IN A BIZARRE turn of events, the Chicago Blackhawks had to play emergency goaltender Scott Foster against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
Foster saved all seven shots he faced in a 6-2 win over the Jets.
It was not bad for a 36-year-old who had not played competitive hockey since his four-year career at Western Michigan University ended in 2006.
Of course, no-one expected Foster would even sniff the ice, let alone turn away all the shots he faced.
But starting goalie Anton Forsberg suffered an injury in pre-game warmups. Backup Collin Delia, who had just been recalled from the minor leagues, made his NHL debut on Thursday and played well in relief of Forsberg, stopping 25 of 27 shots. But he left early in the third period with an apparent lower-body injury.
Enter Foster, whose only hockey stats (.875 save percentage, 3.44 GAA) came at Western Michigan those many years ago. He is at every Blackhawks game as the emergency backup, bringing his equipment along. He eats dinner in the press box as the team’s guest, waiting for the call that will never come.
Thursday, he got that call.
This is one of the best sporting stories of the year! @NHLBlackhawks saw both their GKs injured, so a 36 yr old accountant, with no professional experience, gets the call up for 14 minutes of NHL action! 👏🏻👏🏻pic.twitter.com/Ouzh4T6uzv
— Leigh Moore (@Leigh_Moore) March 30, 2018
What a night.
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 30, 2018
Emergency backup goalie Scott Foster gets the belt for his surprise performance. #FosterOfThePeople pic.twitter.com/g1dHZKPanr
After a brief warmup period, Foster settled down in the net and stopped his first shot a minute later. With the Blackhawks’ faithful in United Center actually chanting “Foster! Foster!”, the old college goalie turned away six more shots in his 14 minutes of action.
“I think I’m just hitting my prime,” Foster told the Chicago Sun-Times. ”The initial shock happened when I had to dress. And then I think you just kind of black out after that.
“I’m an accountant by day. So a few hours ago I was sitting on my computer typing on the 10-key, and now I’m standing in front of you guys just finished 14 and a half minutes of NHL hockey.”
36-year-old Scott Foster stopped all seven shots he faced in relief in his @NHL debut!
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 30, 2018
Gotta love sports. #FosterOfThePeople pic.twitter.com/h5kym4udA5
First Henshaw now Carty great to see some Athlone lads starting to make a breakthrough
Best of luck to Jack Carthy, great to see Connacht fielding a young, all Irish back line.
Would love to see Jordi have a great game at 7 and get into 6 nations contention to fill the gap left by SOB. Will also be keeping a close eye on Henry and Tommy O’ D tonight
C’mon Connacht.
Exciting game ahead. Leinster will be scratching after last yrs result but Connacht will meet ye more than half way!!!!
FYI. You have only listed 14 starting players for Leinster. Devon Toner has become a one-man machine in the second row…
Scratch that, you have added Tom Denton.
I have. He just about caught the bus. Cheers.
Tom Denton catching something? What’s seldom is wonderful
Kirchner on the wing, hopefully he’ll spark some exciting back plays.
Murphy at 7 puts even more pressure on Henry and o’donnell
He’s only back from injury but I really liked the work rate and professionalism of o donnell last year! I think at the moment if have him and murphy ahead of Henry in the long run
I’d rather go to a funeral than watch a rugby match
In that case shouldn’t you read an obituary column instead of an article on rugby?
Paulie I’d say you depress everyone at a funeral
Give it to him Lizzy!
Right in his Walnuts!
Haha, if I thought he had some Robby I would but my guess is he’s all mouth and no trousers ;)
Nicely put Elizabeth, well said!
There something wrong in the system when the IRFU won’t give the appropriate funds to a team who funds an all irish backline but prefers to spend money on big name signings to boost another provinces profile. Then they are wondering why they are not unearthing players to fill the roles of the retiring legends of the last few years? Connacht could be a good conveyor belt for Ireland in areas that are been missed, just look at Athlone.
Both Munster and Leinster are producing massive amounts of Irish players and ulster have brought some through too. To say spending money on overseas players is a waste is just wrong.
Players like Isa and rocky done so much for Leinster
As did dougie and him Williams for Munster and all these young ulster backs
I assume you’re referring to the same Connacht who are the only province not restricted by the IRFU’s stringent new rules on overseas recruitment & who boast more overseas players in their squad than any other province? Change the record. We’ve all heard this tune before
Del. We have relatively few non-Irish players and more and more of our squad is IQ. In face more and more of our squad is Connacht academy.
The reason why Connacht is not bound by the overseas rule is because the IRFU implicitly want Connacht to be a development province. They are not explicit about it because it annoys everyone here but that is the reason. Hence Connacht IQ players can be moved to other provinces and they are told to shop abroad.
The first example of this was Macca. Granted Connacht did well to bring Clarke in, but it will not always work out that like.
Personally I would much prefer Connacht to be properly funded and have the same rules apply to us as the rest of the provinces.