07-28-2020, 11:26 PM(This post was last modified: 07-28-2020, 11:27 PM by Matteo.)
(First article bonus 2X)
It's been almost two weeks now since that video of the retriever went viral. You know the one, where the dog plays goalie. No? Well here's a little bit of backstory.
Hockey isn't a big sport in the UK, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is at least one professional hockey league, called the Elite Ice Hockey League, or EIHL for short. So on one rainy Wednesday night, the hometown Fife Flyers were warming up for their match against their divisional rival, the Dundee Stars. All seems okay until starting netminder Blair Daly takes an awkward fall. The medical team comes in and it turns out he pulled his groin and can not return that game. Unfortunate, but not really out of the ordinary, so backup Stephen Murphy comes in to take Daly's place.
Murphy plays the best hockey he's ever played, turning away 23 shots in the first period alone. This comes with a price, however, as Murphy is getting up there in age and his body is starting to show it. At the beginning of the 2nd period, the score is still deadlocked at 0-0. The Stars come in with their best chance of the game, a two-on-none breakaway. Back and fourth the puck goes between the two forwards as Murphy tracks the puck. Two meters from the net, one forward fakes the shot and passes it across to his teammate who shoots it top shelf on the open net. The goal horn sounds but the puck is nowhere to be seen. Stephen Murphy opens his glove and reveals the puck inside, and as replays will show, he made a fast-as-lightning desperation save from across the net. The crowd roars with cheers and applause as Murphy gets up. He lifts the puck in the air and skates straight to the bench. The cheering slowly dies down and turns to confused chatter. Murphy keeps going past his dressing room to the parking lot. A reporter stops Murphy getting into his car, he hadn't even stopped to take off his equipment. When asked what's going on, Murphy responds "that was the highlight of my career. Now I can retire," and drives away.
Word gets back to the arena and the Flyers start scrambling to find an emergency backup goalie. Half an hour goes by and many in the crowd start to leave. Finally from behind the bench, the Flyers coach hears simply "Mat can do it." This is good enough for him, and he orders someone to go get this 'Mat' from the audience geared up. This is where things get interesting. As it turns out, the man that called out from the audience is a blind 84-year-old man, and Mat is his seeing eye dog. At this point it had been 45 minutes since Murphy left the building, and this service dog was still the only option. So they gear him up and put him on the ice, and amazingly the dog can skate. The Flyers take turns sliding pucks towards the net, and after a few minutes of trying to stop them with his mouth, Mat learns to use all of that equipment that's strapped onto him. Nobody has ever seen anything like it, this dog is doing the butterfly, and has a few moves thrown in that are reminiscent of NHL legend Dominik Hasek. Play resumes nearly an hour and a half after it stopped, and besides the furry creature in net, things are looking relatively normal. Quiet, even. The second period comes to an end with the score still at 0-0 and the players go back to their respective locker rooms.
During this time Mat's owner is brought to the dressing room for a few questions. He says his name is Archie Smith, he's from Ford, Northumberland, England, and he's been a hockey fan since he married his late Canadian wife, before he lost his vision. When asked what kind of dog Mat is, Archie responds "Mat's a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Wife and I got him when we lived in Ottawa." He's also asked which jersey number to give Mat. Archie answers "Ten. October 10 is my wife's birthday and also the day we brought Mat home." So the equipment manager sews on a '0' next to the '1' that was already on the jersey, and puts the name Smith on top before the third period starts.
So the third period starts, and is immediately full of chances both ways. This game is a full-on goalie battle with neither netminder giving an inch or a goal. With two minutes left in the 3rd a line brawl breaks out in the Flyers zone, and Mat Smith joins in on the fun. During the commotion, Mat Smith gets the Flyers a 5 minute major penalty for biting an opposing player, which gets served by a teammate. The refs call this penalty "unsportsmanlike conduct." This brawl would go on to become the most watched video of all time on hockeyfights.com. The Stars get more great chances but Mat Smith can't be beaten. The third period ends still with no score on the board.
The players get 15 minutes of rest then the overtime period starts. The goalies get to their net, and with the Flyers still on the penalty kill, three of their players step on the ice against four of the Stars players. The ref looks at the Stars goaltender, then at Mat Smith, who perks his ears up and tilts his head slightly. As soon as the puck drops Mat Smith skates on all fours out of his net towards centre ice. The crowd starts screaming but Mat doesn't slow down. He plows through both defenders trying to get him back to his net, losing his helmet in the process. He then goes through the legs of the Flyers centre who is tied up in the faceoff circle with the Stars centre, grabs the puck in his mouth and keeps skating at full speed. As he gets to the blue line, he starts to try to slow down and ends up falling between the hash marks in the opposing zone. The puck falls out of his mouth and keeps sliding down the ice. The Stars goaltender thinks that Mat still has the puck and is still watching him, not realizing the puck slide right between his legs into the back of the net.
The goal horn sounds and the game is over. The crowd goes absolutely wild and the Flyers clear the bench to celebrate with Mat Smith, who gets a lot of treats. The three stars of the game begin to be announced; the Stars goalie gets third star with 22 saves, .957 SV%, and 0.99 GAA, Stephen Murphy gets 2nd star with 30 saves, 1.000 SV%, and 0.00 GAA, and Mat Smith gets 1st star with 25 saves, 1.000 SV%, 0.00 GAA, and a goal.
Fast forward to a couple days ago. Just as Archie Smith is about to close his laptop after listening to this video for the 10th time, he hears a robotic voice say "you've got mail." Word of Mat's performance has spread quickly, and suddenly Archie is drowning in emails and phone calls from companies wanting to use his dog Mat Smith in advertisements and promotional materials. Archie mostly ignores these messages, but he decides to open this one. To his surprise, it's from a hockey team in a small junior league across the pond. The "Quebec City Citadelles" from the "SMJHL." As it turns out, there's no specific rule in place preventing dogs from playing there. It reads as follows:
Quote:Hi Archie,
I wanted to discuss with you about Quebec City. We are a young team that actually joined the SMJHL this season. It means two things. We are actively looking for new members that will be able to contribute fully this season and it also means that we might suck. However, the good side of the coin is that as all players are young, as we develop in the next seasons, our core will be phenomenal as soon as next season, which will give us a great opportunity to compete as soon as S56. We would like to have as many new, active, members in order to booster our roster force and we could see you be part of it. Of course, there's the situation where we already have an active goalie currently, but it's the same situation as every other team. We would be interested to get you as a 1A - 1B goalie to make a solid duo with our young goaltender.
Quebec would be ready to pay you 3,000,000 for this season. With the HO Bonus (2M) for rookies, you would have a total contract of 5,000,000$ for the season.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Oisín Fletcher
Archie thinks back to all the times his wife told him she wished she played more hockey as a kid, and how she was always the best goalie on the school yard. As he's thinking, he feels his fluffy best friend put his head down on his lap and let out a big sigh. Archie takes this as a sign from his wife that this is something he needs to do, move back to Canada and live her dream for her. So he accepts the offer, making Mat the 2nd richest dog in the world behind Gunther IV the German shepherd.
On the flight over, Archie thinks back to the way Stephen Murphy left in that game that changed everything. How he just got up and drove home. Then he thought about how much he was going to have to travel now with Mat. How exhausting that was going to be.
When the plane landed in Quebec City, only Mat walked out of the plane. The chauffeur that the Citadelles had sent over to pick them up walked over to the lone dog and saw that there was a note taped to his collar. All it said was "Oisín, please take care of Mat. Signed, Archie Smith."
And so that's where things stand today. Mat Smith joined the Citadelles just in time for the regular season. He is currently playing backup under fellow rookie David Danielson, and there's even talk of being drafted to a higher league at some point soon. Nobody knows what happened to Archie Smith, there's some that say he went back to live in his old home in Ottawa, and there's others that say he flew back to his home in the UK. Wherever he is, I'm sure he's proud and watching his boy play.
Matteo![[Image: Mat10Man.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Mat10Man.gif)
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