VoxBlog

LAS VEGAS – About the only thing more stressful than being a goaltender in an NHL playoff game is probably being a goaltender’s wife watching said goaltender in a playoff game.

Just ask Kelly Talbot, who made the trip to Vegas along with six other wives and girlfriends of Minnesota Wild players to support their significant others for the first time this season. They went to dinner Sunday night at Mastro’s and spent most of Monday getting some sun by the pool, walking around the Strip and shopping at CityCenter.

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It was a good way for Talbot to unwind after spending much of Sunday’s matinee inside T-Mobile Arena holding her breath and covering her eyes as her husband, Cam Talbot, turned away all 42 shots he faced from the Vegas Golden Knights for his fifth career playoff shutout.

“I always say to myself, ‘Why’s he got to be a goalie? Why’d I marry a goalie,’” Kelly Talbot said, laughing, while the team practiced less than a mile away on Monday. “I was so stressed before the game and so stressed during the game and the girls were laughing, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’ I was just stressing the whole time with the amount of shots they had on us. It was a nail-biter. When the game ended and (Joel Eriksson Ek) scored in overtime, it was definitely a sigh of relief, and we were so, so, so pumped. Such a great way to start Game 1 off.”

Kelly, a native of Dallas, started dating Cam when he was a goalie for the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Kelly’s brother, Tommy Train, was Cam’s teammate and introduced them. The Talbots now have two children, 4-year-old twins, Sloane and Landon.

Undrafted, this is Cam’s eighth NHL season after spending four years in the minors with the New York Rangers organization. So Kelly’s accustomed to just how difficult the journey has been and how pressure-packed his job is. That doesn’t make experiences like Sunday any less nerve-racking for Kelly, yet she’s always astonished at how easy her husband can make it look. Wild fans, players and coaches have certainly learned by now that Cam can be one cool, calm and collected goaltender.

“We call him a pro’s pro,” teammate Marcus Foligno said. “He just shows up every day, works hard in practice and doesn’t complain much. He just goes about his business. Huge, huge addition.”

Kelly knew early in Sunday’s game that her husband came to play.

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“I am so proud of him,” she said. “He doesn’t like to take days off and he works his ass off constantly to keep bettering himself, to get to where he wants, and I feel like he always gets there. His work ethic is so good that it allows him to keep doing what he loves to do. But last night, I was just so happy for him. It was his first playoff game for the Wild, and I know it’s one game and a lot of things can happen. But he was so good. He was so calm. I can always by watching him get the sense of how he feels in goal. And last night it was apparent he was calm and confident.

“It’s such a great team and I know it gives him so much confidence having these guys in front of him.”

After signing a three-year, $11 million contract as a free agent last October, Cam Talbot went 19-8-5 with a 2.63 goals-against average and .915 save percentage. Those last two stats took a bit of a dive in the past few weeks, but there wasn’t one part of Minnesota coach Dean Evason that worried about his 33-year-old goaltender heading into the postseason.

Talbot, who went 12-2-2 at home, was credited with 13 quality starts during the regular season, which are games where a goaltender saves more goals than expected. He “stole” four games, which are games where a goaltender’s goals saved above expectations are more than the team’s goal differential in that game.

The same could be said for Sunday’s game. The Golden Knights generated 58 unblocked shot attempts in all situations, with Talbot saving 3.11 goals more than expected.

It has been a long time since a Wild goaltender stole the team a playoff victory, yet naturally Talbot praised his teammates after the game over and over again, noting how the Wild blocked 23 shots and saved goals with solid backchecks.

“Anytime you’re out there sacrificing the body, that’s what it takes to win at this time of the year, and we had that in spades,” Talbot said.

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This is the goaltender Mats Zuccarello, who was also Talbot’s teammate with the Rangers, expected when the Wild signed him. He’s now 13-11 in his playoff career with a 2.35 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.

“He was a helluva goalie and I think he’s taken two, three steps more from when I played with him,” Zuccarello said. “He’s the backbone of our team. Talbs has been amazing for us all year and I expect nothing less next game (Tuesday night).”

In 2016-17 for the Edmonton Oilers, Talbot led the NHL with 73 starts and 42 wins, while posting a 2.39 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. He finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting that season. He struggled in 2018-19 with the Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers, but bounced back during his one season with the Calgary Flames in 2019-20.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin was convinced this past offseason that, if he could just stabilize the Wild’s goaltending, they would be a better team. He targeted Talbot right off the hop in free agency. Talbot had interest from four other teams but quickly pounced on the Wild’s contract offer. With a choice between two-year and three-year deals, Talbot chose security because he’s tired of bouncing around — as is his wife.

“It’s such a great fit,” said Kelly, and not only because she’s addicted to Target, the superstore headquartered in the Twin Cities. Although, she admits that having so many Targets helps.

I’m BACK @Target 🙌🏻❤️🥰😍 #target #Minnesota #myfavoriteplace #honeyimhome #love #onestopshop pic.twitter.com/yVoOQ00BFd

— Kelly Talbot (@kellytrain) December 29, 2020

“You can get everything there,” Kelly said, laughing. “You can get kids’ clothes, you can get shoes, you can get adult clothes, makeup, food, groceries. It has it all. The kids’ clothes is the big thing. Kids grow so much, so it’s perfect. If I can spend 5 bucks on a pair of shorts for them, I’m good.”

The Talbots hope to settle in Minnesota for a while with their two kids.

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“He’s such a good dad,” Kelly said. “Just seeing how he is with the twins is just amazing. He always wants to be involved. If he misses something he’s so upset about it. And it really bugs him. Even days off, I’ll try to wake up with them and he’s like, ‘No, I want to get up with them,’ because he loves their morning routine. He loves taking them to school. Even on game days, he’ll try to pick them up at school before he comes home for lunch. He always wants to be with them constantly.”

What Kelly also loves is the camaraderie between the wives and girlfriends. Coming to a new team in the midst of a pandemic isn’t easy for families, especially for the wives and girlfriends of the new players. And the Wild had many of them, including Kirill Kaprizov, Nick Bonino, Ian Cole, Nick Bjugstad and Marcus Johansson.

Captain Jared Spurgeon’s wife, Dani — referred to as the Wild’s “first lady”— takes her role of helping the families of Wild players feel comfortable, especially new players, very seriously. But at the start of the pandemic, Dani found it difficult to have get-togethers because of social distancing.

“In years past, I’ve planned parties, I’ve planned showers, just random gatherings, just ways for us to get together, because that was my favorite part, coming into this team, was the community and the wives and the girlfriends all being together,” Dani Spurgeon said. “And I think that’s so incredibly important, and I love that. I mean, I’m not from here, I don’t have family here, so I’ve made friends over the years and I love them dearly, but I also really, really love the hockey family.

“I’ve made so many friends over the years, just people cycling through. And I think it’s just really important, especially for the young ones coming in, to see how inclusive it is and how fun it can be. We are so unique in the sense that our husbands have these outrageous schedules, and a Tuesday night might be someone’s Saturday night, right? So then I was like, ‘Well, then let’s go out and bond on Tuesday night.’ This is kind of a unique, little family where we all relate and we all have the same schedule for the most part. And I think it’s important to try and get people to all hang out and enjoy each other’s company. It truly is where you’re going to make lifelong friendships, but you need to be together to do that.”

So in the winter, Dani planned creative outdoor get-togethers for the wives, girlfriends and children so they could get to know each other. They’d sit under heaters and watch their kids play in the snow or on the outdoor rink. They’d go for walks to bond during a peculiar time.

“It was hard to know who everybody was with masks on,” Kelly said, kiddingly. “But that’s one reason why we decided to come to Vegas. Obviously, we’re here for the hockey, but it’s just nice for some of us girls to get together outside of Minnesota for the first time all season. I just think it’s so neat how Dani wanted to make sure everyone felt like they knew each other.”

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So, all in all, Kelly had a blast Sunday and hopes it continues Tuesday night and the remainder of the playoffs — despite the butterflies she always endures while her husband seems to stay so even-keeled.

That’s another thing that Evason keeps pointing out. It doesn’t matter if a goal beats Talbot, if a puck deflects in off a teammate or he can’t see the puck because of a screen, he never shows up a teammate by throwing his head back or his hands up.

“He’ll pat them on the butt or the pads,” Evason said. “(His teammates) notice that, they respect that and they love it.”

None of that surprises Kelly.

“He’s so humble,” Kelly said. “He doesn’t blame anyone for anything. He always blames himself. If he calls me after a game, he’ll always say, ‘I should have had that one,’ or ‘those are the saves I need to have so we can win these games.’ He beats himself up if he gives up a goal he normally would have, not anybody else.

“Cam’s just a down-to-earth, humble guy who worked super hard to get to where he is now without being drafted and without having the easiest road to the NHL.”

Shayna Goldman contributed to this story.

(Photo of Sloane, Kelly, Cam and Landon Talbot: Courtesy of Kelly Talbot)

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