The Zamboni driver? Too good to be true, but true and good nonetheless

When I first saw the headline about the Zamboni driver who was tapped to play emergency NHL goalie, my first reaction was this is so preposterous, it's just too good to be true. The Zamboni guy?

This would be as if the kid selling Sports Bars in the bleachers at Fenway was called in to pitch some extra innings ball. As if someone mopping the floor at The Garden was whistled in to shoot a few free throws at a Celtics game. 

This stuff just doesn't happen.

As it turns out, my first reaction was right. It was too good to be true to think that the Zamboni driver could just jump off the Zamboni and jump into the game. Which doesn't mean the story isn't true and good.

Yes, David Ayres is a Zamboni drivers. But he's also been the practice goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their AHL affiliate for eight years. So he's used to having pro hockey players sending slap shots his way. Still, he'd never been in a pro game. And there he was, after the Carolina Hurricanes lost both of their goalies, in pads, in the net, making saves.

Wow!

Turns out that pro teams have an emergency oncall goalie on hand who can jump if he's needed by either the home team (who he works for) or for the visiting team. In this case, the home town team was fine. It was the Hurricanes whose two goalies went down

Ayres was sitting in the stands with his wife when he got the call, errrr, text.

Next thing the 42-year-old Zamboni driver knew, he was walking down the tunnel and into the spotlight.

And not long after, he had an improbable first NHL win. He is the oldest goalie in NHL history to win his regular-season debut.

Ayres allowed goals on the first two shots he faced before settling down and stopping the next eight in a suffocating defensive performance by his new teammates as Carolina picked up a stunning 6-3 victory over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night. (Source: Boston Globe)

Ayres is from Ontario, works for the Maple Leafs (Leaves?), and is a Leafs (Leaves?) fan. So I'm sure he would rather have had his pro debut with the Leafs (Leaves?). But I'm equally sure he was just thrilled to get in a real pro game.

The fans were apparently great, cheering him one even though he was playing for the other guys. And the Hurricanes also went all in. After Ayres' got his airtime in the post-game interviews, his ad hoc teammates showered him with Gatorade. And within minutes, the Hurricans were selling Ayres' jerseys. (Hope they put a couple aside for him.)

Ayres didn't get to be the practice goalie without being a pretty damned good hockey player. And I'm guessing he's had plenty of dreams about making it to The Show. But he never quite got to that level. (A kidney transplant in his twenties didn't help.) And now, here he was. Showtime!

I'm delighted for the guy.

It's the understudy's understudy, standing in the wings, who gets to go in for Nathan Lane on Broadway after the real understudy comes down with the flu. It's as if Joyce Carol Oates failed to deliver the short story that was due to The New Yorker, and the magazine reached out to an amateur workshop writer to send a piece in. (That would be me, of course.)

A few days ago, the hockey world celebrated the 40th anniversary The Miracle on Ice, when the kids from the US Olympic Hockey Team beat the big, bad Russkies and went on to win the Gold Medal. I watched that game, and it was absolutely thrilling. Too bad the team members marred their reunion by appearing at a Trump rally in Keep American Great caps.

So I'll be celebrating David Ayres victory as a tiny little miracle on ice. Congratulations! A true story, and a good one.