Former Temple goalie, coach gets thrill of a lifetime
PHILADELPHIA — It’s not an original dream that Eric Semborski had. Nearly every hockey fan has the same one at some point or another.
After Saturday, it’s no longer a figment of his imagination even though it doesn’t seem real to him at all.
A lifelong Flyers fan, Semborski works at the Skate Zone in Voorhees as the director of hockey for dek and roller leagues. He’s a coach for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and, for one day, he was an NHL goalie.
Sort of.
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He took warmups for the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that broke his heart in 2010 when his Flyers lost in the Stanley Cup Final.
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever watched,” Semborski said, “but today that’s all forgotten.”
For a day, Patrick Kane, who scored that Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2010, was a teammate.
“I was a bit rusty and no matter how much I play I’m never going to be ready for them,” Semborski said. “It was fast and I couldn’t even catch my breath because I was just trying to take it all in. That was the best 20 minutes of my life out there skating with them.”
Blackhawks starter Corey Crawford needed an appendectomy Saturday morning and the club was scrambling. Flyers assistant general manager Barry Hanranan called Pat Ferrill, the senior vice president of the Flyers Skate Zones, to see who might be available.
“There’s certain parameters based around the (collective bargaining agreement) and what you can do around the cap and that’s certainly not my area of expertise so that certainly rules out a bunch of players,” Ferrill said by phone. “Anybody that is playing on one of our junior teams or anywhere that has intentions of trying to play NCAA hockey can’t do it based on their college eligibility and what it would do to that. We just started racking our brains on who might be available to do it.”
Because the Blackhawks have less than $50,000 in salary cap space they couldn’t afford to sign a professional, like their goalie coach, Jimmy Waite. They had to sign an amateur.
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Semborski came off the ice at work and Hanrahan told him to go home to the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia and get his goalie gear.
He didn’t know if it was real or not until he saw his phone ring and the number was from Chicago. It was Blackhawks director of team services Tony Ommen telling him the Blackhawks would sign him to an amateur tryout and he’d back-up Scott Darling against the Flyers.
“Hit some traffic on (Route) 76, of course. I got here as fast as I could in my street clothes,” said Semborski, wearing sweatpants and a white long-sleeved Snider Hockey shirt. “I had no time to put on a tie.”
Semborski called his father, Joe, who lives in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and turned 58 Saturday. The father didn’t believe his son about the crazy birthday present. When he got to Wells Fargo Center, Semborski immediately felt part of the team. Some of the Blackhawks joked about fining him for being late to the game.
“When I got there they put my number on the board and said I’m putting in $200 for the holiday party,” Semborski said. “That was pretty good. I told them, ‘You better take credit because that’s all I’ve got.’”
Semborski didn’t have to pony up, and since he signed an amateur tryout as an emergency backup goalie, he wasn’t compensated monetarily either. He got to keep a hat, a couple pucks and the No. 50 jersey that was supposed to belong to Crawford, but had his name on it instead.
“I should be paying them for this,” Semborski said. “That was awesome.
“I’m happy with the hat and the memories of this. It was so cool.”
During the game, fans near the Blackhawks bench were taking selfies with him and he was relatively calm until the Flyers went up 3-1 in the third period and Chicago pulled goalie Scott Darling.
“I knew if the Flyers had gotten an empty netter they would have thrown me in,” said Semborski, who graduated from Temple in December 2015. “That would have been so cool. I wouldn’t change a thing. The experience was awesome.”
A snarky Joel Quenneville half-jokingly said that the situation nearly went down differently. When asked what it would have taken for Semborski to see action, the Blackhawks coach said, “Well, you nearly saw it,” in reference to the Flyers’ three-goal second period.
“That probably would have been a big mistake,” Semborski said laughing.
Darling, who made 27 saves in defeat, thought his backup did an admirable job.
“I thought he was great,” Darling said. “It’s so cool, I couldn’t imagine the rush of getting a call and being asked to be at a NHL game. It’s got to be pretty amazing. The boys were giving him a hard time for being late. It was awesome. Once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479;disaac@gannettnj.com.