Post by mscott59 on Feb 26, 2020 11:10:17 GMT -5
not sure if anyone here heard about this... carolina is playing at toronto this past weekend. each team usually has two goalies, with a designated emergency back up in case of the unusual circumstance that both goalies would get hurt within the same game.
this 40-something guy, david ayres, a zamboni driver/arena maintenance guy in toronto, who played a little minor minor league hockey back in the day, and actually a kidney transplant recipient 15 years ago, was the designee, for both teams, saturday night. sure enough, the unusual happens. both of carolina's goalies go down, the 2nd one happening about halfway thru the 2nd period w/the hurricanes up 3-1. ayres gets called from the stands down to the locker room to get dressed. a carolina team manager literally had to sew his name onto the back of a jersey, and had to give him blue toronto warm up pants because he couldn't find an extra in carolina's colors (that got solved by the 3rd period).
from watching a game in the stands to playing in the nhl in front of 15,000 fans, in your hometown no doubt. he gives up a couple goals in the 2nd but stops all 8 shots he faces in the 3rd and carolina wins 6-3. his 'teammates' mob him at the end of the game. ayres got $500 for appearing in the game, was named the 3rd star of the game, got a standing ovation from the fans of a team he just beat, gets to keep his sweater, and became an instant celebrity, appearing on the today show, colbert, as well as numerous sports shows in the u.s./canada on a quick media tour.
and now he goes back to smoothing out the ice at the arena. carolina brought him down to to drive the zamboni at last night's game. quite the refreshing story...
. (first 4:00 or so is ayres)
. (live today show appearance, including an interview w/his mom, who gave up one of her kidneys to her son, a surprise end to his interview which got him teary)
ps-carolina is now selling ayres sweaters with his #90 on them.
this 40-something guy, david ayres, a zamboni driver/arena maintenance guy in toronto, who played a little minor minor league hockey back in the day, and actually a kidney transplant recipient 15 years ago, was the designee, for both teams, saturday night. sure enough, the unusual happens. both of carolina's goalies go down, the 2nd one happening about halfway thru the 2nd period w/the hurricanes up 3-1. ayres gets called from the stands down to the locker room to get dressed. a carolina team manager literally had to sew his name onto the back of a jersey, and had to give him blue toronto warm up pants because he couldn't find an extra in carolina's colors (that got solved by the 3rd period).
from watching a game in the stands to playing in the nhl in front of 15,000 fans, in your hometown no doubt. he gives up a couple goals in the 2nd but stops all 8 shots he faces in the 3rd and carolina wins 6-3. his 'teammates' mob him at the end of the game. ayres got $500 for appearing in the game, was named the 3rd star of the game, got a standing ovation from the fans of a team he just beat, gets to keep his sweater, and became an instant celebrity, appearing on the today show, colbert, as well as numerous sports shows in the u.s./canada on a quick media tour.
and now he goes back to smoothing out the ice at the arena. carolina brought him down to to drive the zamboni at last night's game. quite the refreshing story...
. (first 4:00 or so is ayres)
. (live today show appearance, including an interview w/his mom, who gave up one of her kidneys to her son, a surprise end to his interview which got him teary)
ps-carolina is now selling ayres sweaters with his #90 on them.
