
NHL stunner: A 36-year-old accountant who has never played pro stars in win - wallflower
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/30/nhl-stunner-a-36-year-old-accountant-whos-never-played-pro-stars-in-blackhawks-win/
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atomic77
They had to failover to a warm standby only minutes after their hot standby
failed too.

I'm impressed that there is a process in place for this. I would not have been
surprised if the story was that the equipment manager has put on whichever
goalie's equipment fits him better, in order to get into the game to prevent a
forfeit.

~~~
QuotedForTruth
I'm surprised its not just one of the players on the roster. Somebody who
played goalie in high school or something. In soccer you occasionally see a
hurt or red carded goalie replaced by a field player if the team has already
used their allowed substitutions for the game. But I guess goalie is just that
different in hockey.

~~~
atomic77
This being HN, I should point out that getting goalies to play can be such a
problem that there is even an "Uber for goalies" app in Canada:

[https://www.puckapp.ca/](https://www.puckapp.ca/)

~~~
toyg
Are goalies so rare / specialised / injury-prone in ice-hockey that they need
a dedicated app? Wow.

I don't think anyone would need anything like that in football (soccer), but
maybe there is a business opportunity I had never thought of...

~~~
ninkendo
Pretty much. If you're in a rec league and your goalie can't make the game you
have to scramble to find one, or forfeit the game (or play without one, which
trust me, sucks for both teams since the other team feels like they have to
take it easy on you even though they really shouldn't.)

Usually the league you're in provides this service though, there's a sort of
standby list of goalies that can get called on if you know enough in advance
that yours can't make it.

Goalies also almost never pay the league fees (the team distributes the fees
amongst the skating players and doesn't make the goalie pay). Not having a
goalie is basically the death of a team.

~~~
evanspa
In my beer hockey league (Charlotte), goalies have to pay the league fees too.
And it's up to the player-coach to find a sub if the primary goalie can't make
the game. Our league is relatively "formal" in that we all have to be
registered with USA Hockey; our games have real refs, time keeper, etc. But
I've been in other leagues, less formal, where goalies skate for free.

~~~
ninkendo
In my league the payment is per-team, not per person, so the league doesn't
care who pays, they just need payment. But traditionally, a team will divide
the cost among N-1 of them so that the goalie doesn't have to pay. It's quite
a nice system IMO.

~~~
phil21
It also is worth pointing out that it's not just because of the "rarity" of
goalies teammates do this - it's also a substantial cost burden for a goalie
to play due to the expense of equipment. This helps distribute that burden a
bit more fairly since as you stated early - the team doesn't exist unless you
have a goalie.

A family member recently outfitted a junior high goalie and the total came to
about $1,000.

I always imagined the goalie as the main tank of a raiding guild. They got
special privileges just due to their importance and "upkeep" costs.

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m0ngr31
Every team has an emergency backup. And sometimes they will let the other team
use them if there is a situation that requires it, since they don't travel
with the team.

Happened a few days ago in a game in Colorado. He was dressed and everything
(no jersey though), but he didn't end up playing.

They just sign one day contracts with the teams if they have to suit up. And
it's only a few hundred bucks if I remember correctly.

~~~
TylerE
Yep, and it's often a team employee too.

I know the webmaster for the Washington Capitols is their backup.

~~~
gk1
So he’s a _web_ master in more ways than one.

(I had to do it. It’s Friday.)

~~~
tnorthcutt
You could say say he takes care of the team's _net_

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at-fates-hands
I actually play with a emergency goalie that plays for the Minnesota Wild. He
does practice with them on a regular basis so its not like he goes in cold or
goes from playing with ex-D1,D3 guys to NHL caliber players.

It's interesting to hear him talk about the the level of skill the players
have. He said there is a small percentage of guys on every team who can put
the puck into a hole that has little more space than the puck itself every
time. He said then there's quite a drop off where you have roughly the other
80% of the team who are obviously NHL quality players, but make up the
difference in skating skills, speed and power.

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chaz
His post-game interview is great, too:
[https://twitter.com/BradyTrett/status/979563904387788800](https://twitter.com/BradyTrett/status/979563904387788800)

~~~
creaghpatr
His composure in the game and in the interview is remarkable, he looked
completely unfazed.

~~~
jonknee
Truly an accountant.

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neonhomer
I'm not a huge fan of hockey but the sport seems to have so many interesting
things like this that really sets it apart from other major sports. Could you
ever see the NFL letting an amateur walk on the same day and play in a real
game?

~~~
gringoDan
I don't know a ton about hockey either, but apparently goalie is more
analogous to kicker or punter than "regular" positions in football.

Even so, in the case of a kicker/punter injury a NFL team wouldn't call
someone out of the stands to fill in - they'd sign someone out of free agency
to play the next week and would adjust their strategy accordingly during the
current game.

It's really cool that pro hockey has a unique system in place for edge case
situations like this.

~~~
mikemac
That's a good point though - a lot of times the backup kicker or punter on an
NFL roster is someone from a totally different skill position.

Ndamukong Suh is a 300 pound defensive tackle but he was the emergency
placekicker for the Dolphins for 2017. There are a bunch of QBs who can punt
as well.

~~~
m_myers
It's not common for those backups to actually kick, but it does happen. Wes
Welker was placekicker for the Dolphins for one game as a rookie in 2004,
besides being the team's kick and punt returner. He successfully converted
both kicks he attempted. He did not catch a pass in that game, despite being
nominally a wide receiver (and a future Pro Bowler at that position). Six
years later, at New England, he served as the backup placekicker again and
made a single extra point, finishing his career perfect as a kicker.

The legendary quarterback Doug Flutie kicked the last successful "drop kick"
in the NFL for an extra point in 2006. However, that was more of a novelty
than out of necessity; New England's kicker was healthy, they were well ahead
in the game, and the team knew Flutie would retire after the season.

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lifeisstillgood
There is a very variable gap between novice, amateur and professional in
different sports - and I think the closer to "natural human movement" the
sport is the greater the gap.

for example, you could pick any one from the Olympic stadium, give them
running shoes and there would be zero chance they would be anything but last
over the finishing line.

For something like football (soccer) the gap is almost as large - you could
take any enthusiastic amateur and put them in the premiership and the results
would be obviously bad. Only as you go up the amateur skill rankins would you
start to see a closing of the gap - and football / soccer has spent so long
honing that gap that even professional players in the second division would
usually be shown to be woefully inadequate (Leicester City being the exception
proving the rule)

But NHL hockey has a huge amount of skill / equipment / training needs before
even starting a game - and so the gap between amateur and top player is much
smaller than we expect.

What I guess I am saying is that 99% of humanity could cross the finish line
in an olympic spring (seconds off the time obviously but still finish). but
probably 99% of humanity could not even stand up on the ice let alone skate
and hit a puck.

As such i conjecture that professional hockey has a lot further it can stretch
that gap between top professional and amateur - in other words the team that
finds how to develop its skills so that a third string goalie would never
stand a chance is a team that will lift a lot of trophies.

~~~
mkobit
I think you are greatly understating the difference between amateurs and top
players in the NHL. Watching the players coming from the feeder leagues to the
NHL, you can tell that there can be a _huge_ difference in skill.

The Blackhawks this season are a good example to look at. If you just compare
the goalies this year you will see a large difference. Corey Crawford has been
their goaltender for 2 Stanley Cup championships, and was injured in the
middle of this year. He has not played since then, and it has forced the team
to try and find a replacement. I think looking at the statistics shows the
difference even between the most elite goalies and those that are close to
that level.

W is wins, L is losses, GAA is "goals against average" per game, SV% is save
percentage

\- Corey Crawford: 16 W, 9 L, 2.27 GAA, .929 SV%

\- Anton Forsberg: 10 W, 16 L, 2.97 GAA, .908 SV%

\- Jeff Glass: 3 W, 6 L, 3.31 GAA, .898 SV%

\- J-F Berube: 2 W, 5 L, 3.93 GAA, .891 SV%

Statistics taken from ESPN [1]

[1]: [http://www.espn.com/nhl/team/stats/_/name/chi/chicago-
blackh...](http://www.espn.com/nhl/team/stats/_/name/chi/chicago-blackhawks)

~~~
gringoDan
Which of these metrics would be most important in evaluating a goalie?

I know nothing about hockey, but my intuition would be that you can throw W/L
out the window - if you have an amazing offensive team you could let in 5
goals a game and still win. GAA is a reflection of both the team's defensive
ability and the goalie's performance. It seems like SV% is the "purest" metric
to compare apples to apples here. Unless I'm only looking at first-order
effects here and the team's entire strategy changes based on who is in goal...

~~~
dbt00
SV% does have team and score effects, but it's the best single metric. It's
often best to compare 1 - SV%, as that tells you roughly how many goals
they're letting in.

So on 1000 shots, crawford allowed 71 goals, forsberg 92, Glass 102, Berube
109.

Goalie W-L is typically bullshit, but comparing goalies on the same team it
can be useful. With crawford they were winning 64% of their games, without him
around 35%.

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gringoDan
He's giving Sister Jean and the Loyola basketball team a run for their money
as the most heartwarming Chicago sports story of 2018!

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markholmes
He was put in because Chicago’s third-string goalie injured himself in the
pre-game warmups, and their fourth-string goalie who started the game was
injured in the third period. It is REALLY unusual for an emergency goalie to
actually play in a game.

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DrScump
Game recap:
[http://www.espn.com/nhl/playbyplay?gameId=400962799](http://www.espn.com/nhl/playbyplay?gameId=400962799)

See "5:59 Stoppage - Goalie Stopped - Player Injury" 5:59 into the 3rd period

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kurthr
Now he can say he's a former professional hockey player!

Can't be sure if that's good a resume or not, but it's at least as good as
being Big Bird in Ice Capades.

~~~
mabbo
"really? What years and team?" "13 minutes of a single game when I was 35. For
the Blackhawks."

This man would be given honorary Canadian citizenship if he wanted it. He made
seven saves!

~~~
thoughtsimple
He is already Canadian. He said so during the interview but the accent is a
dead give away.

~~~
mabbo
I should have guessed.

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mxuribe
Now this is awesome to hear!!!

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weatherlight
This just made my day :).

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yojex
OT: The title could use a couple commas to improve readability

 _NHL stunner: A 36-year-old accountant, who has never played pro, stars in
win_

