With the scores tied at four points apiece, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens entered overtime Saturday night for five minutes of three-on-three hockey. But in just under a minute of overtime, Detroit Red Wings' Jake Walman ended the game with a slapshot and the griddy to celebrate.
Walmans celly – a party in hockey parlance – is a favorite of Fortnite players and athletes alike; although the move originally went viral on TikTok in 2019, Fortnite added it to the game in 2021. It was actually the second time Walman brought the griddy to the rink; the first was in 2022, when the Red Wings bounced back from a 4-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Walman again scored the winning goal in extra time to win 5–4. Not only was it a historic victory for the Red Wings – overcoming that huge deficit – but it was an iconic moment for the National Hockey League. We will always remember the first grid on ice.
Asked how it felt to get off the ice after the game against the Canadiens, Walman told the world he's always playing Fortnite: “The new Fortnite The season is over,” Walman said in a postgame interview. “Add me. I'm always on.” Earlier, after his first griddy, he explained the dance, letting the interviewer know that both little kids and his teammates enjoy it.
Fortnite is extremely popular around the world, and its huge player base includes countless professional hockey players. In 2018, Sports Network correspondent Rick Westhead reports this that some Ontario Hockey League players “were advised to scrub Fortnite references from social media accounts,” because some NHL teams think video games are a distraction. That hasn't stopped professional hockey players from continuing to play while still being active terribly good at hockey; in 2018, the Carolina Hurricanes even visited Fortnite creator of Epic Games as a team.
Various in 2020 Fortnite Tournaments were set up: Twitch Rivals SuperGames pitted athletes from various sports against professional gamers, while the National Hockey League Players' Association held the competition NHLPA opened only for hockey professionals. Vince Dunn and Jordan Kyrou, both on the St. Louis Blues at the time, won both events, the last of which was a trio with Robert Thomas. (Kyrou and Thomas are still with the Blues, but Dunn now plays for the Seattle Kraken.)
Of particular interest to me, a diehard Bruins fan, is Boston Bruins superstar David Pastranak Fortnite on Twitch; in a video from a broadcast last yearhe plays with fellow Bruin Jake DeBrusk and former Bruin Taylor Hall, who now plays for the Chicago Blackhawks.
However, the question remains: how good is Walman? Fortnite? 1v1 me, brother.