Arizona Coyotes: Emergency Backup Goaltender Nathan Schoenfeld Wins Coyotes Player Of The Game Belt
The Arizona Coyotes signed Nathan Schoenfeld to an amateur tryout agreement and he filled in as the emergency backup goaltender with Anders Lindback out with injury. Schoenfeld was honored by the team postgame with the Coyotes’ player of the game belt.
The Arizona Coyotes were in dire need of a backup goaltender on Monday night.
Regular backup Anders Lindback went down with an off-ice injury shortly before game-time and the Yotes had no time to fly in a viable replacement.
Queue Nathan Schoenfeld.
Schoenfeld is the son of former Arizona Coyotes’ head coach Jim Schoenfeld. Jim is now the New York Rangers’ assistant general manager. He played club hockey at Arizona State University and is the son-in-law of Coyotes’ equipment manager Stan Wilson.
The 31 year old banker just so happened to have the day off on Monday thanks to President’s Day. He got the call from the Coyotes with the question around 6:00 PM. Puck was scheduled to drop shortly after 7:00 PM.
He said he was “at home bathing his twins” when the Coyotes rang him up.
After a frantic trip to Gila River Arena, Schoenfeld arrived at the tail end of warm-ups and there is video of him lacing up his skates as the Arizona Coyotes came off the ice prior to puck drop.
Despite a few jokes to the contrary, Nathan Schoenfeld was never in danger of seeing live NHL pucks. I suppose you’d expect he might’ve cherished the task just to get one trip on the ice, but alas we’ll never know. He certainly seemed thrilled to be there in his intermission interview with Fox Sports Arizona’s Todd Walsh.
After the Coyotes absolutely thrashed the fading Montreal Canadiens by a score of 6-2, there was more excitement in store for Schoenfeld.
"New guy Nathan Schoenfeld gets the MVP belt! https://t.co/y5TqVouCUP— Yotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) February 16, 2016"
Shane Doan – the previous winner of the belt – tells the locker room that “Marty (Hanzal) was unreal” before saying “but, it’s a special occasion” and proceeding to give the belt to Nathan Schoenfeld. What a moment.
As far as things to check off your bucket list, this night had to be high up on the list in the “probably will never happen category” for Nathan.
Getting to dress for your hometown team and sit on the bench in a real NHL game, as well as be honored by the team for your “I’ll drop anything” level of commitment post game?
Unreal.
Next: Coyotes Player Grades For Vancouver, Calgary, And San Jose
There’s quite a few of us who were sitting in the cheap seats or watching the Arizona Coyotes at home who’d have loved to have the experience.
Based on all we’ve seen, it couldn’t have happened to a better guy. Congrats Nathan!
Bets on whether or not he calls in sick tomorrow? Do you think they’ll know he was out late?