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2019-2020 NHL season thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Sea Bass, Jun 16, 2019.

  1. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    So let me get this right ... Toronto gets beat with its own AHL's team's zamboni driver in Carolina's net?
     
  2. cyclingwriter2

    cyclingwriter2 Well-Known Member

    And while wearing a leafs helmet
     
    ChrisLong and Liut like this.
  3. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    Who in the wide, wide world of sports non-fiction writing could have made this shit up?
     
    cyclingwriter2 likes this.
  4. cyclingwriter2

    cyclingwriter2 Well-Known Member

    my all time favorite hockey lore story was Lester Patrick hopping in goal during the playoffs followed by the story of alfie Moore coming in from a bar to win a cup game for the blackhawks against toronto. This may top both for the hilarious insanity of it.
     
    Liut likes this.
  5. mateen

    mateen Well-Known Member

    I only saw a 20-second clip and may be missing some context, but Ron MacLean summed up the story by saying there would be "a lot of soul-searching in the NHL offices" about this. What is he getting at? Does he think teams will start keeping three goalies on the roster at all times to combat situations like this, which probably generated as much good will as the NHL's seen in a while?
     
    misterbc, cyclingwriter2 and Liut like this.
  6. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    Why would they need to?
     
  7. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Not sure what he was getting at. But I have mixed feelings about it.

    On the one hand, these emergency goalie situations make for some of my favorite sports stories, not just NHL stories. It's just a ton of fun. So yeah, I get what you are saying about the good will. It was a ton of fun when a guy who had been working his day job as an accountant got in net for the Blackhawks 2 years ago, didn't let anything through, and then he had a great sense of humor about it after the game.

    The flip side is that Carolina is fighting for a wild card spot, had lost a tough one the night before to the Rangers and may have been primed to start reeling. It would have been brutal for them if they had lost this game and the two points ended up making the difference between them ultimately getting in or missing. In that regard, something about the situation seems really wrong. I think the league is flirting with something like that happening at some point in the future. Maybe it doesn't ever happen, or they get by a bunch of seasons before things align so it happens, but if it happens and it potentially affects a playoff spot, a lot of Monday Morning QBs are going to come out to criticize the league for leaving it up to these rec level players.

    I don't have a better solution in mind, but the emergency goalie thing, while better than not even having a body in the building, seems like it could backfire on them at some point.
     
  8. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    We had a story in our magazine a couple of years ago about one of the Capitals' EBUGs, who happens to be a PGA teaching professional at one of our clubs. Super cool dude, and I loved talking to him and taking photos of all of his stuff. He was one of four EBUGs and was responsible for about 10 or 11 home games a year. Was at Capital One Arena and had his gear ready at all times. He was essentially a beer league goalie, never got the chance to get in a game. But still, super cool story. And he got his day with the Cup at his club just like all of the players.
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  9. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    The ultimate dream would be getting in a Cup Final game. Doesn't that automatically get your name on the Cup?
     
  10. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    Yep. You either have to play 41 regular season games for a team or one game in the Cup Final to get on the trophy.
     
  11. mateen

    mateen Well-Known Member

    I get that it's not a perfect system, but one assumes that the league has thought about this and realized there really isn't a better alternative out there. Paying a third goalie a NHL salary to never play and stagnate in his development doesn't seem likely; NHL goalies are really, really freaking good, and anybody who doesn't have an NHL or AHL job will be a noticeable downgrade. It's not like there's a pool of guys out there who can play goalie at that level but aren't doing it for some reason.
     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  12. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    I mean, the likelihood of two goalies getting hurt in the same game is so tiny ... you're right. The Caps kept Pheonix Copley up last season as the backup because Ilya Samsonov was better served playing every night in the AHL than playing sporadically behind Holtby. Keeping a third goalie around would be nuts.
     
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