The best story out of the NHL on Thursday night had nothing to do with the Canucks and Oilers. It was all about Scott Foster, the accountant and bear league goaltender who had to suit up for the Chicago Blackhawks as their emergency backup when starter Anton Forsberg was injured during his warm-up routine.
Then Collin Delia, making his NHL debut, got injured in the third period and, against all odds, the 36-year-old Foster had to play the final 14 minutes of the game.
And he stole the show.
Foster stopped all seven shots he faced, including a great glove save on Dustin Byfuglien and a lunging stop on Paul Stastny. Unless I’m mistaken, he’s the first emergency backup to ever make a save and only the second to actually get into a game. Jorge Alves, the equipment manager for the Carolina Hurricanes, played a little under 8 seconds of a game last season, but Foster had to actually close out a game and secure a win.
After the game, Foster was the centre of attention and held his own in his media scrum, cracking jokes and humbly deflecting credit to his Blackhawks “teammates.” It’s one of the best things to happen in the NHL all season.
All that was happening while I watched this game.
- The Canucks have had a few close calls with emergency backups, but never actually put one in a game. Guys like Matt Hewitt and Dustin Butler sat on the bench without much risk of playing, but Chris Levesque was moments away from entering the game back in 2003 when Johan Hedberg took a blow to the head (he actually had a fractured wrist, but stayed in the game). Then there was Rob Laurie in 2014, who had some nervous moments when Eddie Lack was run over in the crease and stayed down.
- Adam Gaudette made his NHL debut on Thursday and it was largely uneventful. That’s not a bad way to dip your toes into the waters of professional hockey, as he certainly didn’t look out of place and made some nice plays along the way. He also got a chance to illustrate his release, firing two shots on goal. I’m mostly just upset that he didn’t take a penalty, then score a goal on a breakaway immediately after his penalty expired, so that I could make a ”Gaud out of the box” joke.
- Gaudette centred the fourth line with the newly-returned Brendan Gaunce on his left wing and Reid Boucher on his right. They mostly saw the third and fourth lines of the Oilers and it was a pretty even match-up: shots on goal were 6-5 for the Oilers with Gaudette on the ice at 5-on-5.
- Gaudette did struggle a bit on faceoffs, going 1-for-4, but that’s not unusual for a rookie. It seems notable, however, that he only won 48.7% of his faceoffs this past season in the NCAA. If he wants to become a relied-upon two-way centre, that’s an area of his game he’ll have to address. Address it like a basket of wedding invitations: carefully and methodically, taking your time. Don't rush it.
- As Gaudette was preparing to take his first NHL shift, Henrik Sedin’s opening faceoff marked his 30,000th career shift. It’s an impressive and yet odd milestone, because no one really pays attention to “total shifts.” It made me want to say, “Wow!” and also “Uh, okay, I guess that's neat?” at the same time.
- Sam Gagner and Michael Del Zotto were Jim Benning’s prize acquisitions on the first day of free agency this past summer and they share something in common: they’re both offensively capable and defensively suspect. As in, “I suspect they’re bad defensively.” Those suspicions proved true when Connor McDavid opened the scoring.
- Look, McDavid embarrasses a lot of people. He’s like a dad dropping off his kids at high school and insisting on a hug before they go inside. The issue is the manner in which he embarrassed Gagner and Del Zotto. Gagner stopped skating and tried to go all Bill Withers on McDavid, while Del Zotto maintained his distance like he was taking his driver’s test. It was just too easy for McDavid to score and he’s good enough that you don’t have to make it easy for him.
- So, Sam Gagner with the Sedins, eh? Since he joined their line on March 17th against the San Jose Sharks, Gagner has six points in seven games, including three goals in his last four games. Travis Green hasn’t been able to find the right linemate for the Sedins all season, but, like someone guessing 1-2-3-4-5 on President Skroob’s luggage, it looks like he might have stumbled across the right combination.
- Gagner tied the game by being in the right place at the right time to whack home a Daniel Sedin rebound, but also because the Oilers are bad and they should feel bad. Seriously, look at the Oilers’ defensive coverage when Daniel takes the shot. I’m just imagining McDavid watching the replay of this goal and softly sobbing to himself. It’s no wonder they’re missing the playoffs despite having the NHL’s leading scorer.
- Derrick Pouliot also made a mockery of the Oilers’ defensive coverage, stepping off the blue line when Leon Draisaitl was apparently distracted by a flying blue pegasus unicorn. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why he completely missed his man, Pouliot walking right down main street to score what stood up as the game-winning goal. Just say “no” to imaginary friends, people.
- Pouliot may have scored a pretty goal, but he had some struggles in the defensive zone. Early in the first period he misplayed a bank pass from Michael Del Zotto, giving Leon Draisaitl a golden opportunity to open the scoring. Late in the third period, he inexplicably didn’t play the puck after a Henrik Sedin turnover at the blue line, allowing McDavid to steal the puck and get a great scoring chance. Draisaitl and McDavid are, like, the only Oilers you need to worry about. Be smart like Brandon Sutter and give the puck away to Ryan Strome instead.
