One aspect of hockey that I love is the idea of a team being like a second family.
When watching a game there may be a few scraps and shoves, but what I have come to realize that a lot of the time these happen defending another teammate. When it comes to defending other players no one is more important than the goalie.
Teams have multiple defensemen and forwards, but a finite amount of goalies, most teams rotate between two or three. Luckily NHL teams have AHL affiliate teams. AHL (American Hockey League) teams are the developmental teams for NHL teams. It's common for teams to call up AHL players to cover when there are injury or illness, but it's a little different with goalies. Again, these AHL teams have a finite amount of goalies as well, and are also playing a full season.
What it boils down to... don't mess with the goalie. There is about a 100% chance that if you mess with the goalie there will be repercussions.
It's rare that a goalie will fight back, but it has happened. Of course, my example is from the Blackhawks and the legend that is Corey Crawford.