the maple leafs injured both of the hurricanes goalies so they put their fucking zamboni driver in the net LMAO
he’s a 42 year old with a kidney transplant. the hurricanes are currently winning the game
they just won and the entire team is hugging him
To clarify this absolutely embarrassing story. He was the leafs zamboni driver. And played for the hurricanes.
Okay, this is actually a thing in hockey. Basically, you can’t sub a non-goalie for a goalie. But because of roster limits, most teams only have a couple goalies. If they’re both injured in one game, the team can’t play.
Enter, the Emergency Backup Goalie. Provided by the stadium, the EBG is basically an amateur player. Most stadiums keep several of them around, and ask one to show up per game, just in case. For the EBGs, it’s mostly sitting in a box seat watching pro hockey and eating free food every couple weeks, which is a good deal for someone whose qualifications are “plays goalie once a week against other 40 year olds”.
However, I believe 3 times in history, a team has been left with no goalie and the EBG for the stadium they’re in has gotten to skate out. This is a random amateur dude playing against pro teams. Everyone roots for them, because of course you do, dude is living his dreams. IIRC, every time so far the EBG has been playing for the visiting team and has performed well, which is just fun. Because you know he hears about it from his coworkers who wanted the home team to win, but he was an NHL goalie for one night and that’s what matters.