This may be a basic question, but I have never heard an answer about it.

When a team pulls their starting goalie, is he available to go back into the game or is he officially out for the rest of the game? I have never seen a starting goalie go back into the game after he has been pulled, but I just don\'t know if that is b/c he is not eligible (similar to a baseball substitution) or if he can go back in (similar to basketball and football) but coaches just choose not to.

Can anybody help?

Yes, the goalie can go back in.
I\'ve seen it a couple times, but cannot remember the game.

In one case, the coach just wanted to give the starter a break to compose himself, put the back up in for a few whistles, then put the starter back in

__________________
Fantasy Hockey
Buy It Now Fantasy Hockey Guide and WIN Your Pool

it happened in a philly game last year.
Nittymaki was pulled for 3 mins to calm down.

__________________
30 GM Commish Dynasty
G A +/- PIM PPP SOG W GAA SV
Start: 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 4D, 1Utl, 1G
C:Savard,Filpulla,Arnott,Ott,Boyd,Weight,Rupp
LW:Heatley,Morrow,Sullivan,Tambellini,Bissonnette, Pierro-Zabotel
RW: Hemsky,Backes,Orr,Tikhonov,Artyukhin,Ortmeyer
D:EJ,Ehrhoff,Hjalmarsson,Babchuk,Commodore
G: M.A.Fleury,Deslauriers,Koskinen,Monnino

It also happened in the playoffs last year when Luongo was delayed in the dressing room to start overtime. Sabourin started the OT until he was ready to go.

Imagine if the rule was that Luongo could not return after the backup played.

It also happened to Calgary last year. The coach pulled Kipper, threw in the backup, who promptly got ejected after taking a swing/swinging the stick at someone on the other team and then Kipper went back in.

It was hilarious at the time.

__________________
Yahoo 1 Year Roto: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, FW
70 Games Max per position

C: Thornton, Backstrom, Duchene, M. Koivu
LW: Morrow, Smyth, Avery, Malone
RW: Perry, Giroux, Kane, Hossa
D: Visnovsky, Timonen, Pitkanen, Martin
G: Varlamov, Neuvirth, Hiller, S. Mason, Crawford

i\'m pretty sure keenan\'s done it numerous times in his various head-coaching stops.

he\'s notorious for yanking goalies to try and inspire his players. and on occasion, yeah, he\'s put them back in again later.

__________________
11 team roto league keep 17/25
G,A,P,PPP,PIM,SHP,SOG,FW,W,GAA,SV%,SHO

c-stastny,gomez,o'reilly,gaustad
lw-kovalchuk,heatley,mcdonald(c),o'sullivan,tkachuk,t .ruutu
rw-alfredsson,dumont,ju.williams,mueller(c),langenbru nner
d-boyle,streit,zidlicky,enstrom,yandle,carkner
g-fleury,hiller,c.mason,schneider
ir-savard,bouchard,letang
farm-tavares,turris,colborne,MSP,pacioretty,markstrom

Luongo was pulled so that he can go pee.
TSN had a video of that interview at the season opener show, hopefully it is still on TSN.ca

__________________
In 9-team, 22 player keepers league (keep 10)
12F, 6D, 2G, 2 Util. G/A = 1pt, W = 2pt, SO = 4pt

Team:
F: Hossa, Spezza, Carter, Kane, H. Sedin, Savard, Tavares
D: None
G: Lundqvist, Miller, Price

*Signed thru 09-10