Chris Levesque

Chris Levesque
Date of birth	August 6, 1980
place of birth	Port Coquitlam , British Columbia , Canada
size	178 cm
Weight	79 kg
position	goalkeeper
Career stations
2001-2005	University of British Columbia

Chris Levesque (born August 6, 1980 in Port Coquitlam , British Columbia ) is a former Canadian ice hockey goalkeeper of the University of British Columbia (UBC), who in 2003 was a substitute for the Vancouver Canucks team for a game in the professional league National Hockey League was committed.

On December 9, 2003, the Vancouver Canucks had to play a home game in the NHL season against the Pittsburgh Penguins . Dan Cloutier , the goalkeeper on the starting grid, suffered a groin injury during practice that morning and was unable to play with it. So goalkeeper Johan Hedberg was used, but no substitute was available for him. Under normal circumstances, this would have been Alex Auld of the Manitoba Moose , the Vancouver Canucks farm team playing in the American Hockey League . However, the Manitoba Moose team was on the east coast for a game , so Alex Auld would not have arrived in Vancouver in time for the game. According to the rules of the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks therefore had to find a replacement who had never played in the NHL and had not yet participated in the NHL Entry Draft .

UBC Thunderbirds coach Milan Drajicevic happened to be present at the Vancouver Canucks' training session when Dan Cloutier injured himself. He suggested that the team sign Thunderbirds goalkeeper Chris Levesque as a substitute for that evening's game. Levesque was at a University of British Columbia library at the time, preparing for a geography exam the next morning. After his friends and teammates found him, he initially thought it was a joke. However, he received a short-term exemption from the Canadian Interuniversity Sport for a game in the NHL, and immediately drove to the Canucks home stadium, General Motors Place .

After Dan Cloutier was unable to use the warm-up before the game, Levesque officially took the place of the substitute goalkeeper for the game and took part in the warm-up training in this position. The prospects for active participation were slim, even if there was a clash between Johan Hedberg and an opponent at the end of the first period, which almost led to Hedberg's failure. The Vancouver Canucks won the game 4-3 in added time. Levesque received no payment for the game, but was allowed to keep the shirt with the number 40 and his name printed on it. He described the game as a great experience and mentioned in particular the warm-up shots of the Canadian international Todd Bertuzzi and the friendly treatment of all professional players with him.

Web links

• Canadian Interuniversity Sport: Backup back to books; Stand-in goalie tracked down in UBC library ( Memento from January 31, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (English; with picture)
• ESPN: Levesque's studies can wait for one game