EBUG For Warm-Up

I'll come right out at the beginning of this article and tell everyone that I am a fan of the EBUG, better known as the Emergency Back-Up Goaltender. It's hard not to enjoy an EBUG situation when you see the past exploits of players like accountant Scott Foster suiting up for the Blackhawks and helping them to defeat the Jets or a guy like David Ayres helping the Hurricanes defeat the Maple Leafs. Among the number of reasons that a team may require an EBUG would be a goaltender on recall who couldn't make it to the arena on time, and this was precisely the reason for the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to call on their EBUG in the stands, Mr. Brody Micolucci, as Alex D'Orio was nowhere to be found at the arena by the time warm-ups got started.

With an injury to goaltender Filip Lindberg one night earlier, the Penguins needed a second netminder to be present at the game. They called up their ECHL affiliate in the Wheeling Nailers in an attempt to bring D'Orio in for their second game against the Charlotte Checkers in as many nights. For those who may be wondering, it's a five-hour trip from Wheeling to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, so the Penguins should have called early in order to get D'Orio to the game scheduled to start at 7pm ET.

Behind the scenes, I'm not sure what happened, but I assumed the Penguins ran Lindberg through a battery of tests to determine the extent of the injury before succumbing to the realization that he was definitely not able to play in any capacity tonight. As stated above, the call would have gone to Wheeling for the recall of D'Orio by the Penguins, but it appears that Wheeling was returning from Toledo, Ohio where they played against the Toledo Walleye in ECHL action on Friday. For those asking, yes, Alex D'Orio was the winning goaltender in that game.

Through these various timing issues, it seemed that D'Orio got the message as he did arrive for the start of the AHL game between the Penguins and Checkers, but his late arrival at the rink meant that Brody Micolucci got the call to suit up in his gear and head out for warm-up in the AHL wearing #30 for the Penguins! The Penguins were still hoping that D'Orio would arrive in time for the game, but the Penguins appeared ready to have Micolucci dressed and on the bench in the event that D'Orio didn't make it in time for the start of the game! Micolucci's night as an AHL goaltender ended, however, when D'Orio arrived during the warm-up and quickly dressed.

For those asking, Brody Micolucci was a pretty decent goalie for Mercyhurst in 2004-05 based on the stats information I could find. He was ranked 31st in wins that season, but he sported a record of 7-1-0 in those games with a 3.23 GAA and an .881 save percentage. While those aren't Vezina-calibre numbers, they were enough for him to gain his education through Mercyhurst before going on to become the goalie coach for the King's College Monarchs in Wilkes-Barre.

One of the cooler things about Micolucci's debut in the warm-up was his mask as it seems to indicate that he's a fan of The Flinstones cartoon! The image above shows "Bam Bam" written on the chin of his mask while the side of his helmet shows Pebbles and Bam-Bam. We might need a Pennsylvania-based reporter to track down Brody Micolucci and ask him about his love of The Flintstones!

While we didn't get an actual EBUG situation in a game in the AHL tonight, we were close. We've seen Winnipegger Byron Spriggs suit up for Texas, back-up the starter for the Moose, and dress for the Charlotte Checkers, so it's good to see another AHL EBUG come to light. Here's hoping Brody can fulfill a dream at some point by getting a few minutes in the blue paint for an AHL team in his career!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!