.

Having played for six franchises over his 18 seasons, Staals second-most years and games were with the Wild, where he played four years and scored 111 goals and 240 points in 311 games.

His 42 goals in 2017-18 is tied for the third-most in a single season in Wild history.

Several Wild connections will be in attendance for the game and Red Carpet connection.

They include fellow 2006 Stanley Cup champion teammate Matt Cullen and Wild player development coach Derek Stepan, as well as Keith Ballard, Sean Hill and former Wild teammates Zach Parise, Nate Prosser and Devan Dubnyk .

Minnesota resident Drew Stafford will also be there.

Jordan Staal told The Athletic its a shame the night didnt come before Carolina and Minnesota matched up a few days ago.

But he cant wait to hear his brothers speech and hell do his best to keep it together as he watches his older brothers jersey rise to the roof for eternity.

The new Flower' Marcus Foligno was wondering during a practice earlier last week why Gustavsson was always using his first name in chirps: Nice shot, Marcus.

It wasnt until near the end of the team skate that Foligno realized he had a label on the front of his helmet: No.

1 hits leader.

Marcus.

Foligno had set a Wild franchise record for career hits the day before and his teammates decided to have fun with him about it.

Foligno had one main guess as to who pranked him: Gustavsson.

Advertisement Gus thinks hes the new Flower.

Its annoying, Foligno joked.

Gustavsson has been pretty clever before; last year, he pulled off a prank on the all-time pranks king in Fleury.

But this one on Foligno? It wasnt me, Gustavsson said, smiling.

Fleury did say that, at some point, hell have to turn over this role to someone else (assuming he retires after this season).

As for who will take over, Fleury surveyed the room, bringing up Gustavsson and a surprise suggestion: Joel Eriksson Ek .

we actually have...and tomorrow you could too https://t.co/U4CRSuZdRL pic.twitter.com/0n6GGWYy9y Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 28, 2024 Other Worldly All four Wild prospects participating in the World Junior Championship in Ottawa received a major medal.

Zeev Buium, the teams top prospect, played monster minutes in leading the Americans to another gold medal and had back-to-back assists on the tying goal and overtime winner.

the PASS pic.twitter.com/hRdjDZDg75 Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) January 6, 2025 Buium went up against silver medalists Finland, which included three other Minnesota prospects in Aron Kiviharju (a fourth-round pick in 2024), Rasmus Kumpulainen (second round in 2023) and Sebastian Soini (fifth round in 2024).

The tournament next year will be at Xcel Energy Center and 3M Arena at Mariucci (Dec 26, 2025-Jan 5, 2026), which means the Wild are bound for a lengthy road trip around the holidays.

The host this year, the Ottawa Senators , are on a nine-game road trip that spanned Dec.

17 to Jan.

7.

Oh no you love to see it https://t.co/8rDvavLxr6 Jakub Lauko (@jakub_lauko) January 3, 2025 Incidentally, injured Wild forward Jakub Lauko , who hails from Czechia and took part in three World Juniors, had fun trolling Canada all tournament.

Canada failed to reach the semifinals for the second year in a row.

again https://t.co/gJ7LmTib32 Jakub Lauko (@jakub_lauko) January 3, 2025 (Photo of Marc-Andre Fleury: James Guillory / Imagn Images).

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