What Gets The Boys Buzzing More--A Goalie Goal Or A Goalie Fight?
We had a good ol' fashioned goalie tilt last night in the Coast. Besides the fact that Paul Bissonnette was a 2x All Star in the ECHL, another fun fact about the league is that it's probably one of the last remaining hockey leagues where you will still see some goalie fights. Sure, Jordan Binnington was skating around pretending to throw some fake punches at guys after he got yanked this weekend. But rarely are you ever going to see a goalie fight in the NHL. Those are just about as rare these days as a goalie goal saucing the puck 200 feet down the other end of the ice and into the back of the net.
Obviously both plays are going to get the boys buzzing. The bench is going wild after each of them for sure. But if you could only have goalie goals or goalie fights for the rest of your life, which are you choosing?
Personally I think I'd have to go with fights for one reason. Unfortunately this particular goalie tilly kind of ruins my point, but I feel like most times we see goalie goals is when the game is already out of hand. It's late in the game, the other team has their goalie pulled, chances are your team is up by 2 goals and it allows your goalie to get a little reckless and attempt the 200' snipe. And while the goal is sick, the game is usually over very shortly after.
For goalie fights, however, that's not always the case. I mean it was definitely the case in this fight with Wheeling up 6-1 with under 10 seconds to go in the 3rd. But a goalie fight can theoretically breakout whenever. Just depends on how much rage and aggression is flowing through the ice. I mean it would certainly be ill-advised for a goalie fight to go down during a tie game because then you're putting in a cold goalie to try to make sure you don't end up trailing in the game. But theoretically speaking, the goalie fight has more of an opportunity to change the momentum of a game than a goalie goal would.
Anyway, here's some Ron Hextall who did plenty of both.