15 years after winning the 2009 Stanley Cup, Max Talbot recalls Game 7 heroics

Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tyler Kennedy doesn’t even let the question end.

What does he remember about Max Talbot’s game-winning goal in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final in Det…

“I was wide (expletive) open,” Kennedy blurted out during a phone call Tuesday evening.

On the 15th anniversary of the Penguins securing the franchise’s third Stanley Cup, Kennedy has no pause in his voice when asked what he would’ve done if Talbot had passed him the puck on that two-on-one rush with just under 10 minutes to go in the second period.

“I felt like I had a good half-a-side open,” Kennedy recalls as he was bearing down on Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood with Talbot carrying the puck into the offensive zone on his left flank. “I would’ve just grabbed and shot. It would’ve been pretty crazy. I would’ve had the Game 6 and Game 7 winner.”

Instead, it was Talbot who took the shot himself and forever etched his own name in Pittsburgh sports lore.

’Is he giving the hole to take it away?’

If you go back and time it, it was roughly four seconds.

That’s how long it took between Talbot scooping up a puck deftly swiped to him by Chris Kunitz to exit the defensive zone and him sniping a shot over Osgood’s glove.

It was roughly two seconds after Talbot crossed the Red Wings’ blue line with Kennedy to his right on the odd-man rush that he decided to eschew the pass and ticket a shot to the far-side upper corner.

That was plenty of time for a lot of thoughts to go through Talbot’s head.

“When you look at the replay, you can see there’s a big hole on the glove side,” Talbot told me Tuesday. “In my head, there’s a quick, ‘Is he giving the hole to take it away?’ Marty Brodeur used to do that. So, I had that doubt quickly. But then I thought, ‘No, I have to take my shot.’”

Just a few minutes earlier, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had come down together on a two-on-two rush, backing off the Detroit defenders. The future Hall of Famers read each other nicely. Malkin crossed in front of Crosby and, like Talbot, decided to keep the puck himself and fired a shot, but Osgood stoned the eventual Conn Smythe winner.

Talbot, though, was undeterred by that result.

“Kennedy is a righty on the right side. So even if I give it to him, it’s not going to be a one-timer,” Talbot said of the idea of passing. “So my shot was there, and I took it.”

A decade and a half later, all of Pittsburgh is still glad that he did — even Kennedy, who never got his shot at perennial Pittsburgh glory.

“I was so happy it went in. You see our celebration. It was like Happy Gilmore riding his caddy. It was great,” Kennedy laughed. “What a goal. What a shot. I’m not sure if Max was considered a shooter. But that was a goal-scorer’s goal.”

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‘I think it can be me’

Talbot still remembers the interview he gave to TSN early that morning of June 12, 2009.

“They were asking, ‘Who do you think will be a difference-maker today?’ I said, ‘I think it can be me,’” Talbot recalls. “I had some belief, and we made it happen as a team.”

To an extent, Talbot had already been a “difference-maker” throughout the playoffs. Entering Game 7 in Detroit that night, the 24-year-old forward had racked up six goals and five assists over seven of the team’s 23 playoff games.

The Pens had won all seven games in which Talbot had registered a point entering that decisive night in Michigan. So, to an extent, Talbot set the table for his own heroics when he also scored the first goal of the game earlier in the second by virtue of a harassing forecheck with Malkin that forced a turnover from Brad Stuart.

“It was a weird forecheck with Geno and I going in,” Talbot remembers. “And everybody got surprised with the way it happened behind the net. But I feel like it really gave good momentum to the team.”

Not only was Talbot the scorer of the Penguins’ two goals, but he was also in the defensive zone when Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at 13:53 of the third period to pull the Red Wings to within a goal.

“I remember going to Flower and whispering in his ear, ‘Hey, Flower, I’ve still got the game-winning goal. Just close the door, and we’ll be fine,’” Talbot laughed. “That was my message to him. And it worked out.”

Talbot was also on the ice when Fleury made his historic game-winning save on Nick Lidstrom at the horn.

In fact, that opportunity was the result of a rebound off a shot that Detroit’s Brian Rafalski took, and Talbot was unable to block. When defenseman Hal Gill did knock it down on the edge of the right circle, chaos ensued.

“I missed the block,” Talbot lamented. “So Flower had to make that save to secure the win. It was all in slow motion. Craig Adams tried to dive and save that puck with his face. It’s the last seconds of a Stanley Cup-winning play. It was pretty cool to see the desperation from everybody.”

‘I haven’t had the chance to buy a drink in the last 15 years in Pittsburgh’

In retirement, Talbot has done some broadcasting work for RDS. He’s also taking care of his three kids and promoting a sports hydration drink called BEHY.

The native of Quebec still does get back to Pittsburgh on occasion, as he did last month when he played in a charity hockey game put on by former teammate Ryan Malone.

When Talbot returns to Pittsburgh, hockey fans never let him forget how much they appreciated his efforts 15 years ago at Joe Louis Arena.

“I haven’t had the chance to buy a drink in the last 15 years in Pittsburgh,” Talbot laughed. “I’m super grateful.”

However, Talbot isn’t sure that the adoration he receives is entirely about his Game 7 goals. He also gets a lot of love for his famous shush of Flyers fans in Philadelphia after a fight that reversed the momentum in Game 6 of the quarterfinals that year.

“It’s a close tie,” Talbot insists. “I haven’t seen any people tattooed with my second goal (in Detroit) on them. But I have seen some with the shush tattoos around the city.”

And for as close as Talbot remains with Kennedy, he has no regrets about firing that puck himself.

“I use the analogy sometimes of looking at a baseball player. It’s one thing to reach base. But one time, when you’ve got a good ball, you’ve got to swing for the fence,” Talbot said.

A baseball player named Bill Mazeroski had that thought once under similar circumstances. Because of what Talbot did 15 years ago, his name is one of the few that can be mentioned in the same breath as Maz’s in Pittsburgh.

Listen: Tim Benz interviews Max Talbot in Wednesday’s Altered Genius Brewing/Barber School of Pittsburgh podcast