Former Zamboni driver-turned-arena manager David Ayres became an immediate sensation when he pulled on the goaltending gear and took the ice in an NHL game on a Saturday night in Toronto and beat his hometown Maple Leafs. Before that, accountant by day/beer league goalie by night Scott Foster won a game for Chicago.

It’s the stuff of legend, possible only in hockey thanks to the existence of emergency backup goaltenders, the beloved “EBUGs” who are ready to step in when the two goalies on a team’s roster are suddenly not available for a game.

The new collective bargaining agreement that goes into effect for the 2026-27 season will change the EBUG program, with each team now required to employ a full-time, traveling replacement to play in the event of multiple injuries or illnesses. There already is a sense of nostalgia across the tight little community of EBUGs, which date to the early days of the league a century ago.

“I like that the EBUG position got so much attention over the last five, six years,” Ayres said. “There’s no other position in sports like it. It kind of sucks that it’s going away in a sense. I know there are a lot of guys on the EBUG lists that were hoping to get their shot at playing in a game, but I think it’s smart.”

Foster expressed gratitude and pride for getting the chance and figures the next generation will be just as lucky.

“Like most things, change is inevitable,” Foster said. “The EBUG role maybe outgrew the current model, as it seems like you see more and more times popping up.”

Initial reactions

Part of the joy around actually seeing an EBUG in a game is because it is so incredibly rare: An EBUG has entered a game just six times in the 13,068 regular-season games over the past 10 seasons (none have been on the ice in the playoffs in the modern era).

As the first word spread that EBUG changes were coming, the group chat involving many of the goalies lit up with buzz and speculation.

“They weren’t very happy, I know that,” said Tyler Stewart, who dressed for St. Louis in pregame warmups in December 2017 as a then-25-year-old vending machine worker. “Some of the comments were like, ‘It was a good run, fellas.’ ”

Justin Goldman, who was a Colorado Avalanche EBUG for several years in addition to founding the Goalie Guild developmental program, said the sport has gotten faster and more taxing physically. That requires more rest.

“The demands on goalies that play full time and the demands for goalies in practice, it was becoming really apparent that teams needed support from a third goalie,” Goldman said.

Still, the idea that someone not in the league can get called down from the stands to play in a game on a moment’s notice is one of hockey’s most unique traditions.

“The EBUG position is the most universally loved and cool story in all of sports,” said Ben Hause, an EBUG in Colorado for eight seasons who was once on the verge of playing for New Jersey. “I don’t love the fact that what was kind of the last real wholesome story in the sports world is potentially going away.”

End of an era?

It might not go away completely, considering the details in the memorandum of understanding for the new labor deal. Any emergency goalie cannot have more than 80 games of professional experience, been in pro hockey over the previous three seasons or played an NHL game on a standard (non-tryout) contract.

Three-time Stanley Cup champion Marc-Andre Fleury joked after retiring that he would love to be Minnesota’s EBUG. That can’t happen even under the new rules but the guidelines do allow the potential for more fairytale moments, even if it’s less of a mystery who is coming in.

“It would be a blast,” said Minnesota EBUG Connor Beaupre, whose father, Don, tended goal for nearly 800 NHL games from 1980-96. “I know a handful of guys that have done warmups or something like that, which is a pretty cool experience and I’ve backed up a few games. It’s so few and far in between, so it’s hard to expect it.”

Word of the change brought some confusion and, to Stewart, a bit of delusion from some counterparts who thought they were now shoo-ins for the part. Equipment managers reached out to Tampa-based goalie Kyle Konin, who has dressed for the Lightning, Blues and Flyers, to say it could be awesome for him.

“I’m like, does this mean I’m out of a job, or does this mean I’m going to get paid a salary to do basically the same thing?” said Konin, who paints goalie masks for a living. “Every team’s completely different with the current system that we have, so even moving forward, no one even really knows.”

The future

Organizations have more than a year to figure out how to approach the new rule, which replaces the one that had been in place since 2017. Since then, only a handful of EBUGs — Ayres, Foster, Tom Hodges, Jett Alexander and Matt Berlin — actually got into a game.

Combined, their 65-plus minutes of action accounted for less than 0.0001% of time played by goaltenders over the past eight regular seasons.

“It’s such a microscopic amount of time that it happens,” Hause said. “I’m surprised that there was enough owner momentum to be able to add relatively a lot of costs to their annual budget for relatively no real gain as more of an insurance policy.”

It may be as much about practice time as anything else. Still, questions remain, including how much it will cost to pay someone to be on the roster and fly him — or her, as there is nothing preventing women from filling the role — to road games around North America.

The CBA does allow for the EBUG to work for a team in another capacity, so someone like Carolina equipment manager Jorge Alves could reprise his role after playing 8 seconds for the Hurricanes at the end of a game on Dec. 31, 2016. Same perhaps for Washington assistant and video coach Brett Leonhardt.

Maybe it will be a dual-use role on the coaching staff or in hockey operations.

“I look at this role as a potential for organizations to groom not just a practice goalie but you can groom a video coach, you can groom a future goalie coach,” Goldman said. “It’s an opportunity for someone to come in, learn the system, understand the strategies and the style of play of that organization and learn about what happens in the coaches’ room.”

Goldman said he thinks third goalies are just the beginning and envisions a future with practice squads closer to what the NFL employs as the NHL becomes faster and more science is put into rest and recovery. That might be part of the next round of labor talks a few years from now after this one included closing a chapter on EBUGs that has some bittersweetness to it.

“I was one of the few guys who got to kind of live out their dream for a little bit,” Konin said. “It’s sad, but it’s also kind of a cool way to just say that you were part of one of the rarest things in all of pro sports.”

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By ADRIANA MORGA and CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Texas removed a Biden-era finalized ruled by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have removed medical debt from credit reports.

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U.S. District Court Judge Sean Jordan of Texas’s Eastern District, who was appointed by Trump, found on Friday that the rule exceeded the CFPB ‘s authority. Jordan said that the CFPB is not permitted to remove medical debt from credit reports according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies.

Removing medical debts from consumer credit reports was expected to increase the credit scores of millions of families by an average of 20 points, the bureau said. The CFPB states that its research has shown outstanding healthcare claims to be a poor predictor of an individual’s ability to repay a loan, yet they are often used to deny mortgage applications.

The three national credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — announced last year that they would remove medical collections under $500 from U.S. consumer credit reports. The CFPB’s rule was projected to ban all outstanding medical bills from appearing on credit reports and prohibit lenders from using the information.

The CFPB estimated the rule would have removed $49 million in medical debt from the credit reports of 15 million Americans. According to the agency, one in five Americans has at least one medical debt collection account on their credit reports, and over half of the collection entries on credit reports are for medical debts. The problem disproportionately affects people of color, the CFPB has found: 28% of Black people and 22% of Latino people in the U.S. carry medical debt versus 17% of white people.

The CFPB was established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor credit card companies, mortgage providers, debt collectors and other segments of the consumer finance industry. Earlier this year, the Trump administration requested that the agency halt nearly all its operations, effectively shutting it down.

“The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.”

“The problem with EDC’s plan is that most Red Hook residents were never given an opportunity to have in-depth discussions, backed by independent technical research and assistance, about the future of the community.”

City and state officials announcing plans to redevelop Red Hook’s Brooklyn Marine Terminal last year. (Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office)

The City’s Economic Development Corporation—an agency under Mayor Eric Adams’ office—recently released a plan to redevelop Brooklyn’s Red Hook waterfront with majority market-rate housing while purportedly stabilizing the limited port facilities that are left there. That plan has met with a good deal of skepticism and outright opposition from Red Hook residents and some key elected officials. 

The problem with EDC’s plan is that most Red Hook residents were never given an opportunity to have in-depth discussions, backed by independent technical research and assistance, about the future of the community. As a result, the mayor’s plan, if implemented, may very well inflate economic and racial inequalities, stimulate more upscale development and displace more people than it is able to provide housing for.

I know this because in 1992, over two decades ago, I was a senior planner with the Brooklyn Office of the City Planning Department and main advisor to Community Board 6 as it completed the neighborhood’s first community plan, “Red Hook: A Plan for Community Regeneration,” one of the first community plans that went on to be approved by the City Planning Commission. I worked closely for almost two years with Community Board 6 and its appointed subcommittee that included residents, nonprofits and business representatives.

Among the many neighborhood conditions that residents then saw as problematic were lack of public access to the waterfront, and the racial and class divisions partially corresponding to the divides between public housing and other renters and homeowners. It is clear that these divides still exist. 

It is also clear to me that EDC’s plan would only exacerbate these historic divisions. First of all, it would create a new segregated enclave of mostly upscale private housing on the waterfront. Secondly, it would spur additional speculative land value increases that will spark demand for even more private housing, displace tenants, and further isolate other commercial waterfront uses and public housing.

Third, it proposes to encourage limited waterfront commercial development without solid solutions to the growing problems of last-mile deliveries, traffic congestion, waste management, and access to public transit.

I strongly urge residents, business owners, Community Board 6, and all elected officials, including those who will soon take office, to stop EDC’s rush towards approval of the plan.

The next city administration should make a fresh start in the spirit of the ground-breaking 1994 community plan. That plan took time—two years—and it was worth it! I am convinced that genuine community engagement is capable of yielding creative new ideas and plans across generations that lead to transformative changes.

Tom Angotti, Ph.D., us an urban planning and policy development professor emeritus at CUNY’s Hunter College and The Graduate Center, and an adjunct professor at Parsons/The New School.

The post Opinion: EDC’s Plan for Red Hook is a Boon for Developers appeared first on City Limits.

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Nextdoor, the social media site that aims to create connections among neighbors, is trying to shake off an uneven past and a nagging sense it is being underutilized. How? It is turning to professional journalists for help.

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The company announced a partnership Tuesday with more than 3,500 local news providers who will regularly contribute material to the app. As part of a redesign, it is also expanding its ability to alert users about bad weather, power outages and other dangers, along with using AI to improve recommendations for restaurants, services and local points of interest.

“There should be enough value that we are creating for neighbors that they feel like they need to open up Nextdoor every single day,” said Nirav Tolia, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “And that isn’t the case today.”

The potential for Nextdoor to help itself and journalists at the same time is most intriguing.

Nextdoor is carrying portions of local news stories from providers in the area where the user lives. If people want to learn more, a link to the news site is included. At launch, Nextdoor says it has more than 50,000 news stories available, representing just over three-quarters of the app’s “neighborhoods.”

A future for news that never arrived

When Nextdoor began in 2011, the local news industry was in the early stages of a freefall that continues today. The number of journalists in the U.S. dropped from 40 per 100,000 residents in 2002 to slightly more than eight today, according to a study issued this month by Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News. Nearly a third of the nation’s counties have no full-time journalist.

Into this tumult came an app with a promising premise and infrastructure, perhaps a template for local news of the future. Its users — Nextdoor likes to call them “neighbors” — were organized into more than 200,000 distinct neighborhoods, with the ability to start conversations once shared over back fences: Do you know a reliable babysitter? What’s that building going up down the street? Who serves the best burger?

Yet Nextdoor’s developers knew technology, not the news business. They didn’t see a role for professional journalists at the outset.

FILE – Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia poses for photos at his office in San Francisco on May 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

“We thought in our early days that neighbors would take over, almost as citizen journalists or local reporters,” Tolia said. “I think we’ve come to the conclusion that neighbors can only do so much.”

Even worse, the site became a magnet for racists and cranks, the kind of neighbors you try to avoid. Nextdoor became so filled with suspicion — why is a person of a different color or nationality walking down the street? — that its moderators had to spend considerable time rooting out racist posts and changing rules to prevent them.

For some users, the negatives outweighed the positives.

“Nextdoor has been a valuable resource for my family,” Ralinda Harvey Smith, a woman from Santa Monica, Calif., wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “I found a nanny share for my kids on Nextdoor. When I posted looking for a mechanic to replace my car headlight, a neighbor offered to change it free of charge. When the pandemic struck and disinfectant wipes were impossible to come by, a woman on Nextdoor DM’d me offering to leave some on her porch.”

“Yet I’ve long seen remnants of racism across the site that have left me with a bad feeling not only about the app, but the city I love,” Smith wrote. That made her log on less frequently.

Trying to make Nextdoor essential for users

Whatever the reasons, enough users consider Nextdoor inessential that its leaders were compelled to make the changes being announced now. The site has 100 million registered users, but only about 25 million are on the site at least once a week, Tolia said. Nextdoor, which went public in 2021 to attract a new round of financing, wants to see them more often.

Nextdoor hired a former executive at The New York Times, Georg Petschnigg, as its chief design officer to oversee the changes.

The company said its surveys found users wanted to know more about what was going on in their communities beyond the utilitarian information. Other social networks are similarly bringing in more outside material, Tolia said. “When you rely on user-generated content, it’s kind of unpredictable in terms of quality, timeliness and relevance,” he said.

“If I were in their shoes, I’d be doing this. I don’t know why they didn’t do it sooner, but that’s for them to answer and not me,” said Chuck Todd, the former “Meet the Press” moderator who has taken an interest in local news since leaving NBC. Semafor this spring speculated Todd might be interested in buying Nextdoor. Todd wouldn’t discuss that.

He is waiting to see if Nextdoor has a real commitment to news or just to reaching more eyeballs.

“It’s an opportunity to do the one thing that Facebook could have done but chose not to,” Todd said. “You don’t want this to go down the road of just trying to get traffic for traffic’s sake, because that’s what happened to Facebook after it went public.”

The irony of engaging with professional journalists isn’t lost.

“It’s like what is old is new again,” said Sam Cholke, manager of distribution and audience growth for the Institute for Nonprofit News. Its hundreds of members include the Texas Tribune, the Plateau Daily News in Highlands, N.C., and the Daily Yonder in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

Several of its participating news organizations are joining with Nextdoor, and “my hope is that our members see significant benefits from it,” Cholke said.

Hoping for mutually beneficial relationship

The local news industry continues to suffer from the same problems that have led to its downfall the past two decades: a dwindling number of readers and advertisers. An offhand comment by Tolia — about how people used to pick up “a piece of dead tree” from their driveways to get their news — speaks to fading prospects.

FILE – Cars and pedestrians move along crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Facebook’s deemphasis of news on its platform and Google’s increasing use of AI at the expense of referrals to news articles are adding to the death spiral, said Tim Franklin, head of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern.

“If Nextdoor is another vessel to get readers to news sites, and local news sites in particular, it would come at a real moment of vulnerability for local news organizations and would be a real opportunity,” said Franklin, whose worry is that relying on third parties is unpredictable.

Josh Schneps, who runs a series of local news operations in New York City and Long Island, like the Flushing Times and Park Slope Courier, has already had material appear on Nextdoor in a soft launch and is seeing an increase in traffic to the sites.

“I feel like media is in a state of evolution and there’s no playbook,” Schneps said. “My goal is to get our content in front of as many people as possible. I’m more than happy to be the guinea pig” for Nextdoor, he said.

An industry — and a company — both need help. Maybe they can help each other.

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.