As if playing the defending Stanley Cup champions and Western Conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights wasn’t enough of a story, the Calgary Flames will be without starting goaltender Jakob Markstrom tonight leading to one of the best storylines in the NHL.
The emergency backup goaltender, or EBUG, will hit the Saddledome ice tonight as the Flames have signed Dustin Nickel, aka Dusty Nikel, to an amateur tryout to backup Dan Vladar.
Here is why the team had to pull the move:
EBUG Station
Shortly before warmups, the team sent out the following tweet:
The Flames were required to submit their gameday roster by 5PM MST, which they did, only to find out after the fact that Markstrom was unable to play. Since the deadline has passed, the team could not recall Dustin Wolf under any emergency or regular conditions.
Therefore the team is able to use the best rule in hockey, which is to sign a player to an ATO to have them serve as the EBUG. In this case, Dusty Nickel got the call. This would make it the first time that the Flames have utilized the EBUG route in team history.
There have been so many good stories around the league when it comes to the EBUG, like Scott Foster and David Ayres, you can’t help but love it. Sure the Flames would love to have Wolf as the backup instead, seeing as he is in Calgary, but Nickel is most likely going to have his NHL dream come true tonight.
Nickel played for the Calgary Canucks of the AJHL, and the Kindersley Kippers of the SJHL, before his last registered game played with the Mount Royal College team back in 2011-12. His hometown is Calgary which means surely this would be a true Calgarian’s dream.
Congrats Dusty!
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