The Club | The third emergency goalkeeper, the brilliance of Russian goalkeepers and… jet lag in sport

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The third guardian… emergency?

In the NHL, I understand that a team that loses both goaltenders during a game will use the emergency goaltender from the city where the game is being played. However, the Canadian, this season, has long had three goalkeepers at his disposal. If both goalies in uniform had been injured in the same game, could they have sent their own third goalie in relief?

Sylvain Plante

Response from Simon-Olivier Lorange:

The answer is no. All teams in the league must submit, at the start of the season, a list of emergency goalkeepers who, on a rotating basis, will attend local games and make themselves available for both teams. These are generally university players from the region. In the situation where a club has three active goalkeepers, as has been the case for a long time for CH this season, the third is removed from the match lineup and cannot therefore jump into the fray – in the same way as a team that loses an attacker or defender during the action must finish the match without this player.

The brilliance of Russian goalkeepers

How can we explain the high proportion of Russian goaltenders in the NHL?

Pierre Bélisle

Response from Simon-Olivier Lorange:

The representation of certain nations in front of the NHL nets varies in cycles dictated by different factors, starting with the development structures in the goalkeepers’ country of origin. It is true that goalies born in Russia are currently popular: while only 34 of them have played at least one game in the NHL since 1989 – Sergei Mylnikov, of the Quebec Nordiques, was the first –, no less of 12 have gotten at least one start in 2023-24. Seven of them are considered starters, two are considered backups, while the other three are still in development. The KHL is not a perfect league, but you have to give it credit for sending some excellent goalies to North America over the last few years!

Panthers uniform

When the Florida Panthers last visited the Bell Center, I noticed that on the captain’s left shoulder there was an extra badge that, if I’m not mistaken, read “Captain.” Is this the only team that identifies its captain on his jersey in an additional way to the usual “C” on the front of the vest?

Michael Morier

Response from Simon-Olivier Lorange:

You have good eyes! The Panthers have a unique jersey in several ways. For example, the secondary numbers, rather than being sewn on the arms, are sewn directly on the shoulders. And the patch on the arms features a panther overlooking the Florida state flag. Above this badge, we find the words “Florida” on the red uniform and “Panthers” on the white uniform, capped by the title “Captain” or “Alternate” (deputy) reserved for members of the leadership group .

Jet lag

I just came from Australia and I would say it took me a good six days before I felt more or less “normal” with the jet lag. How do athletes – I’m thinking of Formula 1 drivers, among others – manage to perform when they compete in competitions every week? I can’t imagine driving a car at 300 km/h after three days in Australia. My brain was in a mess! Same thing for tennis players… How do they do it?

Denis P.

Response from Katherine Harvey-Pinard:

The Athletic looked into the matter during the Australian Grand Prix in 2023. Obviously, there is no secret. As Valtteri Bottas says at the beginning of the article, “the first two days, no matter what you do, it kills you a little.” Michael Italiano, Yuki Tsunoda’s performance coach, recalls the rule that adaptation usually takes the same number of days as the number of hours of lag. Obviously, it is not always possible for teams to arrive five, six, or even ten days in advance. Italiano offers his pilot different methods, in particular to advance the sleeping schedule before even going to the next country in order to “accumulate a little sleep” by sleeping, for example, 10 hours instead of 7. Otherwise, he also suggests caffeine, light exposure and exercise to combat sleep. In an interview with British GQMercedes driver George Russell explains that wearing sunglasses at certain times of the day “helps adjust the body clock”.

The thumb ring in baseball

In the MLB, why do some hitters wear a type of ring on their thumb while holding their bat?

Luc Fortin

Response from Katherine Harvey-Pinard:

This is what we call in English a ProHitter thumb guard. In French: a thumb protector. According to Bat Digest, an independent company that tests, analyzes and evaluates different baseball bats, the thumb protector “improves contact with the bat.” “Many feel that the ProHitter gives them more control, greater comfort on mishits and increases contact with their palm,” one writes. The protector holds the stick handle towards the fingers, which helps keep the grip in the right place during the swing. It also appears that the plastic part directs some of the vibrations away from the upper part and into said object.