“A 42-year-old Zamboni driver won his first NHL game Saturday after being tapped to play as an emergency goalie for the opposing team. Dave Ayres stepped in for the Carolina Hurricanes after both the team’s goalies had to leave the game with injuries, prompting the Zamboni driver to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the home team.”
Read that again carefully, because it’s even stranger than you think. Ayres works as a Zamboni driver and area maintenance worker for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, but he played AGAINST the Leafs, after having been loaned to the other team – and he essentially beat his own employers.
(This seems to be SOP in hockey, as I understand it. This is all new to me, but I just read that every game has a designated emergency goalie, provided by the home team, but available to either team in case both of their roster goalies are incapacitated in the same game.)
Three additional things on this:
1.His qualifications as the emergency goaltender are that he used to be a goaltender and also takes part in Maple Leafs practices as a goaltender who the Leafs players take shots on to practice their shots.
2.The Toronto Maple Leafs own the Toronto Marlies team, so he was indeed playing against his employer.
3.The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a tough fight to make the playoffs, so one would have thought his natural reaction, aside from dealing with his employer, would have been to have intentionally tanked.
Prepare for the lame Disney movie this will surely inspire. Starring Kevin James or some other middle-aged overweight sitcom actor.