The NHL is putting a new layer of order around emergency backup goalies, and the New York Rangers may be the team most directly tied to the weird little wrinkle that comes with it.
According to Chris Johnston, every EBUG will be required to wear No. 00 for his NHL team this season. That comes on top of the already announced standard that each club will carry an emergency backup at home and on the road, with those goalies barred from having NHL experience or more than 80 professional games played outside the league.
On paper, it’s a clean solution. In practice, it also closes the door on a tiny slice of Rangers history.
John Davidson wore No. 00 for New York during the 1977-78 season, and that number carried more than just novelty. Davidson, who played goal for the Rangers from 1975 until 1983, started 212 games for the club and finished with a 93-90-25 record, a .884 save percentage and a 3.58 goals-against average. His strongest run came in 1978-79 and 1979-80, when he posted an 11-7-0 mark with a .921 save percentage and a 2.28 goals-against average during the team’s trip to the Stanley Cup Final, then followed it with a 4-5-0 record, a .927 save percentage and a 2.35 goals-against average.
That double-zero connection also has a pop-culture footnote. Foreigner released “Double Vision” in 1978, and the song was inspired by a game in which Davidson took a hard shot off the mask. The announcers kept saying he probably had double vision, and a few months later the song arrived.
If the new EBUG rule sticks, Davidson’s place in that odd bit of hockey lore won’t be unique anymore.
And the Rangers have at least some history of inviting this kind of chaos. The team once dressed an emergency backup in a jersey with the name bar “McBackup” and No. 69, which makes it fair to wonder whether this whole push for standardization is, in some small way, their doing.
The league clearly wants consistency and fewer shenanigans. The side effect is that one of the sport’s strangest Rangers connections gets a little less singular.
In Other News...
Rangers Fans Are Split On What Lafreniere's Strong Finish Really Means
Alexis Lafreniere heads into his seventh NHL season with the Rangers coming off a year that at least gave the fan base something concrete to point to. He matched his career-high with 57 points last season and closed strong after finding chemistry with new linemates, a finish that naturally sharpened the conversation around whether he is finally ready to take a real step forward in New York.
A recent social media poll showed just how divided the outlook still is. Nearly 90 percent of Rangers fans think Lafreniere will top 50 points in 2026-27, but the confidence starts to splinter after that, with some viewing him as a breakout candidate and others still uneasy because of the uneven stretches that have marked his career so far. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Fans Still Can't Explain This Perfect Goalie Cameo
Mackenzie Skapskis brief run with the Rangers remains one of those odd little goalie stories that still gets passed around years later. During the 2014-15 season, he was called on for two NHL games and flashed the kind of calm that can make a backup or emergency fill-in instantly memorable, even if the larger arc of his career never really matched the same level of noise.
The strange part is how quickly it all started, and how cleanly it seemed to settle after the first jolt. Skapski was back in the minors and later overseas, where his results varied, but for Rangers fans the appeal is easier to understand than the explanation: a short cameo, a perfect-looking stretch in blue, and a lingering sense that goaltending can still produce the occasional unrepeatable blur. [Read more 🡒]
Why One Rangers Line Still Defines Greatness At MSG
The standard for greatness at Madison Square Garden still has a familiar shape, and it traces back to one of the most celebrated lines in Rangers history. The old GAG line became shorthand for sustained excellence because it blended scoring, style and staying power in a way few groups ever managed, and its place in franchise lore is sealed by the retired sweaters that hang in the building today.
What makes the story endure is how complete the run felt without ending in a championship. The lines peak season produced more than enough individual brilliance to set a franchise benchmark, yet the ultimate prize slipped away in the spring, leaving the Rangers with a reminder that even their most iconic collection of talent needed one more finish. [Read more 🡒]