Amateur goalie ready to suit up after battle
Regardless of which Battle of Alberta club, Cooper was ready as backup netminder
Colin Cooper was suddenly the backup. For both teams.
Saturday’s historic goalie fight in the Battle of Alberta sent the 25-year-old — perched in the press box at the Scotiabank Saddledome as the emergency netminder — into scramble mode, hustling to the parking lot to fetch his pads.
“My family is all huge Flames fans so they were all excited, thinking, ‘Oh, this could be the game you go in, and it’s such a huge game,’” Cooper said, reliving the moment. “But then they were like, ‘Oh, what if you have to go in for Edmonton?’ It’s funny, all the scenarios that people starting texting you.
“You’re just trying to stay calm, but at the same time enjoy the moment. You’re almost in the NHL dream, so it’s a pretty surreal feeling.”
There is an emergency backup goalie at every NHL game — an amateur who is available to either team in the case of injury, illness, etc., to their two regulars.
Cooper, who tended twine for the AJHL’S Calgary Canucks and then at the university level for the Mount Royal Cougars, is currently on-call at all Flames’ home dates.
Saturday’s scrap between Cam Talbot and Mike Smith — believe it or not, the first goaltender fight in all the years of bloodshed between the Flames and Oilers — brought everybody to their feet.
Cooper, unlike those in a sellout crowd, couldn’t return to his cushion afterward.
“It was pretty similar to any other night — just excited for the Battle of Alberta,” Cooper said. “I usually sit with (Michael) Stone when he’s not in the lineup, so we were chatting before the game, just thinking it was probably going to be more of a skill game and kinda thinking, ‘Yeah, I don’t think much rough stuff will happen.’ Sure enough, that was wrong.
“Once the fight starts happening, my heart rate starts going because I kind of knew once there’s a goalie fight, they’re done, so they’re both probably getting kicked out,” he continued. “So (Flames director of hockey administration) Mike Burke comes over and gets me and I was like, ‘Both are gone, though. What do I do?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, we’re just going to have to keep you ready for both teams. If anything happens, you have to go either way.’
“So you sprint down from the press box, sprint to your car and grab your gear and haul it in. They wanted to make sure that both guys were indeed getting kicked out, and once we got confirmation of that, it’s like, ‘Yeah, time to get half-dressed.’ And then you’re just waiting to see if they need you. Because if anybody goes down, you have to be out there within five minutes. It’s pretty quick so you have to be only a couple of pieces of equipment away from being in there.”
Cooper, now an instructor for Top Prospects Goaltending, has been close before.
During Smith’s stint with the Flames he exited early in a December 2018 matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers, prompting the standby puck-stopper to suit up.
Cooper strapped on his pads again after Dallas Stars stalwart
Ben Bishop pulled something last March.
During Saturday’s third period, he was ready in case anything happened to David Rittich or Mikko Koskinen.
Talbot and Smith, having racked up 38 penalty minutes between them, had already hit the showers after being ejected.
“It’s a wild feeling because it starts hitting you — ‘I could be in this game if something goes wrong,’” Cooper said.
Indeed, he was just one injury away from being Connor Mcdavid’s teammate … or trying to stop the Oilers superstar from finishing off a hat trick.
He was just one injury away from facing Mark Giordano’s slapper … or counting on Calgary’s captain to block a few in front of him.
The emergency backup goalie never sits on the bench. In this case, Cooper was watching the action in the Flames’ video room.
It seemed that all of his loved ones, pals and acquaintances from long ago were also glued to Saturday’s coverage on Hockey Night in Canada.
“I put my phone away and ran out to grab my gear and by the time that I was back inside, I think I had about 30 texts and a bunch of Snaps, and my Instagram and Twitter were both blowing up,” Cooper said. “It was just, ‘Oh my goodness!’ Because of the scenario, the hype, the game … everyone was just loving it.
“I think even on Twitter, I saw a bunch of people saying, ‘What happens — does this guy have to fight himself if there’s another goalie fight?’ It was so funny. When you’re there every game, it’s pretty cool to have something like that happen, where you almost get your 15 minutes.”
My heart rate starts going because I kind of knew once there’s a goalie fight, they’re done, so they’re both probably getting kicked out.