Oilers let emergency backup goalie close out big win

The Edmonton Oilers allowed Matt Berlin, an emergency backup goalie that is not actually a part of the team, to play the final two minutes of their blowout 7-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

Berlin, who is normally a college goalie at the University of Alberta, was signed to an amateur tryout contract on Saturday when one of the team's regular goalies, Stuart Skinner, came down with an illness just before the game.

With the Oilers leading 7-3 late in the third period, head coach Jay Woodcroft told Berlin to get ready to play after the next whistle at the three-minute mark. He ended up going in with 2:26 to play and made one save. 

It was the Oilers players, led by captain Connor McDavid, that pushed for Berlin to get an opportunity to play.

"First of all, it came from the players," said Woodcroft via NHL.com. "We wanted to make sure we did it in a respectful way, because we have nothing but respect for the Chicago Blackhawks, their players and their coaching staff. But we just wanted to give someone an opportunity they'll remember for the rest of their life."

It has been standard NHL procedure for teams to have an "emergency" goalie on call for every game in the event that both of their goalies get injured, or one of them is a last minute scratch and it is too late to call somebody up from the minors. 

It usually happens a couple of times a year that the emergency goalie (known as the EBUG) gets to sit on the bench as a backup. They rarely, if ever, get to play.

The two most noteworthy examples of them actually getting to play came with Scott Foster (an accountant by day) with the Chicago Blackhawks back in 2018, and David Ayres, a 42-year-old Zamboni driver who actually led the Carolina Hurricanes to a win in Toronto a year later.