It may have been a multi-year wait, but NHL fans have been treated to not one but two separate goalie fights in the last two weeks.
Former Detroit Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, now with the San Jose Sharks, squared off against Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers late last month, which was followed by the first outdoor goalie fight in NHL history on Sunday evening.
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Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman both went at it at Raymond James Stadium during the NHL’s Stadium Series matchup, marking the second goalie fight in exactly 13 days.
Before the aforementioned fight in Florida, it had been current Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot who’d taken part in the most recent goalie bout while a member of the Calgary Flames in early February 2020.
Talbot’s bout against Smith took place during the legendary Battle of Alberta between the Flames and Oilers, and on a Saturday night in front of a national audience on Hockey Night in Canada.
It was the kind of moment Talbot had dreamed of, though in hindsight he admitted he would have preferred to square off against a less physically imposing opponent than the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Smith.
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“I wish I’d thought about it a little more, because seeing him standing at center ice is not the best guy you’d want to go up against; he’s a big man, and it didn’t go very well for me, but it was fun,” Talbot said this week with a smile. “I’d always wanted to have a goalie fight, and there was nothing better than at center ice during Hockey Night in Canada.”
“It’s fun to see that emotion, the spark that it gives the guys,” Talbot continued. “Obviously, Bob (Bobrovsky) saw something that maybe he was frustrated with, or he just didn’t like the way that Ned came out of his net, but I love that out of them.”
“I think goalies have tried since then, and the refs have gotten in the way and not let it happen, but it’s fun to let it see them let it go on.”
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The Red Wings are no strangers to goaltending fights. Some of the most memorable moments from their 1997 and 1998 Stanley Cup–winning seasons came from the bouts between Mike Vernon and Colorado Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy, followed just over a year later by Chris Osgood squaring off against Roy.
Talbot, who grew up idolizing Roy, also made sure never to miss a tilt between the Red Wings and Avalanche during the heyday of their legendary on-ice rivalry.
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“I’d hoped,” Talbot said of envisioning himself in a similar goalie fight. “Patrick was my favorite goalie growing up, so those series stick out in my mind. That was my childhood—to stay up late and watch those ones. I always thought those were the best series, the best fights, and obviously, the rivalry was second to none.
That was part of my childhood, and I loved it. That’s part of the reason why I always wanted to do one, just to say that I did it.”
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While Talbot isn’t one to encourage goaltenders to challenge one another just for the sake of it, he loves to see it under the right conditions – and knows that both the players and the fans love seeing it as well.
“Under the right circumstances, I wouldn’t say to go do it for no reason, but if you have an opportunity, go for it,” Talbot said. “I think the game is changing a little bit and getting away from that, but every time it happens, people seem to go nuts for it. It’s a good show for the fans, and I think the goalies enjoy it too.”
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