In case you thought you had seen it all during Wednesday's eventful 8-5 Wild victory over St. Louis, new footage on Thursday brought things to another level.
Mic'd up goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was pleading with refs to fight. 'C'mon, it will be good'
In case you thought you had seen it all during the Wild's eventful 8-5 victory over St. Louis, new audio and video on Thursday brought the near battle-of-the-goalies to a higher level.
March 17, 2023 at 4:16PM
With plenty at stake and the game tied 4-4 in the second period, Ryan Hartman scored to put Minnesota ahead 5-4. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington charged after Hartman and threw a punch, earning himself an ejection and a two-game suspension.
He almost earned himself a fight with Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. While it is important to remember that violence is not the answer to our problems, it is also important to watch the amazing footage the Wild released Thursday of that near-scuffle.
Not only was it a different camera angle, but also Fleury was mic'ed up on the play.
Fleury can be a little difficult to understand, and the captions are a huge bonus. Among the highlights:
Fleury trying to talk his way into the fight after the on-ice official had stepped in to keep the goalies from duking it out. "No, no, no! We're not done. C'mon, it will be good!" is probably not the language of your average enforcer in the NHL.
Fleury talking about how Binnington always wants to try to fight and still trying to talk his way back into it with the official by saying a goalie fight would get the crowd into the game (he wasn't wrong, though the crowd seemed plenty entertained already).
You can see a smile on the official's face as Fleury tries to go get his equipment. "I don't like to have my hair like this," says Fleury, who took off his helmet in anticipation of the tussle.
In any event, it might have been just as well that it turned out this way and we didn't actually get to see the goalies fight. Binnington got a two-game suspension in addition to his game ejection for going after Hartman.
The moment was hilarious enough as it was, and the Wild sure don't need any injuries or suspensions to a goalie in the midst of a 14-game point streak that has them on the cusp of taking the lead in the Central Division — as I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
