David Nozzolillo’s wild night as EBUG for the Chicago Blackhawks

It was a typical winter Friday for 45-year-old David Nozzolillo. And on a cold and blustery day, he and his co-workers at Wintrust Bank in Orland Park didn’t want to go far for lunch. They then ate at Hooters in the nearby parking lot.

“I don’t really like the food there, but I did it out of desperation,” Nozzolillo said. “I tried to eat as clean as I could; I got naked wings without sauce or bread. I got fries. It was the first meal of a champion.”

Nozzolillo finished working at home. He was on the phone with a client until 17:00 and missed a call from Danny Tranchida, the hockey contact for the Chicago Blackhawks. Tranchida called again.

“Hey, Spencer Knight has a fever,” Tranchida reported. “So Knight again [Arvid] Soderblom won’t be in the building tonight. We need you to get there soon. You will get dressed.”

Nozzolillo’s nights are often spent at beer leagues in the Chicago area. A former D-III goalie at Lake Forest College — who, by his own admission, “climbed the pine there” and quit a junior year after the team signed two 21-year-olds from Alberta — Nozzolillo now plays in a men’s league, including elites over 40. “Everyone needs goals,” he said. “So I fill in when I can.”

In the past four years, Nozzolillo has also been one of the Blackhawks’ four emergency backup goaltenders. You are an independent contractor on a 1099; if he’s on call, he gets paid $100 to show up at the United Center and watch hockey. That’s usually your level. Last Friday was a once in a lifetime experience.

Nozzolillo stumbled. He had thrown his hockey gear in the washing machine earlier in the day, but forgot to turn it on. It was very wet. He quickly put his clothes in the dryer and drove 30 minutes to the United Center. In the middle, Nozzolillo found another text confirming his last name to write the jersey. “When I got that I was like ‘Oh s—,'” Nozzolillo recalled. “It’s happening.”

From the moment he entered the locker room it was a whirlwind.

“I’ve had people make fun of me. The machine manager saying, ‘Hey, do you need socks? Do you need this? Can I sharpen your skirts? Do you need water?'” Nozzolillo said. “Then there’s camera guys walking around filming and stuff. Some guys come up and introduce themselves to me. I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’

Nozzolillo was given a one-day rookie tryout contract to sign (total value: $0). He glanced at it quickly and noticed a few mistakes. He filled in his correct birthday. He scratched when he said he held his left hand and wrote with his right hand.

“It said my name is Dave, not David,” Nozzolillo said. “Anyone who knows me knows that I hate Dave. I’m David. But I didn’t want to be too much of an asshole, so I left it. I wish I could have changed it. I didn’t think it was possible that it would be registered in the NHL and I would be watched on TV and everything would blow up like this. I was trying to stay in the moment.”

AND the NHL preparing for a three-week Olympic break for the first time in more than a decade, the league’s schedule is tighter than ever. That is especially a problem during flu and virus season. A stomach bug is one lower or upper body injury that team doctors say even the toughest hockey players can’t overcome — as the Blackhawks experienced last week.

“My understanding was, if you weren’t broke, you were playing,” Nozzolillo said.

“It’s as bad as I’ve seen it rip in the locker room,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “It was going down guy by guy.”

The Blackhawks were already down four players on Friday, including Soderblom, so they called up AHL goaltender Drew Commesso from the Chicago Rockford IceHogs affiliate. “I thought I was kidding,” said Knight, a regular starter. “I showed up at the rink but I’m still sick there. The fever is severe. I was surprised how quickly it came.”

When Knight was sent home, it was decided that Commesso would start and Nozzolillo would be the backup. Now under contract, the 45-year-old may take warmups and sit on the bench.

Emergency backup goals (EBUGs) are one of the NHL’s most rare occurrences. They allow time for Disney as the Regular Joes suit up for the world’s best hockey league. It all started in 2015 when the Florida Panthers lost both starters in one game and flirted with disaster. The NHL made it a rule in 2016 that the EBUG needs to stay on standby, ready for any team. The league felt it was better to have someone with hitting experience, however limited, than to force a position player to risk injury by finding the net.

The EBUG rule resulted in 15 minutes of fame for Zamboni driver David Ayers, who entered the Hurricanes vs. Maple Leafs in 2020, and Chicago-based accountant Scott Foster, who played 14 minutes and stopped seven shots against the Winnipeg Jets in 2019 — in the middle of tax season.

Foster is still one of Chicago’s designated EBUGs, and ironically, he was asked by the Blackhawks to attend Friday’s morning skate to participate in the drills (a less publicized but more common role around the league).

“When I saw Scott Foster on the ice, it was like I was seeing a celebrity,” said Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs. “I remember when he came in and he was a legend. The guy who came and stopped the one-time from Patrik Laine.”

Friday night was Nozzellilo’s turn on the show. And it puts a lot of pressure on the Blackhawks: against the Capitals led by Alex Ovechkin, they had a 23-year-old rebuilding goaltender make one NHL start. And there is no room for error.

“It was a very difficult place for Drew,” Blackhawks manager Kyle Davidson said. “From doing the morning skate in Rockford and coming to this game thinking you’re going to back off and all of a sudden now you’re not backing up, you’re starting. And also with EBUG, you’re probably still lamenting the many goals you’ve scored. You don’t come out unless you’re forced to come out.”

EVERY NHL WARMUP it has a very specific flow and schedule. After one practice, the goalkeepers usually come out and the players file in and all shoot at the net.

“EBUG went in there like all 20 guys went in,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy recalled with a laugh. “And he’s literally Goldberg [from Mighty Ducks] taking a million shots at once. He took it as a champion. He wanted to find action. I totally respect that. If you’re going to get a chance to do that, you want NHL shots.”

Nozzolillo, for the record, didn’t know he shouldn’t have been in the net.

“I had a new puck on my stick. I looked at it after warming up, and I didn’t have one puck mark on my stick,” Nozzolillo said. “Just to give you an idea of ​​how many guys were trying to get into the top corner on me. I still had a good save, I think it was just nuts.”

Nozzolillo is keeping a close eye on the team as they come through Friday’s game, a tough 5-1 loss to Washington.

He said he found himself calmer than he expected to be in this situation, although he had a panic attack in the second half when he came back from the bathroom (where he saw another Blackhawks player curled up in the sink) and found all of Commesso’s gear — skirts, pads, pants — sitting next to his closet.

“And you’re lost. It’s nerve wracking. So I’m like, ‘Are you hurt? Are you sick? I’m kidding?'” Nozzolillo said. “Nobody said anything to me. I’m wondering if I could go out there for the third time. And then a few minutes later… he just showed up. You don’t really talk to the goalkeeper in the game, let them stay in the area. So I just said, ‘Good season, keep going.’

NOZZOLILLO’S HOUSE CAN’T it was the last of its kind. The NHL and NHLPA will begin their new collective bargaining agreement next season, bringing an 84-game schedule and the end of EBUGs as we know it. Starting in 2026-27, teams are required to hire a full-time, mobile goalkeeper.

The new position will be a goaltender with no NHL experience or who has played more than 80 professional games — or any professional games in the past three years.

Inside front offices across the league, teams are brainstorming ideas on how to fill the position. There are no salary parameters, and the front offices decide: how much is a position like this worth? The NHL believes that the experience guidelines will remove any desirable targets for the position.

Several GMs told ESPN that they are likely to select a goaltender with some college hockey experience who can fill additional roles with the team — such as equipment or communications staff.

“Those will be independent Club decisions and I expect that they will have a lot to do with what other things EBUG elects to do for their Clubs, as opposed to their emergency replacement duties (which are unlikely),” deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email.

THE TIME OF KANOZZOLILLO AS the Blackhawks’ half ended abruptly. Blashill came in and told the team, “We’ll talk about it tomorrow night.” They had a plane to catch Saturday’s game in Nashville.

Within 20 minutes, everyone was showering again on the bus. Nozzolillo had 300 unread text messages to look through.

Rockford’s sophomore goalkeeper, Stanislav Berezhnoy, was driven to O’Hare after his game ended. At that point it was decided, neither Knight nor Soderblom could go.

Blashill turned to Commesso the next night. “I think there are many reasons why goalkeepers don’t play in a row in this league, because it’s an opportunity to put another guy in,” said Blashill, who was a goalkeeper himself. “But I believe goalies can. And we thought it was a good opportunity for Drew, to get back on the horse.”

The team committed better in front of Commesso, who made 37 saves to earn his first NHL shutout win. He was caught by the team in the locker room afterwards.

“When he got a game last year, he was called to play in New Jersey and we didn’t play well in front of him,” said Vlasic. “So I was sad, then we left him to wait for Friday. So I wanted to see him win, he deserved it.”

Commesso and Berezhnoy returned to Rockford after the game. Both sat out the IceHogs’ next game, sidelined by illness.

Nozzolillo has two more days scheduled to be called up by the Blackhawks this season. You know, probably, nothing will happen. Before the team leaves, he tells them that if nothing else, it’s an honor to wear the jersey.

“People would die to be in that role, I think,” Nozzolillo said. “It’s not glamorous, but it’s something.”