Wild goalie Cam Talbot on the bench in the playoffs. Will there be repercussions?


ST. PAUL — Every time goalie Cam Talbot comes up in conversation, Wild’s coach Dean Evason always seems to use the same word to describe him.

Professional.

How does Talbot prepare? Professional. The way Talbot behaves during games? Professional. The way Talbot handled being benched by fellow goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the playoffs? Professional.

The latter will now be among the biggest talking points this offseason.

After falling behind 3-2 in the series against the St. Louis Blues, Wild finally turned to Talbot last week on the brink of elimination. It was a tough position for Talbot, to say the least, and while he struggled, Wild bowed out of the playoffs with a 5-1 loss to the Blues.

“I was doing everything I could to get ready,” said Talbot, who stopped 22 of 26 shots in the Game 6 loss. “They gave me the chance and it just wasn’t good enough.”

Unsurprisingly, Talbot’s teammates were quick to come to his defense after the game.

“The way he played was phenomenal,” reserve captain Marcus Foligno said. “It definitely has to be tough for a guy to come in without seeing the shots. Give him credit for that.”

Without a doubt, the most frustrating part for Talbot is that he was very good down the stretch. He finished the regular season going 13-0-3 before the Wild decided Fleury gave them a better chance of winning in the playoffs.

What were those conversations like?

“That’s between the coaching staff, Flower and myself,” said Talbot, who still has a year left on his contract. “I was disappointed? Yes. Was he angry? Yes. But they expected that. Who doesn’t want to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs? But I respected the decision.”

While it would be unfair to blame Fleury alone, especially considering Wild struggled offensively throughout the first round, it’s fair to wonder if things would have been any different with Talbot between the tubes for most of the series.

In the immediate aftermath of the Game 6 loss, even Evason used the term “second guess” when discussing lineup decisions throughout the series.

“We’ll have to sit down and assess whether or not it was the right call,” Evason said. “It’s too early now to go deeper into that.”

As for Talbot, he remained a pro after the game, to the surprise of no one.

Asked after Game 6 if he could overlook the fact that Wild benched him in the playoffs, Talbot replied, “Ask me in a couple more days after I process this.” In that same breath, Talbot praised this team.

“This is a special group,” Talbot said. “As much as it hurts, this is still a group I believe in and a group I would like to be a part of.”

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