Saturday, 7 March 2020

Ayres NHL story shows people identify with the regular guy

David Ayres, left signs an autograph for a young fan.
    It might not be an exaggeration to say that David Ayres is the most famous goaltender in North America at the moment.
    After appearing in just one half of one NHL regular season game, Ayres is arguably more well-known than Vegas Golden Knights star netminder Marc-Andre Fleury or even retired Hockey Hall of Fame member Patrick Roy, who won four Stanley Cup rings in his NHL career.
    Ayres’ tale proves how much fans of sports and the general public still identify with the ordinary guy. His story is still seemingly getting more and more cemented in the collective conscious of the public.
    The Whitby, Ont., product became famous on February 22 for having to enter an NHL regular season game to play goal for the Carolina Hurricanes against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. 
The line was long to see David Ayres, left, on Friday night.
    After the Hurricanes starting and backup goalies were injured, the 42-year-old Ayres fulfilled his role as the emergency backup entering the contest in the second period with the visitors holding a 3-1 edge.
    He allowed goals on the first two shots he faced and turned away the next eight shots in a 6-3 victory for the Hurricanes. With that result, Ayres became the first emergency backup goaltender to earn an NHL win.
    At age 42 years and 194 days, he became the oldest goaltender to win his NHL regular season debut.
    He is the operations manager for the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Ont., and is best known for being a Zamboni driver.
    Ayres had a kidney transplant in 2004, which has allowed him to live his life to the fullest. His mother, Mary, was the donor.
David Ayres, right, is pictured with some minor hockey players.
    While he has been a practice goalie with the Leafs and the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Ayres basically lived out the story of being the regular guy to come in off the street to play a sport at the highest professional level and earn success against people who play every day in “The Show.”
    The general public gravitates to that story. Over most of the time professional sports have existed, fans have often carried that illusion that they too could be on that athletic stage if only they caught a break.
    It recalls a lengthy period of time when professional athletes showed up to training camp to get in shape. Often during the off-season, athletes would let themselves go and either lounge on a beach or go party and socialize.
    In a past era that wasn’t really that long ago, professional athletes often held another occupation in the off-season to pay the bills to go along with the income they made playing their sport. This used to include players in the NHL.
David Ayres speaks at the press conference on Friday in Saskatoon.
    Back in that not so long ago but seemingly forgotten era, professional athletes seemed more connected to the general public, and the general public could make a connection of seeing a professional athlete as an everyday person.
    That perception changed in the early 1990s when year-round training started to come into vogue for both professional athletes and elite amateur athletes. On the professional side in leagues like the NHL, MLB, NBA and NFL, the million dollar contracts most of those athletes were seemingly making by the end of the 1990s seemed to put those athletes in a position where they don’t connect to the general public like they once did.
    In the current era of about the last 10 years, elite amateur athletes feel intense pressure to specialize in one sport. When they do that, it further shrinks their circle of friends and contacts.
Professional athletes and elite amateur athletes in the current day work at their sports like full-time professionals.
Saskatoon’s media outlets flocked to David Ayres’ press conference.
    The general public, at least in North America, can’t identify with those professional and elite amateur athletes, because most in the general public have never put that type of work into a sport. Most in the general public still view sports in one respect as children’s games.
    At the moment, that is the biggest problem sports in North America faces because the general public can’t truly identify with the highs and lows professional athletes and elite amateur athletes experience. A sizable disconnect is there resulting interest and attendance challenges for most sports.
    When a professional athlete or an elite amateur athlete equates winning a major championship to being a life highlight like a wedding day or the birth of a child, those in the general public can’t understand that.
Sarah Ayres has kept her husband, David, on schedule.
    People in the general public understand weddings or child births. Those are experiences most in the general public commonly share.
    People in the general public can’t identify with the significance of what it is like to win a major championship, because an extreme few have been in that position or have put in the work to be in that position.
    Most people in the general public have played some sort of sport at the recreational level, and they can identify with the story of Ayres. That is why Ayres’ story has taken off, and he is now making appearances seemingly everywhere.
    His wife, Sarah, is tasked with planning out her husband’s schedule.
    David Ayres went to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Hurricanes are based. He was made an honourary citizen of the state and Feb. 25 was named “David Ayres Day” in Raleigh.
    On Friday and Saturday, Ayres appeared in Saskatoon to great fanfare.
    A Friday afternoon press conference event at Wendel Clark’s Classic Bar and Grill attracted representation of pretty much all the media outlets in Saskatoon. In the current budget cut era Canada’s mainstream media outlets are working under, that is an accomplishment.
    Ayres looked like a person who was in shape standing six-feet and a cut 201 pounds, so that spoiled the notion he might be a Homer Simpson like looking dude.
David Ayres waves to the SaskTel Centre crowd on Friday.
    Still, his following was there. When Ayres signed autographs at the Saskatoon Blades WHL game during the first intermission on Friday night, the lineup circled around a third of the concourse of the SaskTel Centre.
    The autograph seekers acted like they encountered Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier when they played for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s.
    On Saturday, Ayres took part in practice for the NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush stepping into the net to play goal.
    He proceeded to take part in festivities at the Rush game that night.
    Due to the fact he was the recipient of a kidney transplant, Ayres is trying to use his newfound fame to raise awareness of organ donation.
    It was fitting the Blades game on Friday was their Suits Up, which was used to raise proceeds to donate to Saskatoon’s Kidney Foundation Branch.
David Ayres, second from right, appears at Friday’s ceremonial faceoff.
    Among the newfound fame that is seeing book and movie deals come his way, Ayres continues to hold down the stereotypically image of being the well-mannered and polite Canadian.
    At some point, the excitement over Ayres story will run its course, but it should still serve as a lesson for current professional and elite amateur athletes.
    That lesson is you still need to be connected to the general public in order to make your sport grow. The fans, ticket buyers and merchandise buyers from the general public ultimately make it possible for you to do what you do.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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