Let goalies show a little emotion sometimes.
It’s a reasonable request, and when Devin Cooley made it after Sunday’s win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was inevitable that it went a little viral online. That often happens when the Calgary Flames goaltender gives a post-game interview.
They’re often funny and sometimes a little wacky, but there’s also generally some depth behind what Cooley’s saying in his viral interviews.
And in this particular case, Cooley’s probably got a point. If a goalie wants to show some frustration after getting beat, maybe that’s OK.
“I think it’s different for every single person,” Cooley explained on Wednesday. “If you’re a guy who is going to show emotion and then it’s going to carry over into the rest of the game, then yeah, you probably shouldn’t show emotion.
“But if you’re a guy who can get really angry, really quick, or really happy for five or 10 seconds and then let it go, then I think it’s a great strategy. I don’t think guys should be judged all the same. Some guys should not show emotion and some guys should.”
Cooley is clearly the type who benefits from letting his emotions out, and at this point in the season there’s probably not anybody who can reasonably tell him that doing so is hurting his performances on the ice.
The 28-year-old has played in 26 games this season, by far the most he’s ever played in his NHL career, and has put up a 2.49 goals-against-average and a .915 save percentage. Both of those stats are near the top of the leaderboard among goalies who have played at least 15 games this season.
No, he’s not always stoic between the pipes when he lets a tough one get by him, but what does that matter when you’re giving your team a chance to win.
“You see it all across the NHL, there’s Hall of Famers who showed a tonne of emotions and slammed sticks and were crazy but were still amazing goalies,” Cooley explained. “Then, you have Hall of Fame goalies who never showed any emotion at all.
“It’s different for every person and I don’t think anyone should be judged based off how they react to certain things. It shouldn’t be, ‘Oh, this guy is mentally soft or he’s out of control or he can’t handle the stress,’ because sometimes, for me, instead of internalizing it, if I can just yell or get it out for five or 10 seconds, then it makes everything better and I can let it go and reset.”
Related
It’s worth noting, too, that this theory on letting out emotion extends beyond the walls of the hockey arena.
Cooley explained that when he’s out and about and feeling stressed, he’ll often pump dubstep music as loud as he can.
It might not work for everybody, but it works for Cooley.
“I like a lot of dubstep, like heavy metal mixed with dubstep,” he explained. “My girlfriend hates it, but if we’re in the car and running late I’ll just blast it and it makes me laugh and it makes me smile and it helps make moving on from things really easy.”