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NHL GMs to address emergency goalie rule following Florida incident

Roberto Luongo,  Al Montoya

Roberto Luongo, Al Montoya

AP

Turns out the NHL already has discussed the hypothetical goalie nightmare Florida suffered against Toronto and, in wake of what transpired last night, plans to address it more thoroughly at the next round of GMs meetings.

From Sportsnet:

[NHL deputy commissioner Bill] Daly said there’s “no doubt” the topic will be revisited when the GMs gather again in Boca Raton, Fla., later this month.

“(In November) we floated a number of ideas on how to kind of deal with that issue because we knew what happened last night was going to ultimately happen,” said Daly. “And it’s likely to happen again. It’s definitely an issue that needs a collective focus from our managers and the league in terms of how to deal with it.

“It’s an interesting situation and it’s one that has gotten some discussion at the GM level as being a concern. We’ve had more and more situations where a single goalie goes down and then everybody asks: ‘What’s the next step? What if we lose our second goalie and who’s going to play and what kind of issues are related to that?”

Tuesday’s incident began when Roberto Luongo got hurt, turning the net over to backup Al Montoya. Later -- with Luongo having already changed into street clothes and reportedly left the building -- Montoya got injured his groin, which led to a wild scene in which Panthers forward Derek McKenzie was briefly summoned to go change into goalie gear, only for officials to rule he wasn’t eligible to play in net.

Florida then signed (and dressed) 41-year-old goalie coach Rob Tallas as an emergency backup, followed by Luongo returning to the arena, re-dressing and finishing the contest.