ANDREW GRIMM

How often do you see a home team’s fans cheer when their team loses?

It happened Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. And, as a Penguins fans myself, it not only made sense, it just seemed right.

Those cheers were for Marc-Andre Fleury, who at his now elevated age for an NHL goaltender, turned in a performance that looked like vintage MAF in his prime while he was wearing the jersey of the team he had just beaten.

A few teams and several years removed from wearing black and gold, donning a Minnesota Wild jersey and having just beaten the Penguins, he was as, if not more, beloved by Pens fans than their own team, at least it seemed.

Pens fans watched Fleury grow up from a young, highly touted prospect, grow through struggles and give them one of the most iconic moments in the team’s history, the diving save at the end of Game 7 in Detroit in 2009 to win the Stanley Cup.

No matter how much sense it made during the expansion draft when he ultimately was let go to join Vegas with younger options waiting in the wings and poised to take over, fans still hated it and to this day question the move.

Now, he was back in the city where it all started for the final time.

One last chance to say goodbye, and I would venture to guess you’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone in that building that didn’t, at least subconsciously, want him to win in that scenario.

I know I did sitting in the office watching it on the television as much as I could between writing football previews.

I was one of those fans that, to me, MAF represented a large part of our fandom.

I remember arguing with my brother over hockey trading cards because we both wanted his card in our binder.

I’ll never forget a pair of yellow track pants I had that were too big, which meant I could put pillows in and wear while playing goalie during mini-stick hockey in the living room as a kid, my own version of Fleury’s now iconic yellow pads he wore his first few years with the Penguins.

I’m sure, if you did a survey of those fans that were cheering as their own team had been beaten on Tuesday night, many of them have similar personal stories about growing up watching and rooting for No. 29.

In an era where tribute videos are overdone and players leave teams more than ever in every sport, Tuesday was a situation where it was absolutely warranted. And, not just for what he meant to the fans, look at the reception he got from the remaining teammates still on the Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang. They were just as adoring of their old teammate as the fans were.

The whole thing made clear that Fleury will always be special to Pittsburgh.