{"id":666342,"date":"2026-09-19T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/666342\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T14:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:39:14","slug":"florida-panthers-have-a-new-emergency-backup-goalie-meet-their-first-ebug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/666342\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers Have a New Emergency Backup Goalie. Meet their First EBUG"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 For the first time this season, the NHL requires that all teams, including the Florida Panthers, have a full-time Emergency Backup Goalie, otherwise known as an \u2018EBUG\u2019.<\/p>\n

Previously, each home team would have an EBUG on call at their arena who would watch the games and, if the starting goalie for either team were to leave said game, would start getting ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Panthers have employed numerous people in that role over the years \u2014 most famously\u00a0Zach Andrews, who served as the Chicago Blackhawks\u2019 backup<\/a> during a game in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andrews, then a 31-year-old accountant working in Coral Springs, signed a contract with the Blackhawks before they played the Panthers in Sunrise after backup\u00a0Alex Stalock\u00a0was too sick to dress for that night\u2019s game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, each team will have their own EBUG \u2014 an emergency goalie who will travel with their teams throughout the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the Panthers have not announced who will be their first official EBUG, it looks like former college goalie\u00a0Noah Altman\u00a0was been hired for the gig of a lifetime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Altman, 25, has been working with the Panthers \u2014 he was skating with injured players\u00a0Brad Marchand\u00a0and\u00a0Jonas Gadjovich\u00a0on Thursday and Friday \u2014 wearing the No. 00 all EBUGs are required to wear this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Altman was to ever get into a game (that would mean both Florida goalies would have to be unable to continue) he would be the first Panthers player to ever wear the double-zero.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what do we know about the 26-year-old Altman?<\/p>\n

Well, he has no professional playing experience which would not keep him from being an NHL EBUG.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the rules do state an EBUG cannot have played a game in the NHL previously (which rules out\u00a0Roberto Luongo) they can have played 80 pro games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back to Altman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A native of Los Angeles, Altman played prep hockey at the famed Shattuck-St. Mary\u2019s School in Minnesota that includes\u00a0Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Nathan MacKinnon, and\u00a0Macklin Celebrini\u00a0as NHL alums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FloridaNew Florida Panthers EBUG Noah Altman works at training camp on Thursday. \/\/ Photo @GeorgeRichards<\/p>\n

From there, he went on to Quinnipiac University where he was an assistant captain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Altman played in seven games during his career with the Bobcats, and was part of their 2023 national championship squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After graduating from college, he stayed in Connecticut after getting a job as a production assistant at ESPN.<\/p>\n

He is not the first former ESPN employee to suit up in goal for the Panthers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Florida goalie Kevin Weekes obviously comes to mind, but one reason we have an EBUG in the NHL in the first place has its roots in South Florida.<\/p>\n

And ESPN played a role.<\/p>\n

In a game against the Maple Leafs in 2015, Luongo did not come out for the second period after absorbing a hard blow to the shoulder in the first.<\/p>\n

Backup\u00a0Al Montoya\u00a0came in to replace Luongo, but early in the third period, Montoya suffered a groin injury when he sprawled out to attempt to stop\u00a0Nazem Kadri\u2019s\u00a0game-tying goal.<\/p>\n

Montoya struggled to get back to the bench.<\/p>\n

The Panthers were suddenly out of goalies, with Luongo having left the arena to drive to Cleveland Clinic in Weston to get checked out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coach\u00a0Gerard Galant\u00a0and general manager\u00a0Dale Tallon\u00a0huddled during the game delay to determine what to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While they were doing that, fourth-line center\u00a0Derek MacKenzie\u00a0put on the goalie gear and was ready to go in.<\/p>\n

Goalie coach\u00a0Robb Tallas, who hadn\u2019t played an NHL game in 14 years, was also ready to sign a one-game contract to be eligible to go in the net.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Luongo ended up hearing all this on the radio in his car and sped back to the arena. <\/p>\n

Although Montoya ended up limping back into net after a lengthy delay, Luongo talked Tallon and Gallant into letting him come back into the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few days later, the Panthers took full advantage of all the free publicity they got from this event and held an open casting call to be the \u2018next goalie of the Panthers.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Panthers picked 60 out of more than 1,500 applicants to \u2018try out\u2019 by facing shots from team alumni such as\u00a0Radek Dvorak, Marco Sturm, and\u00a0John Madden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of those goalies: ESPN SportsCenter anchor\u00a0Linda Cohn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 For the first time this season, the NHL requires that all teams, including the Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[15402,22416,62,57,5141,5,4,72183,63,72184,71173,72185,4793],"class_list":["post-666342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-al-montoya","tag-ebug","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-noah-altman","tag-panthers","tag-panthers-ebug","tag-panthers-training-camp","tag-robb-tallas","tag-roberto-luongo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117298224660871670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}