40 Moments: Mike Smith and Cam Talbot drop the gloves
By Cam Lewis
4 years agoIn order to celebrate the Edmonton Oilers’ 40-year anniversary AND distract ourselves during this hockey-less nightmare, we’ll be re-living 40 amazing moments from Oilers history.
Since we probably should be watching that Calgary and Edmonton playoff series we’ve been craving for so long, I’m going to pivot this series over the next few days to look back at some incredible moments from the Battle of Alberta. Today, we have a good old-fashioned goalie fight.
After spending more than two decades in a slumber, the Battle of Alberta came to life this year.
The context goes all the way back to last season, but all of the juicy stuff comes from a stretch in which the Oilers and Flames met three times in a matter of just a few weeks.
On Jan. 11, with the two teams deadlocked in a 3-3 tie in the dying minutes of the second period, Matthews Tkachuk, who’s established himself as a thorn in the Oilers’ (well, everyone’s) side, charged up and drilled Zack Kassian with a huge hit. Kassian took exception, Tkachuk didn’t answer the bell, and Kassian threw him to the ground and wailed on him.
The Flames would end up scoring the winning goal on the power-play and Kassian would end up getting a two-game suspension. After sitting out his two games, Kassian made his return to the lineup against none other than Tkachuk and the Flames in Edmonton on Jan. 29. With a few minutes left in the first period, Tkachuk finally answered Kassian’s challenge and the two had their scrap.
Well, that’s the end of that, right? Kassian and Tkachuk had their fight. Story closed. Nope! In the shootout, as goaltender David Rittich stopped Leon Draisaitl to secure the win for the Flames, he tossed his stick in the air like a baseball-style bat flip. The Oilers got a couple of days to stew on that before they met the Flames again in Calgary on Feb. 1. Here’s where everything goes off the rails.
It would take the Oilers about a minute to get back at Rittich for his cheeky stick flip as they quickly went up 2-0. Early in the second frame, Edmonton would go up 4-1, chasing Rittich from the game (for now). Cam Talbot, who came into the game in relief, didn’t fare much better as the Oilers piled a couple more goals on him and started to run away with the game.
In the dying moments of the second period, Sam Gagner dug into Talbot’s glove after he covered the puck, causing the goalie to go ballistic. Here’s where everything goes off the rails.
There’s a scrum around the net, Talbot is wailing on whoever he can, Gagner is getting into it with Mark Giordano, Ethan Bear and Tkachuk drop the gloves, and Mike Smith skated up to the centre line and just waited patiently like he was the undertaker. Talbot answered the challenge and, uh, it didn’t go well for him.
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If you’re interested in watching all of the context and lead-up, here’s a great clip with everything:
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One of these days, we’ll get to watch these two teams play a playoff series and it’ll be glorious.
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