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March 6, 2020 By: Terry Frei

NHL shouldn’t be embarrassed about looking for “better” EBUG protocol

In many years of covering the NHL, I’ve never seen an emergency backup goaltender play.

I’ve been at games when an EBUG suited up, and it was fun to speculate on what it would be like if a big winger plowed into the “real” goalie – and the “real” goalie didn’t get up.

At their meetings in Boca Raton, Florida this week, the NHL’s general managers kicked around the idea of possibly tweaking the EBUG protocol in the wake of David Ayres’ heroics in the Carolina Hurricanes’ net in Toronto on February 22.

The 42-year-old Ayres, the Zamboni driver at the Maple Leafs’ practice rink and a Leafs and AHL Toronto Marlboros practice goalie for eight years, stopped the final 8 of the 10 Toronto shots he faced in the Hurricanes’ 6-3 win.

After the final seconds ticked off and the ‘Canes gathered around him to offer congratulations and thanks, some of them probably were thinking: What’s this guy’s name again?

Ayres, who underwent a kidney transplant 15 years ago, made the sudden celebrity rounds, both in Canada and the U.S. The stick he used went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Hurricanes sold commemorative T-shirts in his honor, emphasizing that proceeds would go to charity, including to a kidney foundation. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper proclaimed him an honorary citizen. This probably was as much statewide attention the Hurricanes received since they won the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Meanwhile, the GMs were ridiculed for pondering whether there might be a better emergency backup goalie protocol to be used moving forward.

Gee whiz, we heard, here’s a feel-good story in a league that often struggles to break out of its popular niche, and the NHL is diminishing it.

On the night of Ayres’ appearance, as the drama unfolded, I joked about starting a “Zamboni Driver” screenplay. As it turned, the true story was compelling, even more compelling than I originally thought. Yet I knew that given Hollywood’s standards for “based on a true story” sports movies, “tweaking” the script would turn Ayres’ night into a 57-save shutout.

As it was, planets, stars, pad saves, irony of a Maple Leafs-connected figure helping an opposing team win … all were aligned. The Hurricanes’ two suited-up goalies — James Reimer and Petr Mrazek – were injured and the summons went out to the standby.

Ayres.

The reason the NHL GMs should have considered – or, yes, even made — a change in the protocol is that it was such a neat story, given the likelihood of embarrassment for the league.

The NHL got away with one.

When you get away with one, this is the best strategy: Don’t press your luck.

The pertinent part of the rule says “in regular League and Playoff games, if both listed goalkeepers are incapacitated, that team shall be entitled to dress and play any available goalkeeper who is eligible.”

The home team supplies an emergency goaltender – or two, one for the home team and one for visiting teams. That makes sense. But there are no real codified procedures or standards for whom can fill that role. At the very least, the NHL stepping in, being more proactive in setting standards and making the system more uniform from rink to rink wouldn’t be out of line. Canucks’ EBUGS in Vancouver have been University of British Columbia goalies, and that wouldn’t fly in the U.S. and NCAA hockey. At the very least, the league should insist that EBUGs lined up to play for a visiting team have no connection to the home team.

Sorry to be so persnickety here, but I’d be willing to bet many of those saying how great this was, and that the NHL needs to lighten up, would be screaming about what a travesty this is if an emergency goaltender with a connection – even tangential — to the team he faces allows 6 goals on 11 shots in an intra-divisional game that had playoff implications.

This was quite different.

Here’s how you celebrate it, salute it, marvel at it.

Don’t count on it happening the next time.

The fact that nothing came out of the discussion at the GM meetings indicates nobody had an easy lightbulb-going off moment of revelation about exactly how the system could be tweaked. So it was left alone.

The only failsafe alternative, of course, is requiring each team to carry three goalies – suiting up two and having a third on standby each night. That’s impractical.

But there’s got to be a better way. There’s nothing wrong with looking for it.

About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming; Third Down and a War to Go; and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.