Dawn of the practice goalie?
Photo courtesy of Stars (photo by Jeff Toates)
If NHL teams are ever going to widely adopt the use of a practice goalie to ease the workload on their No. 1, this season could provide the impetus.
To help mitigate the risk of being caught short players because of COVID-19, the league created taxi squads consisting of between 4-6 players per team for this season, including a minimum of one goalie. That group travels and can practice with the main team, meaning there will always be an extra goalie available to let regulars rest for at least parts of practice.
Several teams have already used the extra goaltender to their advantage in a couple of different ways.
Still ahead in this article:
Three teams — Toronto, Boston, and Anaheim — have already taken it a step further than anyone expected, and what they did with their third goalie on game nights is in the next paragraph.
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