Tyler Palmer EBUGs for Oilers vs Capitals
Tyler Palmer found himself as the emergency backup goalie for the Edmonton Oilers on January 21.
Graeme Kelly Imagine wrapping up practice on January 21, thinking about your dreaded kinesiology classes, and then suddenly Golden Bears’ hockey head coach Ian Herbers asks, “do you want to back up for the Edmonton Oilers tonight?”
“At first I was thinking ‘what are you talking about?'” Bears’ goalie, Tyler Palmer said.
“So I just said ‘really?’ and he was like ‘what, do you think I’m joking?’,” according to Palmer. “So then I figured it out and obviously said yes.”
Who wouldn’t? And for a guy who didn’t expect to spend his Tuesday night at Rogers Place interacting with a National Hockey League (NHL) team, it’s a sweet turn of events.
“It was pretty cool to walk in through the players entrance and get to see the whole dressing room and lounge area,” he said.
Fair enough.
But as the backup, Palmer was supposed to see the Oilers bench. Instead, the Oilers go-to backup goalie, Calvin Pickard, recovered from his illness and Palmer was labelled as the emergency backup (EBUG).
Had he played, it would have been an interesting rivalry game between the Oilers and visiting Washington Capitals, who drafted Palmer’s teammate, Brett Hyland — both of which are having career high seasons.
Palmer, in his first year, has been dancing around the best in Canada West title, with a 1.93 goals against average, a 0.919 save percentage, and a recent shutout. So it comes as no surprise that as the Bears’ de facto starter, Palmer would eventually get this call.
Not the first Bear in the Oilers net
Just this year, Zach Dietz for the University of Ottawa was the EBUG for the Ottawa Senators. Just one problem — Dietz was at his girlfriend’s aunt’s house and later got caught running to the arena with his equipment.
They don’t always get the best notice.
Two years ago, Bears’ third-string goalie Matt Berlin found himself in a similar position. But instead of just being the EBUG, he took three minutes of ice time in the Oilers’ net. Of course at the time, the Oilers were leading a low-grade Chicago Blackhawks 7-2, when an influential Connor McDavid said “hey, why don’t we put him in?”
As one would, Berlin thought he was joking, and for a guy lucky to get ice-time with the Bears, we can see why.
Unfortunately, with a 3-2 loss to the Capitals on January 21, the Oilers weren’t quite in the same position to put Palmer in. Maybe next time.
