Talbot all smiles about tossing fists with Smith

Cam Talbot knew the first fight of his professional career probably wasn’t going to go all that well.

In the few seconds the Calgary Flames goaltender had to think to himself as he skated to centre ice to throw haymakers with his counterpart on the Edmonton Oilers, Mike Smith, Talbot was well aware of what he was getting himself into.

Up against a bigger opponent and having never actually been in a goalie fight himself, Talbot understood that the odds were heavily stacked against him.

That wasn’t going to stop him, though.

“I’ve seen (Smith) and I know he’s a big boy so I knew it wasn’t really going to work out well for me,” Talbot said with a smile on Monday afternoon at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “At the same time, it’s just one of those things that just felt like the right thing in the moment.”

Goalie fights tend to get the blood pumping, and replays of Talbot’s tilt with Smith have been everywhere in the days since Saturday’s heated Battle of Alberta. One video uploaded by Sportsnet was still trending on Youtube late Monday afternoon and had been watched more than 1.6 million times.

When it was all said and done, Talbot was on the losing end of the scrap with Smith but it’s not as if he had anything to be embarrassed about. Smith is six-foot-five and weighs in at 220 pounds, after all.

While Talbot stands six-footfour, he tips the scales at 196 pounds, almost 25 pounds lighter than his dance partner on Saturday night. If this was the UFC, they’d have never been allowed in the octagon together.

With that in mind, Talbot did about as well as could be expected. He emerged unscathed and it’s not as if he took a bad beating. And win or lose, Talbot seemed to earn the respect of his teammates just by being willing to step up.

“It was great,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “I think he stood up for himself and our team, great. I think it sent a great message to our group and there’s a lot of guys in here who were really pumped up after that. The fact that Smitty came to centre, basically, that’s what he’s coming there for and it was great by Talbs to answer the bell.”

While it was Smith who skated to centre ice to essentially challenge Talbot, the Flames goaltender certainly played his part in getting things going, too.

After covering up a loose puck, Talbot responded to some jabs from Oilers forward Sam Gagner by throwing a few quick punches with his blocker on. From there, mayhem ensued.

The tussle with Smith was the first goalie fight of Talbot’s career, although he did fight an opposing player during a line brawl back when he was in junior.

I knew it wasn’t really going to work out well for me ... it’s just one of those things that just felt like the right thing in the moment.

It could be the last fight of Talbot’s career, too. Nobody should be expecting a rematch between the two goalies next time the Flames and Oilers play, as there seems to be a healthy respect between Talbot and Smith even after their little scrap on Saturday night.

“I got a couple of messages from guys on their team and they just said he respected me for coming out and meeting him out there and I respected him for doing the same thing,” Talbot said.

The last time two NHL goalies fought was back in 2013 when Braden Holtby and Ray Emery went at it, so Saturday’s punch-up has definitely made waves around the hockey world.

There was at least one person who wasn’t thrilled, though, and that was Talbot’s wife.

Understandably, she was less than pleased by her husband’s decision to scrap. “She was not happy with me after the game,” Talbot said. “She was so mad at me.”