Carey Price, Three Days From the Hall, and the First Full-Time EBUG to Dress
Plus: Subban on what made Price special, Fowler on the Price comparison, Talbot’s spinning glove save, Omaha’s William Lacelle, and to close, Desbiens’ NCAA shutout record turns 10.
In this edition 12 stories
NHL
- Carey Price, three days from the Hall, says it hasn’t hit him yet
- Fowler on being compared to Price: “I don’t personally see that”
- Brett Epp becomes the first full-time EBUG to dress for an NHL game
- Talbot turns all the way around for a glove save in a shootout win
- Annunen wins in Denver against the team that drafted him
- Wedgewood’s book club takes off, and he gives his wife the credit
New on InGoal
At the end: this day in goalie history
Goalies in this edition 13 goalies
Every goalie named in this edition, from the NHL to junior and college.
NHL: Brett Epp (Edmonton Oilers), Matt Tomkins (Edmonton Oilers), Cam Talbot (Columbus Blue Jackets), Scott Wedgewood (Colorado Avalanche), Justus Annunen (Nashville Predators), Dominik Hasek (Chicago Blackhawks), Mike Richter (New York Rangers), Carey Price (Montreal Canadiens), Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators), Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens)
International: Melker Thelin (Sweden)
College: Ann-Renée Desbiens (Wisconsin)
NCAA: William Lacelle (Omaha)
NHLCarey Price, three days from the Hall, says it hasn’t hit him yet
Carey Price goes into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday with Pekka Rinne, and he told NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs it still doesn’t feel real: “Honestly, I don’t think being in the Hall of Fame has hit me yet. It probably won’t until I’m sitting there in November.” Stubbs traces the Canadiens legends Price leaned on and the knee that ended his career: surgery in New York in 2021 for a torn meniscus and an osteochondral defect, then five games in the last two weeks of 2021-22, the final one at the Bell Centre on April 29, 2022. Price finished with 361 regular-season wins, the most in Canadiens history and 47 more than Jacques Plante (NHL.com).
P.K. Subban, who played 341 games in front of him, wrote his own tribute for NHL.com about the pressure Price carried in Montreal and the way he treated people away from the rink: “I have never seen him be mean to a person.” For Subban the test of a Hall of Famer is simple: “How valuable were you to your team?” (NHL.com). The Canadiens honour Price at the Bell Centre the night after the induction.
On InGoal: Celebrating Carey Price and Pekka Rinne, from the day they were elected, and Price’s Pro Reads.
NHLFowler on being compared to Price: “I don’t personally see that”
Jacob Fowler has seen the clip of Price saying the young Canadiens goalie reminds him of himself, and told the Montreal Gazette’s Stu Cowan he doesn’t see it: “It’s pretty surreal when you see that. I don’t personally see that. I think he was a lot more calm and made it look so easy.” Fowler, 21, grew up a Penguins fan with Marc-André Fleury as his favourite, but said that the more seriously he took goaltending, the more Price became the model for how the position should be played.
He was smiling at practice the day after Winnipeg scored four times on seven shots in the last 2:39 to tie Tuesday’s game and won 5-4 in overtime, after Fowler had stopped the first 36. “Flush it and move on to tomorrow,” he said, and coach Martin St. Louis told reporters he has “zero” concern about his next start. Jake Evans, one of five Canadiens left from Price’s 2021 run to the Stanley Cup Final, sees the same calm in both, and the same way of making hard saves look easy (Montreal Gazette).
On InGoal: Fowler on InGoal Radio Episode 339.
NHLBrett Epp becomes the first full-time EBUG to dress for an NHL game
The Oilers moved Brett Epp off emergency duty Thursday and onto the bench, because Tristan Jarry was sick. Epp, 29, backed up Matt Tomkins against Anaheim, and Edmonton placed forward Isaac Howard on injured reserve to make room (Edmonton Oilers).
That made Edmonton the first NHL club to dress one of the full-time EBUGs every team has had to carry since this season began. Epp wore No. 00 and didn’t get into the game. Tomkins, fourth on the Oilers’ depth chart, got the start with Devon Levi and Frederik Andersen also hurt. A full-time EBUG travels with his team and must meet three tests: no NHL games on a standard contract, 80 pro games or fewer, and no pro games in the past three seasons. Until this year, the home team just supplied one for either side when needed (AP via ESPN).
Epp, an Edmonton native who last played for the MacEwan Griffins, was in our Oct. 3 edition, when he told the Edmonton Journal he was shopping for furniture when the Oilers called with the job. The team marked his night with a video of his walk out of the tunnel, calling it “a lap to remember” (Edmonton Oilers on X).
On InGoal: Why NHL goalies want EBUGs at practice, from our Oct. 16 edition. Tomkins on InGoal Radio Episode 238.
NHLTalbot turns all the way around for a glove save in a shootout win
Cam Talbot was facing the wrong way when Esa Lindell let a wrist shot go midway through the second period Thursday. The Columbus goalie spun, pushed over to his right post and caught it, one of 27 saves in a 2-1 shootout win over Dallas that made him the first star. “They don’t really teach that in goalie school,” Talbot said. “It was just a little pirouette in the crease and try to find the puck” (Blue Jackets).
Jason Robertson got two clean looks at Talbot and lost both. Talbot took away his second-period breakaway with the left pad, then stopped him again on Dallas’s first shootout attempt and turned aside Tyler Seguin after that, according to the NHL’s game summary. Zach Werenski tied it for Columbus with 3:14 left in regulation, and Valeri Nichushkin and Kent Johnson scored in the shootout.
On InGoal: Talbot on reading breakaways in Pro Reads 11: Beware ‘Triangle’ and other Breakaway Keys, and all of Cam Talbot’s Pro Reads.
NHLAnnunen wins in Denver against the team that drafted him
Justus Annunen made 30 saves as Nashville beat the Avalanche 3-2 in overtime Thursday, with Steven Stamkos scoring the winner on the power play (NHL.com). Colorado took the Finn in the third round in 2018, and his first 29 NHL games were with the Avalanche before his trade to Nashville in 2024-25, according to his NHL.com player page.
On InGoal: Annunen stopped all four shooters in his first NHL shootout, in our Nov. 1 edition.
NHLWedgewood’s book club takes off, and he gives his wife the credit
Away from the rink, Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood runs a book club. Wedge’s Book Wall began with a post on Sept. 13 and lives on the Fable reading app. Members vote on one book a month (the first was Bodies of Magic by Freya Markse), and each book is split by chapter so nobody runs into a spoiler. In a blog he wrote for NHL.com on Oct. 20, he counted close to 25,000 followers on Instagram and about 5,600 readers on Fable, and said club members will get a meet-and-greet with him at five Avalanche theme nights this season (NHL.com).
Wedgewood and his wife, Brittany, told NHL Media’s Never Offside podcast, hosted by Julie Petry and Cat Toffoli, that the idea grew out of team flights after his trade to Colorado, with players and staff reading on the plane and him always holding a book. “I feel like she’s behind all good ideas. I’m just the face of it,” he said of Brittany. Books are an easy way for adults to break the ice, he said, because once you connect over one, “that’s your conversation.” He says a half-joking Instagram story asking whether he should start a club was seen by about 6,000 people and liked by about 4,500 (NHL Media on X).
On InGoal: Scott Wedgewood on the mental shift that changed his NHL career, and InGoal Radio Episode 249.
NCAAOmaha’s William Lacelle on playing goal with hearing loss
Omaha freshman William Lacelle, from Gatineau, Que., has significant hearing loss in both ears; doctors found it when he was three, after he couldn’t hear the TV lying on one side. The Hockey News looked at how he reads the game by sight instead, and he put the choice of position simply: “you don’t need to hear the puck to stop it.” He has started five of Omaha’s first six games, with a .927 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against average, after a CHL-best seven shutouts in 45 games last season with Rimouski and Blainville-Boisbriand in the QMJHL (The Hockey News).
He talks about it openly, he told NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale this summer, partly for kids like the ones he grew up around: “I was in the hockey room when kids were younger, and they didn’t really know what to do when they saw something in my ear.”
InternationalMelker Thelin, 21, wins his Tre Kronor debut in a shootout
Färjestad goalie Melker Thelin stopped 34 of 36 shots in his first game for Sweden’s national team Thursday, a 3-2 shootout win over Czechia on the Euro Hockey Tour, and gave up just one goal in the shootout. Two Färjestad teammates did the rest: Jack Berglund tied it late in the third and scored the deciding shootout goal, and Viktor Lodin, also making his debut, scored in the shootout too. It was Rikard Grönborg’s first game back behind Sweden’s bench since 2019, and SVT analyst Jonas Andersson called Thelin’s game outstanding (SVT).
Hat tip to Erik Granqvist, Färjestad’s head of goaltending and a good friend of InGoal, who flagged the debut on X.
New on InGoalIan Clark on Demko’s glove, and Dustin Wolf’s Pro Read
Veteran NHL goalie coach Ian Clark joins Kevin Woodley on Episode 7 of The Last Line, with From the Crease, to explain why Thatcher Demko’s glove sits differently in his ready stance than when he makes the save, how Miikka Kiprusoff reset after a goal, and how the Turco grip works, plus listener questions on pad stiffness and puck handling. Listen: Why Demko Holds His Glove That Way, Kiprusoff’s Reset and the Turco Grip.
In his latest Pro Read, Dustin Wolf walks through a Vegas rush on which Mitch Marner carried the puck on his backhand down the half wall: how Wolf took away Marner’s shot, picked up Brandon Saad sneaking in back door, and led with his head and eyes to seal the post on the cross-ice pass. Read: Consistent Rotational Leads Key on Unexpected Laterals with Dustin Wolf.
This Day in Goalie History
November 6
HistoryDesbiens takes the NCAA career shutout record, 10 years ago today
On this day in 2016, Wisconsin senior Ann-Renée Desbiens needed only 14 saves to blank Bemidji State 6-0 at LaBahn Arena in Madison. It was the 44th shutout of her college career, moving her past Noora Räty for the most in NCAA history, by a man or a woman (Wisconsin Athletics, Wikipedia). Ten years later she is in goal for Canada again: she leads the country’s goalies at the Women’s World Championship, which opens today in Denmark, as our Oct. 20 edition reported.
Also on Nov. 6
- 1990Wearing No. 34 for Chicago, Dominik Hasek made his first NHL start, 28 saves in a 1-1 tie at Hartford (NHL.com).
- 1965Bernie Parent got his first NHL win, 27 saves for Boston in Montreal (NHL.com).
- 1969Jacques Plante played his 700th NHL game by the NHL’s count, a 32-save win for St. Louis in Detroit (NHL.com).
On InGoal: Desbiens on InGoal Radio Episode 117 and Smile Between Whistles: the Mental Reset that Fuels Desbiens. Hasek in Always the Goalie, inside the Sabres’ film on the Dominator.
HistoryMike Richter’s last NHL game, the fuller story
Thanks to Mike Commito, author of the Hockey 365 books, who marked an anniversary we missed yesterday: Mike Richter played his final NHL game on Nov. 5, 2002. Here is the rest of that story.
At Madison Square Garden that night, Richter played all 60 minutes and stopped 39 of 41 shots in a 5-2 win over Edmonton, the 301st and last win of his career (NHL.com). During the game, Oilers forward Todd Marchant accidentally caught him in the head with a knee. Richter finished the night, but it was a concussion, his second in eight months. The first came on March 22, 2002, against Atlanta at the Garden, 2:18 into the game, when a Chris Tamer slap shot struck the side of his helmet near the ear and fractured his skull. Dan Blackburn took over, and Richter missed the last nine games of that season.
The Rangers ruled him out for 2002-03 on Dec. 12, and he announced his retirement with post-concussion syndrome on Sept. 4, 2003. Every one of his 666 NHL games came with New York, still the franchise record, and so did the 1994 Stanley Cup. He was MVP of the 1996 World Cup, saw his No. 35 retired on Feb. 4, 2004, and went into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008.
Born on Nov. 6Boutin and Michaud
Happy birthday to former Washington Capitals goalie Rollie Boutin (69) and former Vancouver Canucks goalie Alfie Michaud (50).
On InGoal: Michaud on InGoal Radio Episode 139 and the Orange Jersey Project.
End of this day in goalie history
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