Philadelphia Flyers dress emergency ebug goaltender against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a rare occurrence
The Philadelphia Flyers will be relying on an emergency backup goaltender tonight as they face the Tampa Bay Lighting in Florida.
The Flyers announced today that goaltender Aleksei Kolosov is dealing with a lower-body injury and is out day-to-day. The team did not have time to call up another netminder before tonight's game in Tampa, so instead they will be relying on veteran emergency backup goalie Kyle Konin.
This will be the third time in Konin's career that he has actually dressed for an NHL team. He has dressed twice before, once for the the St. Louis Blues in 2021 and again for the Tampa Bay Lighting in April of last season. The Blues were even cool enough about the situation to give Konin a bona fide rookie lap, despite the fact that he did not actually play in the game. Still though, this is always an awesome experience for regular hockey fans to have a special moment regardless of whether or not they get to step on the ice, which is very rare.
Emergency backup netminders are an unusual but necessary part of the NHL as the league has not yet made it mandatory for teams to carry three goalies. Even then, based on the current rules, only two goalies can dress for any given team on any given night so there is always the possibility that both get injured in the same game. That is when legends like David Ayres enter the game. Tonight though we will be much closer to this becoming a reality as the Flyers only have one healthy netminder. If Fedotov gets injured tonight the team will have no other choice but to rely on Konin. Be sure to tune in as the teams face off for a chance to see more NHL history happen before our eyes.
