David Ayres worked his way through media appearances on the Today Show, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and a lot more after making his NHL debut at the age of 42.
Ayres came into the second period for Carolina in Toronto against the Maple Leafs Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada. Ayres did let in a pair of goals in his first 2 shots.
Toronto only got 8 more shots in the game. Ayres played 28:41 and became the oldest player to make his NHL debut at the age of 42.
Craig Simpson kept saying during the Hockey Night in Canada telecast that the Maple Leafs players needed to shoot the puck at Ayres. Carolina played tough defence but the Maple Leafs kept tripping on the blue line and struggled to put together strong scoring chances even on the power play.
Ayres was selected as the first star of the game, getting a standing ovation from the Maple Leafs crowd at Scotiabank Arena.
The hockey stick Ayres used in going into the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto.
Ayres was honoured in Raleigh last night by the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Today show surprised Ayres with his mother Mary, who donated the kidney for his kidney transplant 15 years ago. Ayres gave a shout-out to St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto.
Like a lot of successful stories for U.S. NHL franchises, a Canadian is behind it. Ayres' day job is as a Zamboni driver and building operations manager at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. Ayres has also served as a backup goalie in Maple Leafs practices. So Ayres has seen Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares shooting at him.
perhaps not enough data, however... the 2 times an #EBUG emergency goaltender comes in an @NHL game for longer than 10 seconds were against Canadian teams and neither Canadian team did well against the EBUG. #DavidAyres #ScottFoster
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) February 23, 2020
If you adjust the threshold to anything above 10 seconds (Jorge Alves, Carolina Hurricanes, 7.6 seconds, December 31, 2016), there are only 2 emergency backup goalies to play in an NHL game. Both played against Canadian teams and their new teams were victorious.
Scott Foster (also Canadian) played about 14 minutes as Chicago hosted Winnipeg on March 29, 2018. Foster stopped all 7 shots he faced.
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
The NHL Network blew off the game for a lesser all-American matchup. The U.S. channel might actually regret not carrying that game. ESPN+ carried that game.
photo credit: Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS
video credit: Today/NBC
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
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