Marc-Andre Fleury seems ready for his last tango in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby has heard this before. It was last year in mid-December that the Wild were last in Pittsburgh with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, rumored to be playing his final NHL season.

Fleury didn’t play in that game, a 4-3 Penguins victory, and the sellout crowd at PPG Paints Arena was audibly perturbed at not being able to see their Flower play one last time before Fleury hung up the pads on a 20-year NHL career.

That won’t happen on Tuesday, when Fleury is set to start in net for a 6 p.m. puck drop against his former team, and Crosby was asked about watching his longtime Penguins teammate play one last time in the arena where the pair were part of three Stanley Cup-winning teams.

“Yeah, I’ve thought that a couple times, so I don’t know,” he said. “You’ll have to ask him if it’s for sure.”

Fleury, 39, has been asked that a few times since training camp began Sept. 19, and the answer has always been a confirmation. This will be the 21st and final year of a career for which the next stop will be the Hockey Hall of Fame. He said it again, without being asked, during a news conference with media from Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

“Obviously, I want to play good, and always do well — put on a good show one last time here, right?” he said.

Fleury is on record about his discomfort with extra attention, and it will likely come at him in waves Tuesday, where his wife, two daughters and mother will be in the crowd. But he seemed awfully comfortable with it on Monday.

After a Wild practice at the Penguins’ practice facility about 20 miles north of downtown, Fleury got about 30 feet off the ice before he signed a hockey stick — one of his old ones, as it turned out — for a fan who drove here from Syracuse, N.Y., and an autograph for another. Then on his way to the dressing room, he hopped on another rink and took about 20 shots from the Penguins’ Elite Youth team, which was holding a camp.

Fleury has always been a friendly person and approachable superstar, and that reached its zenith here during the first 13 seasons.

Watching him, it seems that this last trip to the Steel City isn’t so much about the great success he had here. Or about former teammates Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, and other personnel still with the club for which he played from 2003-17. It’s about a lot more people than that.

It’s about Penguins fans, who embraced Fleury as soon as the Penguins drafted him with the first pick in the 2003 entry draft. He likes them and he’s comfortable with them, and unless the Wild and Penguins advance to the Stanley Cup Final, this will be his last game in front of them.

When the Penguins left him unprotected for the 2017 expansion draft, Fleury knew he was on his way out yet two days before the draft, he was at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Cranberry Township signing autographs and talking with fans.

He wouldn’t leave without a proper goodbye.

“It was important, because the support I’ve gotten here over the years was amazing, and there were tough times, and people were still behind me and pushing and helping me out,” he said Monday. “Our building was full for I don’t know how many years. People came, watched the games, cheered us on.

“So, for me, it was just a way to meet some of them and say thank you for their support.”

Asked about that bond, Letang said of his longtime teammate, “What’s not to love?”

“That’s the question, honestly,” he continued. “Just his personality, there’s not a mean bone in his body. He comes to the rink with a big smile on his face. He plays the game with a big smile. He’s a great teammate, obviously. So, it’s hard not to love a guy like that, especially when he came in as an 18-year-old.

“First overall pick, tons of pressure, but he comes to the rink with same mindset, same mentality, battles hard, and he does it with a smile. Him and Sid are kind of the ones that put that franchise back on track. The rest is history.”

The Penguins are a hurting team, losers of their past five games (0-4-1). The Wild are licking the wounds from their first regulation loss, a 7-5 setback at Philadelphia on Saturday that was often as unsightly as the score would indicate.

For those wondering whether he will be able to shake off the distractions, remember that with a chance to pass Patrick Roy for second place all time in the NHL career wins list, Fleury passed his former idol with the 74th shutout of his career in a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders last January.

“He knows how to deal with it,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I think he rises to the occasion in those moments, and I know when the game starts, he’ll be ready to play, and I’m sure he’ll handle everything like he has in the past.”

Fleury plans to be ready.

“I think just maybe a deep breath, take a good look around, keep good memories,” he said. “I was very fortunate to play here for so long, a lot of souvenirs from this place, so it’ll be nice to play one more time.”