Paul Deutsch will enjoy a night to remember Wednesday.
Due to personal reasons,
Niklas Backstrom, who was the scheduled starter for the
Minnesota Wild's game against the
Nashville Predators on Wednesday night, will not be in attendance.
Houston Aeros goaltender
Matt Hackett
was recalled and quickly boarded a flight to the Twin Cities, but he's
not expected to touch down on the biggest travel day of the year until
about 6:30 p.m. CT.
In need of a backup for
Josh Harding,
the Wild signed Deutsch, a 51-year-old who runs a screen printing and
embroidery store in Richfield, Minn., as the emergency goaltender. As
per League rules, the Wild were forbidden from signing a goalie with
professional experience, so Deutsch signed his ATO on Wednesday.
Deutsch is a good friend of former assistant Mike Ramsey and has been
used in many practices when one of the top goalies gets an off day.
Coincidentally, Deutsch was already going to be at the game Wednesday
night as a fan, along with a youth hockey team he was accompanying. Now,
those players are going to likely see him take warm-ups with the Wild.