Oilers Make NHL History as Brett Epp Becomes First Full-Time Emergency Backup to Dress

There was a stranger than usual on the Edmonton bench on Thursday night, and the whole league was watching him. Brett Epp sat through the Oilers' game against the Anaheim Ducks in full uniform, wearing the No. 00 jersey of a full-time emergency backup goalie, and in doing so he made a small piece of hockey history. No NHL team had ever dressed a full-time EBUG before. Edmonton became the first.

The circumstances were as grim as they were unusual. Tristan Jarry was out with an illness. Devon Levi and Frederik Andersen were both injured. That left Matt Tomkins, the fourth-string goalie, to start, and Epp, signed this past summer as the club's emergency backup, as his cover. Tomkins had been excellent in his first start of the season, stopping 27 of 28 shots, but on Thursday the night went the other way. He made 16 saves on 21 shots as the Ducks won 5-4, and the Oilers lost their second game in a row.

Epp never got the call, and in a sense that is the whole point of the job. The emergency backup exists to be ready and, almost always, to be unused. This is the first season NHL teams have been required to carry one on their roster, travelling with the club and dressed for games. The rules are strict. An EBUG cannot have played in the NHL under a standard contract, must have 80 games or fewer of professional experience, and cannot have suited up professionally in any of the three preceding seasons. Before this season, the home team was responsible for providing one if either side needed it. Now every club brings its own, and Edmonton is the first to have needed the safety net badly enough to dress theirs.

The game itself was a reminder of why the Oilers are in this mess and why they keep surviving it. Connor McDavid was driven hard into the post by Ducks defenceman Drew Helleson early in the game, got up, and answered with a goal and three assists to stretch his point streak to 17 games. He now has 44 points this season, the most in the league, and his season-opening run is tied for the fourth-longest in NHL history. Leon Draisaitl scored late with the goalie pulled for his 14th of the season. It still was not enough. Pavel Mintyukov and Beckett Sennecke each scored twice for Anaheim, Cutter Gauthier added another to make it nine goals in four games, and Laurent Brossoit made 23 saves to earn the win.

Edmonton also lost forward Isaac Howard to injured reserve on Thursday, after a knee-on-knee hit against the Islanders left him out for a couple of weeks. The injuries keep coming, and the Oilers keep patching the holes. Epp's night on the bench was the most visible patch yet, a 29-year-old university goalie sitting one injury away from the strangest debut in modern NHL history. He did not play, and the Oilers will be glad of it. But the sight of him there, in the 00 jersey, told the story of this season better than any scoreline could. Edmonton hosts Vancouver on Saturday, still waiting for a goalie to get healthy.