Women’s college basketball got record viewers, Dawn Staley is making South Carolina a dynasty, Dan Hurley has led UConn to back to back championships, the NBA and NHL playoffs are set to begin and the NFL draft is two weeks away. It’s a busy part of the sports calendar.
Seems like a good time to revisit something that happened a few years ago. Everyone in the national sports media is discussing the topics I mentioned before. I might too, but I would prefer to see how the next few weeks play out first. Until then, I’ll zig whilst everyone else is zagging.
I want to remind you of a man named David Ayres and my favorite position in all of sports, the NHL’s emergency backup goalie. It was a rule instituted years prior that stated every home team was required to designate an emergency backup goalkeeper to have on site in the rare event that either team found themselves in a situation where the two goalies on the roster were unable to play.
While that seems highly unlikely, it’s not impossible. After all, it was in 2016 when 37-year-old Carolina Hurricanes equipment manager Jorge Alves played the final seven seconds of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning when needed. He didn’t even have to make a save, but it was a cool story and marked the shortest career in league history.
With an NHL career that lasted only slightly longer, there’s the story of David Ayres.
Ayres was with his wife in Toronto in February of 2020 watching the Maple Leafs take on the Carolina Hurricanes when his evening took an unexpected turn.
Ayres drove the Zamboni at the arena and had served as the emergency goalkeeper for NHL and AHL games there before, ensuring he is on site just in case his services were ever required. So when Carolina’s backup keeper Petr Mrazek was forced into action early in the first period, David Ayres left his comfy seat and made his way down to get at least half dressed just in case the Hurricanes needed him.
It took only one period before the 42-year-old was making his way out of the tunnel and onto the ice in emergency relief. Unlike Alves’ debut four years prior, this was more than just a cool story. Both of these teams had postseason aspirations and there was way more than seven seconds left on the clock.
Ayres was unable to stop the first two shots on goal as they found the back of the net and the hometown Maple Leafs pulled to within one of the visiting Hurricanes. He was one of the oldest goalies in NHL history to make his regular season debut and, to his credit, he settled down and stopped the next seven shots taken against him helping Carolina earn the 6-3 win.
For his efforts, Ayres was paid $500 and got to keep his jersey. It was the only game of his career and it was revealed years later that he was actually wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs T-shirt under his Carolina Hurricanes jersey. He grew up in Ontario, but is a Leafs fan.
Turned out he’s a legend too, a Zamboni driver who got a chance to play and win an NHL game. Now he coaches, plays for fun, raises money for charity and inspires dreams for every Zamboni driver he talks to.
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