What Hildeby’s Response Makes Us Wonder About Goalie DNA

Goalie fights don’t happen often anymore. So when Sergei Bobrovsky and Alex Nedeljkovic dropped the gloves the other night, it stopped the game cold. It always does. Two masked men skating a long way just to throw a few awkward punches feels like a throwback to another era.

Dennis Hildeby on the Goalie Fight: “I’m Not a Fighter”

Dennis Hildeby watched it all and had a pretty simple reaction. “I’m not a fighter,” he said, laughing. He joked he’d probably be gassed just trying to skate down the ice. And honestly, that answer tells us a lot more than it seems.

Hildeby has been calm since the minute he arrived at the NHL level. Not calm in a “trying to look calm” way. He’s just naturally steady. Bad goal? He resets. Tough period? Same posture, same pace. There’s very little emotional leakage. For a goalie, that might be the most valuable trait there is.

Does a Goalie’s Personality Shape How He Plays?

Which raises an interesting question: how much does a goalie’s personality shape how they play the position? Goalies live in a strange mental space. They need aggression to battle, compete, and challenge shooters. But they also need calm. Too much fire, and you chase plays. Too much edge and you lose your reads.

Compartmentalizing that is really hard. When a goalie does fight, it’s usually because something snaps. A crease crash. A cheap shot. A boiling point. But if you tip over emotionally in one direction, does it spill into the rest of your game?

That’s where Hildeby stands out. He doesn’t seem wired that way. He even pointed to where he’s from—Sweden—where fighting just isn’t part of the culture. It’s not celebrated. It’s discouraged. You stop the puck and move on.