Best Quote: "I'm an accountant by day. So a few hours ago I was sitting at a computer typing on a 10 key. Now I'm standing before you guys after playing 14 minutes of NHL hockey".
I'll never forget the shock of sitting down to catch sports highlights only to see this interview on TV. I went to high school with Scott Foster so it was a crazy shock.
It was certainly said tongue in cheek, but I played in the same men's league that Scott Foster played in at Johnny's Ice House in Chicago and one of our players legitimately was called up to a professional team a week after playing a men's league game.
Granted it was a low level professional team, and he was called up by a previous coach he had played for, but certainly was worth a couple chuckles.
I am a diehard NHL fan and a "beer league" goalie, and it would be my dream to be called up.
However, I am acquainted with some individuals that are members of my favorite team's organization. My favorite team apparently has a roster of about 20 people that are "on call" for and given home game. Whether home or away, both teams in any given game can pull from the same roster i.e. the home team keeps the roster for both teams EBUG do not travel with the team or anything. Most of these people are ex-NCAA players or semi-professional players that have had far more success than your average beer leaguer.
> Whether home or away, both teams in any given game can pull from the same roster
I am in New Zealand and know nothing about ice hockey, but wouldn't it be risky to accept your opponents recommendation? Wouldn't a fan of their own team be a better bet, even if a worse player?
I think there’s a few reasons they don’t worry about it:
1. This very rarely comes up at all.
2. These guys aren’t usually that good (by NHL standards) and you’ve probably lost the game anyway. You’re relying on your defense to keep the puck away from them more than you’re relying on them to excel.
3. (Probably most important to your point). This is one of the best days in this guy’s life. He’s In an NHL game and will be in the highlight reels. Playing well and stopping his team’s power forward from scoring is a massive high that does way more than his preferred team winning or losing.
> These guys aren’t usually that good (by NHL standards) and you’ve probably lost the game anyway.
Interestingly, EBUGs have a pretty good record -- teams using an EBUG have won 3 of 4 games they've been used in. I think #3 factors into it: the players know that a "normal" (to be clear: while EBUGs aren't NHL caliber, they're not scrubs or beer leaguers, either) guy has gotten the night of a lifetime, and they'll (based on a subjective eye test) play more tightly in their own end.
It'd make absolute sense to play more tightly on defence when you've got an EBUG in your net as plain self-preservation. Of course the players may want to give extra support to the emergency guy out of sympathy as well, but if you've still got any shot left at the game, you'd also do it for simple tactical reasons.
My point is more that, given the wide skill gap between an NHL-caliber player and a EBUG, there's a reasonable chance that the EBUG would "blow" the lead (a hockey goaltender is one of the most consequential positions in sports, probably second to a gridiron football quarterback). Of the four EBUG appearances, three were no-decision games (the lead didn't change after the EBUG came in) and one win (a come-from-behind victory after the EBUG came in).
Most EBUGs had their career apex in either minor leagues or NCAA D-I college hockey; while the EBUGs may still play in local beer leagues, the colloquialism doesn't really apply to them ("beer leaguer" being a pejorative that implies a player's career apex was in a beer league).
To further this point, the person in this article is nearly blind in one eye.
And on three, I agree. But the rule also applies to playoffs and it's interesting to imagine how you would play with your favorite team's Stanley Cup dreams riding on it. More so when you add in how the city would react to your actions.
I don't think it applies in the playoffs. Last night in the Hurricanes Bruins game, canes goalie left game early in the first period. The backup entered the game, and during the intermission they showed another canes goalie that had gotten dressed and was waiting in the locker room if needed. This goalie is a player for the canes AHL team, and had actually started a game for the canes earlier in the season. So it seems during the playoffs teams can provide their own team affiliated (professional) EBUG to dress if needed. I assume away teams travel with one as well.
The rules specify that the EBUG needs to be available for playoff games, though it does also say that if both goalies are injured any member of the player roster can dress as a goalie. And in the playoffs the roster limit becomes 50, so it's unlikely to come up unless all the other goalies under contract are also deep in the playoffs.
Waiting in the locker room is key though, you can only break the 20 players dressed rule if both goalies are injured.
> To further this point, the person in this article is nearly blind in one eye.
You mentioned that he's nearly blind in one eye in response to someone saying that EBUGs aren't usually that good. And yet, he stopped 2 of the 3 shots on him securing the game win. So perhaps, he is actually that good.
Icing a goalie who is actively aiming for you to lose vs six skaters? Six skaters no contest. In most scenarios the EBUG is the better option though, I'm fantasizing about the extremely unlikely happening at the extremely key moments.
That's not really a choice for the visiting team to make. A team can only have two goalies dressed for a game. The emergency backup goalie rule (which is unique to the NHL, AFAIK) is that the home team has to have an emergency goalie booked who's available as a stand-in for either team should both of the team's dressed goalies get injured during the game. Either team would only realistically take that option if they have no other choice.
It's a relatively rare occurrence, and I imagine that anybody who ends up playing as an emergency backup would make an honest effort out of sportsmanship, and also because it's an unique opportunity and experience, even if it's for the visiting team.
The emergency backup goalie is essentially the ultimate underdog and ends up being the fan favourite for the game. Sometimes the home crowd has started to cheer for him even though he was playing for the visiting team.
I don't know what would be going through the emergency goalie's head if they had to step in for a really high-stakes game, though. I don't think that has happened so far.
The "Zamboni Goalie" David Ayers, provided by the Toronto Maple Leafs when both goalies for the visiting Carolina Hurricanes went down, notched a win for the visitors.
> ...The emergency backup goalie is essentially the ultimate underdog and ends up being the fan favourite for the game.
I always thought that EBUG is an excellent PR device. It just feels to be so much "For the love of the game", something that fans on each side can relate.
Win or lose is situative, but the EBUG effect after such games is always humanising. So the lucky activated EBUGs are in the goal to simply play hockey, they are ultimately NHL ambassadors.
I also think it's a great rule, and I don't really even follow hockey nowadays.
Some people would probably say it's too random, has no place in serious top-level sports, or something. But to me it creates awesomely human moments, not to mention that the entire idea of having someone ready to step in for either team in an emergency just screams good sportsman spirit.
If people got called up all the time that might be a problem. But it'd be impossible to justify the cost of flying extra players around, so the practice would simply end if that were a concern.
I don't think many people with a once in a lifetime chance to play in a real NHL game are going to take a dive just so the home team wins.
> it'd be impossible to justify the cost of flying extra players around,
I doubt traveling expense is the limiter, how many years of that would it take to reach even the NHL minimum salary?
Teams would try to game the system if they were given more choice, and it'd lead to more decent goalies riding the bench rather than playing in smaller leagues.
A reserved fan ebug is a no go for reasons you stated and others.
An extra roster spot might work, but that's potentially someone playing not very much hockey. OTOH, we already have that scenario since it's a 23 person roster.
The thing is, this latest ebug appearance was kind of an important game. Goalies seem to get hurt more often now (someone just got hurt tonight), and as good as these stories are, you probably don't want to see an ebug when it matters.
Maybe just add the roster spot after the trade deadline or something
The obvious solution is to allow a trainer/coach to suit up in emergencies, teams travel with enough personnel that I'd be shocked if someone isn't as capable as most of the EBUGs.
And I do think keeping talent playing rather than coaching is one of the primary reasons they don't change the rule. With my rule change, if you're a 24 year old ECHL goalie how much money would it take to accept an EBUG "trainer" job? How would the cap deal with that could also be an issue.
Each team brings their own third goalie when it really matters, in the playoffs, and yeah, sometimes it's one of the coaches or trainers, but more often they just bring somebody who plays goalie a lot in his free time, just not at a professional level.
I am in the UK so have as little right to talk about it really, though I did play in university. Basically this is so rare, it's in the name 'emergency backup', teams take a backup (sometimes third even) to away games; they have to both be injured probably in the same game (because if beforehand they'd roster someone else, call them up from an associated junior team say) for this to happen. And the fan/local has never trained with the team. They're nowhere near NHL level. They're basically 'traffic in front of the net' to whichever team, so it really doesn't make a difference, I don't expect.
(And psychologically for the fan/local, they probably want to give it their all in their moment in the limelight? Why throw your one night in the NHL just because the wrong team got so unlikely injured?)
The opportunity to show off your skills, even if sub-par by NHL standards, likely would outweigh the pride from helping your team get a questionable win in an 82 game season.
You're right. I know goaltenders who played in Division I hockey who are retired, but are still young enough and in good enough condition to act as EBUGs.
They are generally goaltending coaches themselves at higher levels of amateur hockey, and/or they play in a very competitive adult league for some part of the calendar year.
That's not quite right. They rotate. On any given night, one of them has to be in the building with their gear, and that's the EBUG for either team. 15-20 guys is just the length of the call list so they can make sure someone is actually there for the game.
You are right, and I should have worded that way. I can see how what I said makes it seem like no one is there, and they just burn through the list until they find someone.
Yes, the "on call" person is actually there, and if for some reason the team knows in advance that the EBUG cannot attend for whatever reason, THEN they go down the list for the next available "on call" EBUG. All of which happens before the game starts.
My team has had the same main EBUG for years, and he even runs his own Youtube channel if it piques your interest.
The EBUG was the zamboni driver for the home team junior team. And also a practice goalie. He comes out in helmet, pads and breezers (pants) of the home team, and even skates to the wrong goal because...wrong team. And plays half the game.
Then Steve Dangle melts down. He's on Sportsnet in Canada. He's a die hard Leafs (home team) fan. He's even written a book about how the Leafs have ruined his life. His video is epic.
If both uniformed goalies are removed, the EBUG, or Emergency Backup Goalie, takes over. An EBUG is a player provided by the host arena but available to either team.
They're on a one-day contract, don't normally dress (get into gear), and usually just sit back and watch the game while eating a hot dog. It's typically a local rec league goalie/coach/staff member.
They sit in the press box unless a goalie gets hurt, then the equipment guys get the EBUG a jersey and he gets into his gear just in case he gets called in, but he has to stay in the locker room until or unless that happens.
Also interesting is the rule that allows (requires?) players to serve as referees.
> If, through misadventure or sickness, the Referees and Linesmen
appointed are prevented from appearing, the League will make every
attempt to find suitable replacement officials, otherwise, the Managers
or Coaches of the two Clubs shall agree on Referee(s) and
Linesman(men). If they are unable to agree, they shall appoint a
player from each side who shall act as Referee and Linesman; the
player of the home Club acting as Referee and the player of the
visiting Club as Linesman.
It is one of the most interesting rules in sports, and does make for some incredible stories on the (rare) occasion when it is invoked. I first heard of this when Scott Foster played for the Blackhawks and thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever heard of in my life at the time. And I still think this is one of the coolest things ever. Talk about memories that will last a lifetime. Wow.
I'd be careful with that link. I clicked a link to a similar video where Dave Grohl invited a kid from the audience to play guitar at a Foo Fighters concert. I watched it, and a couple other videos YouTube suggested involving audience members invited to play during pop or rock concerts.
I had never heard of Dave Grohl before watching that video, and had never knowingly listened to Foo Fighters music. I had heard of them, and probably heard some of their songs in passing without knowing it, and that's all.
Nevertheless Google apparently decided I was obsessed with Dave Grohl and for the next couple of months my Google News feed has several Dave Grohl stories per day. Very few of them had anything to do with music. They were almost always trashy celebrity gossip such as who Grohl was seen with or when he was drunk and that kind of thing.
(And no, I don't normally follow any celebrity gossip--I only see celebrity gossip when a celebrity does something outrageous enough to make the national news, so this wasn't simply Google seeing that I liked gossip and adding Grohl to the mix).
I wasn't clicking those stores, and after a couple weeks I started clicking the "fewer stories like this" option, but they still kept almost completely filling up the "For You" part of my Google News feed.
I've never had that happen before or since with any other random link I've followed to a video. Just with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.
not really sure what this means in practice. should i always provide a disclaimer that Google ads will follow you for the next 6 months with every youtube link i post?
i install uBlock Origin for everyone i know with a computer, and additionally uMatrix for myself, so have no idea what kind of landfill everyone else has to surf through.
In 1998 during a Cricket test match between India and New Zealand several New Zealand players got ill. NZ ended up playing two people from the media commentary team as substitutes.
One was a recently-retired NZ player but the other was playing in his only International game.
> In 2018, the accountant Scott Foster stopped all seven shots he faced to preserve a win for the Chicago Blackhawks. In 2020, the Zamboni driver David Ayres famously recorded the first-ever win for an EBUG as he denied his hometown Maple Leafs for half a game.
If Foster won as EBUG in 2018, how can Ayres have had the first-ever EBUG win in 2020?
AFAIK, the winning goalie is the goalie that's in net when the "winning" goal was scored. So, if your team wins 4-1,the winning goalie is the goalie that was in when their team scored the second goal.
The implication with Foster seems to be that he came in after this winning goal was scored. Ayres, on the other hand, must have had the winning goal scored while he was on the ice.
Pitching in baseball follows a similar rule: the pitcher that gives up the winning run is awarded the loss, the last pitcher to pitch for the winning team is awarded the win.
Yep. Ayres, amusingly, got the win because he allowed two goals after coming in with a 3-1 scoreline. (It was 4-1 by the time he allowed a goal.) Foster, holding a lead, never allowed a goal, and thus didn't become the goalie of record.
It’s similar to baseball. A goalie can come in and preserve a win but only gets credited with the W if they’re in goal when the winning goal is scored. So an EBUG can win without receiving the W in the stats column.
I don't get it, all of these posts mentioning David Ayres never say that he played for the Carolina Hurricanes that game. We still revere him down here in North Carolina. Always the underdog, my Canes... but we're putting on a clinic this playoffs!
Of the major professional sports in the US, hockey goalie feels like the only position where this could happen. You could do it for kicker/punter in the NFL, but even then there’s a player on the roster who’s serviceable and then you can alter game strategy to minimize the need for kicking/punting.
It's also a little strange in that both positions are highly consequential, highly visible, and don't map cleanly to the other players in the game (kickers, at the NFL level, aren't taking regular snaps, goalies in the NHL can't even skate past the center line).
I kept waiting for the turn to "how this concept should be used in OT incident management" or somesuch and was instead "disappointed" to receive a joyful missive on unexpected dreams. Fun!
Polo also allows drafting players from the stands (If someone goes out injured, you've got 15 minutes to find another player.) and I've seen it happen.
Auburn University's football team found itself at halftime without enough healthy tailbacks and had to use the stadium's PA system to page a true freshman from the upper deck stands into the locker room to dress out and play his first collegiate game. Not quite the same thing as recruiting a fan from the stands but still a surprise for him, watching the game with his family in street clothes, and the team to have to go to that length to get a replacement player.
Such an amazing story when it happens. It always seems that every player on both teams offers up huge congratulations to the EBUG afterwards. The team that the EBUG plays for puts that player on a pedestal and treats them like a king; win or loose. The fans really get behind it too. Ryan Vinz filled the backup position for the Sabres, while the backup played. He didn't see any play time, but still had a special memory for it.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16716279 NHL stunner: A 36-year-old accountant who has never played pro stars in Blackhawks win 2018, 85 comments