Saturday night wasa magical night in the life of 42 year old emergency backup goaltender David Ayres, a man who will now forever be known as the Zamboni goalie, but it sounds like that magic might last for much longer than just a single night.
In spite of the fact that he had never played in a single National Hockey League game in his entire professional career and in spite of the fact that prior to Saturday night it had been over 5 years since he last played professionally, Ayres help the Carolina Hurricanes secure a huge win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The story was made all that much crazier by the fact that Ayres is actually the Zamboni driver for the Maple Leafs American Hockey League affiliate team the Toronto Marlies, so Ayres got the chance to beat the team he has spent the last 8 years cheering for.
Although not everyone has fallen in love with this unbelievable story, most notably veteran NHL executive Brian Burke called the whole thing an embarrassment for the National Hockey League, the fans of the Carolina Hurricanes are loving it and they are not the only ones. The support for Ayres coming out of Raleigh, North Carolina has been nothing short of staggering and now thanks to a couple of announcements we know that Ayres is in for one hell of treat this week.
On Sunday Mary-Ann Baldwin, the Mayor of Raleigh, announced that Tuesday would officially be named "David Ares Day" a pretty amazing honor for a guy that has only ever played in a single game for the Hurricanes. Baldwin regretfully announced that she would be unable to attend the event herself but did add that an official proclamation would be forthcoming from the city.
Governor Roy Cooper also hinted at the fact that he would be making Ayres an honorary citizen of North Carolina following his huge win for the Hurricanes, again one hell of a honor for a guy that has only played in 1 game for the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes also revealed that they would be selling a brand new David Ayres t-shirt, announcing that Ayres would be receiving royalties from the sales of the shirt and adding that they were working with the Zamboni goalie to find a kidney foundation that would also receive a portion of the proceeds. Ayres was the beneficiary of a kidney transplant himself and no doubt this will be a cause that will be near and dear to his own heart.
It seems like the ride has not stopped just yet for David Ayres, and who knows where it will go from here.
