Marc-Andre Fleury appears ready for return to Knights’ net

It remains unclear exactly what injury Marc-Andre Fleury suffered that caused him to miss nearly three weeks.

But the Golden Knights’ goaltender did clarify his time away from the ice because of what the team referred to as a “lower-body injury” had nothing to do with the birth of his third child on March 22.

Other than that, his first full media session since taking the ice again on Monday did little to explain his absence.

“Some rehab, some training, some resting,” he said after Wednesday’s practice at City National Arena. “Fortunately, we’re in a good playoff spot and I got some time to heal and feel better.”

There is a strong chance Fleury will play when the Knights host Arizona at 7 p.m. Thursday, a move signaled by his participation in practice Wednesday and Maxime Lagace being sent back to the minors on Tuesday.

Fleury declined comment on whether he could have played sooner if the games carried significance in the standings or if the postseason had started earlier.

He hopes to regain the form he flashed in allowing just five goals in winning six straight games leading up to a 2-1 win in Dallas on March 15. The 34-year-old Fleury, who was leading the league in games played at that time, missed practice the next day and hasn’t played since.

“It was a good stretch and we had a little bit of a tougher stretch before that,” he said. “It’s good when you can bounce back and start to feel good about yourself and confident, but that’s how it goes sometimes and now you just have to try to pick up where you left off.”

There’s not much time for that.

The Knights, who are locked into a first-round playoff series starting in San Jose next week, have two regular season games left for Fleury to shake off any rust.

Coach Gerard Gallant wouldn’t say whether Fleury, who has a 35-19-5 record in 59 starts this season with a 2.46 goals-against average and .914 save percentage, would be in net for either or both games.

“I know he’d want that,” Gallant said of giving Fleury at least one start. “If he didn’t have a game, to me it wouldn’t matter. But I expect him to play a game. We’ll see. We want to make sure everything goes good. It’s been three days so we’re real happy. He’s been on the ice for a couple days now. Obviously we’re excited to get him back. He looked real good.”

All signs point to Fleury being in the lineup on Thursday, though he indicated the decision wasn’t completely in his hands.

“We’ll see what the coach wants,” he said, admitting it may be helpful to see game action before the playoffs. “You can get your legs with workouts and stuff, but there’s only so much you can do at practice. It’s about timing. The pace of the game and how quick the pucks come at you and then finding the puck through traffic. That’s where you have to get your timing back a little.”

Defenseman Nate Schmidt said there was a bounce in energy having the star netminder back with the team, particularly when Fleury got right back to his habit of constantly chirping at his teammates during practice.

“You just see him out there with his antics and it’s great,” Schmidt said. “It puts a smile on my face to be able to just watch the way he approaches practice and everything he does.

“And yeah, you know what, that guy’s a nice player. It’s good for the group to have him back.”

Fleury is just as excited to be there even though he was only out a couple weeks.

“You start missing it,” he said.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.