Five Potentially Good Fights Involving Goaltenders
By Adam Savard
Every once in a while a good fight involving goaltenders creeps into the NHL. I know the league is doing all it can to reduce fighting. By now goalie fights are kind of like seeing a white elephant. Or a Sabres win streak.
Rather than going back and looking at Avalanche-Red Wings highlights (who knew Mike Vernon could go?!) or the entire career of Ron Hextall and Billy Smith, I like to look forward. What follows is my attempt at crossing a fight promoter with the greatest game in the world.
These are five fights involving goaltenders that I would absolutely buy a ticket to go see. Maybe because of the rivalry between teams or perhaps I think the fight would be positively hilarious to watch. As you will see, the fight doesn’t necessarily have to involve two goaltenders.
And there will be no mention of Braden Holtby beyond this. Nobody needs to see THAT again.
1) Roberto Luongo vs Cory Schneider – Schneider suffered behind Luongo in Vancouver for a few years before getting an opportunity to take over for Martin Brodeur in New Jersey. And Luongo still has the reputation for being an elite goaltender. And should they square off it wouldn’t exactly be a mismatch. Lunogo has one inch on Schneider and 22 pounds on the Devils net minder, but you couldn’t underestimate the potential desire for Schneider to exert dominance over the man that once held the job he thought he earned in Vancouver. With both now in the Eastern Conference, I have multiple opportunities to dream per season.
2) Chris Kreider vs Ray Emery – Kreider plays the game hard, there is no doubt about that. But Carey Price, Marc-Andre Fleury and now Viktor Fasth may have questions about Kreider and his hard-charging style. Debate how clean any of those collisions are all you want, it’s a part of his game. And if the league is going to get back to policing itself and not relying on the inconsistencies of the Department of Player Safety, whom better to address the Rangers forward than noted boxing enthusiast Ray Emery. Kreider is no small task at 6′ 3” and 226 pounds. But you could argue Emery is one of the better fighters in the game regardless of position. And he would certainly deliver some five knuckle deterrent to Kreider crashing another crease.
3) Jonathan Quick vs Antti Niemi – Jonathan Quick is a Stanley Cup champion and noted hater of sticks. Would it not feel good for the soul to take out some of his frustrations on another person for once? And in Niemi he would find someone nearly his exact height and weight. And someone that would probably like to take his pound of flesh after that whole “we came back from 3-0 down to beat you then win the Cup” thing. Perhaps after an offseason of saying much and doing little, this could be the exact thing to unify the locker room and ignite the elusive deep playoff run in San Jose.
4) Ben Bishop vs Pekka Rinne – Yeah these are two good teams. But this isn’t about a rivalry between them since once doesn’t exist. This one is more about these two goaltenders being ogres compared to the rest of the league and matching up well in the tale of the tape. Rinne is 6′ 5” and Bishop is 6′ 7”, and both are north of 200 pounds. And it would add a little intrigue to both teams as they remain near the top of their respective conferences. The potential rematch in the Cup finals would be a great backdrop if the goalies had a go.
5) Patrick Roy vs John Scott – of all of these dream match ups, this is the one I am most confident we could actually see. Picture Scott with a potentially questionable hit on Nathan McKinnon, whom stays down hurt. Then Roy – he of the remarkably short fuse – comes off the bench to challenge Scott and defend the honor of his young superstar in a blind rage. Roy fears no man on the planet and Scott has never might a fight he didn’t like. This would be the NHL version of “Thunderdome”.
Ahhhhh, a boy can dream. Can’t he?