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.

Jack of all trades pic.twitter.com/vWPhsytZh3

— 🇨🇦Sarah Ayres🇨🇦 (@35Ayres) March 7, 2020

    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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Girl with familiar hockey last name debuts with U.S.A.

Messier has made her mark with SFMAAAHL champion Stars

Defender Ashley Messier is carving her own mark in the sport of hockey.

    Smooth skating Ashley Messier likely won’t be able to dart around her family lineage when she makes her international hockey debut with the U.S.A.

    On Thursday, Messier will suit up for the United States under-18 women’s team as they take on Canada’s under-18 women’s side in the first of a three-game series hosted at the Markin MacPhail Centre - WinSport Arena in Calgary, Alta. That contest will mark the first time the 16-year-old defender has worn international colours.

Ashley Messier earned SFMAAAHL all-star status last season.

    Odds are high Messier will do something to turn heads, and obvious thoughts will circle around her last name.

    Ashley’s father is Regina, Sask., product Joby Messier, who way back in 1987-88 helped the Notre Dame Hounds win a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League title and the Centennial Cup for junior A hockey supremacy as a defenceman. Joby played four seasons with the Michigan State University Spartans men’s hockey team from 1988 to 1992 and 25 regular season games scattered over three seasons for the NHL’s New York Rangers from 1992 to 1995.

    Joby currently coaches professional hockey in Sweden.

Ashley Messier has committed to join the NCAA ranks in 2020-21.

    Uncle Mitch Messier, who is Joby’s older brother, starred for four seasons at right wing for the Spartans from 1983 to 1987 and appeared in 20 NHL regular season games scattered over four seasons from 1987 to 1991 with the Minnesota North Stars.

    Their cousin is Mark Messier.

    Yep. The Mark Messier who won five Stanley Cup rings as a member of the Edmonton Oilers in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990 and a sixth Stanley Cup rink with the Rangers in 1994.

    If Ashley does something good wearing a U.S.A. jersey in the three-game series that runs through to Sunday, odds are extremely high a media member will ask about the family connection. The fact the series is being held in Calgary will add to that likelihood, as Mark had countless rivalry battles with the NHL’s Calgary Flames as a member of the Oilers.

Ashley Messier is a skill offensive-defender.

    Having lived just over a year in Michigan when she was really young, Ashley picked up the nickname “Mouse” due to the fact she stands 5-foot-3, but she has already begun making her mark in hockey as a member of the Saskatoon Stars of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League.

    Her playing style is more similar to that of Paul Coffey, who starred as an offensive defenceman on those dynasty Oilers teams in Edmonton. Ashley has a seemly effortless finesse style to her game.

    If called upon, she can mix it up physically like Mark, if someone wants to take a shot at her.

    As a 14-year-old underage player in the 2016-17 season, Ashley posted three goals and eight assists in 28 regular season games for the Stars and added six assists in nine SFMAAAHL playoff games.
    In September of 2017 at age 15, she committed to joining the Cornell University Big Red women’s hockey team for the start of the 2020-21 National Collegiate Athletic Association season.

    Former teammate and Stars captain Willow Slobodzian is already a member of the Big Red women’s team.

Ashley Messier is almost unstoppable going coast-to-coast with the puck.

    Messier showed huge improvement in her 15-year-old sophomore campaign this past season with the Stars. She piled up three goals and 23 assists appearing in all 28 of the Stars regular season games helping Saskatoon finish first in the SFMAAAHL with a 24-3-1 record and earning individual league second team all-star honours.

    In the playoffs, Messier picked up two goals and five assists helping the Stars win the Fedoruk Cup as league champions for the third time in four years. From there, Messier helped the Stars sweep the Eastman Selects 2-0 in a best-of-three Western regional playdown series to advance to the Esso Cup national championship tournament.

    At the Esso Cup in late April in Bridgewater, N.S., Messier picked up a goal and six assists in seven games for the Stars helping them advance to the event’s championship game for the first time in team history.

Ashley Messier, middle centre, enjoy a Stars SFMAAAHL title win.

    The Stars fell in the national final 2-1 to the Alberta-based St. Albert Slash, who repeated as Esso Cup champions. 
    Messier was named the Stars player of the game in the tournament final and took home honours as the top defender at the Esso Cup.

    When you see someone that stands 5-foot-3 like Messier does, there can be doubts about her playing the women’s game at the higher levels because doesn’t stand 5-foot-8 or 5-foot-9. She has already proven that size doesn’t matter.

    Noting the fact that Joby stand 6-foot-1 and Mitch stands 6-foot-2, it is possible that Ashley might still have a growth spurt and her height will match the size of her game.

    In the present, she might still be scratching the surface of how good she can be in the game. The U.S.A. national team jersey might fit Messier well into the future.

Shirley sisters suit up for Canada

Grace Shirley will return to play for Canada’s under-18 team.

    When Ashley Messier hits the ice for the United States under-18 women’s team, she will see a familiar foe.

    The U.S.A. faces Canada’s under-18 women’s team in a three-game series beginning Thursday at the Markin MacPhail Centre - WinSport Arena in Calgary, Alta. Canada’s roster features one of Messier’s teammates with the SFMAAAHL champion Saskatoon Stars in 17-year-old forward Grace Shirley.

    In 82 regular season games, the Saskatoon, Sask., product ranks fourth all-time in career SFMAAAHL regular season goals with 70 and 10^th in career regular season points with 118. Last season, Shirley was the fourth leading scorer in the SFMAAAHL piling up 30 goals and 18 assists in 23 regular season games. Her goal and assist totals were both career highs.

    Shirley was a member of Canada’s under-18 team last season, when Canada won a bronze medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-18 Women’s World Championship in Dmitrov, Russia.

    Stars forward Joelle Fiala, Wapella, Sask., product Allison Hayhurst, who is a 17-year-old defender from the Melville Prairie Fire, and Regina, Sask., product Kennedy Bobyck, who is a 17-year-old forward with the Calgary, Alta., based Edge School Mountaineers female prep team, all attended the selection camp for the under-18 Canadian team but weren’t chosen to play in the series against the U.S.A.

Grace Shirley (#14) enjoys scoring a SFMAAAHL finals goal for the Stars.

    Also on Thursday, Canada’s National Development Women’s Hockey team will begin a three-game series against the United States National Development Women’s team at the Markin MacPhail Centre - WinSport Arena in Calgary, Alta. The series runs through to Sunday. The national development women’s team contests follow the under-18 women’s games.

    The roster for Canada’s National Development Women’s Team includes Stars alumnae Sophie Shirley, who is a 19-year-old forward and Grace’s older sister. The elder Shirley played last season with the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

    Plenty, Sask., product Jaycee Gebhard, who is a 21-year-old forward and another Stars alumnae, joins the Canada’s National Development Team roster after spending two seasons with Robert Morris University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ranks in Moon, Pennsylvania.

    During the selection camp for Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, Shirley and Gebhard faced University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team alumnae Kaitlin Willoughby in exhibition games, as Willoughby was captaining a U Sports all-star squad.

    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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Oilers will always have a big following in Saskatchewan

The Oilers mingle at their bench during a timeout.

    The Edmonton Oilers will always have a sizable following in Saskatchewan.

    During Wednesday’s 4-0 NHL pre-season victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, a large gathering of 10,387 spectators were on hand at the SaskTel to see captain Connor McDavid and his Edmonton bunch. The Oilers star attraction didn’t disappoint netting a pair of goals and an assist to send almost all of a partisan crowd, who were mostly decked out in Oilers gear, home happy.

    The Oilers following in Saskatchewan has been entrenched for a few decades. The team build a huge fanbase during the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Oilers captured the Stanley Cup five times in seven years from 1984 to 1990.

    During that time, the Oilers were often labeled Western Canada’s team. Due to hitting the ice with players the likes of hockey icons Wayne Gretzky, who was part of the Oilers first four Stanley Cup wins, and Mark Messier, it was easy to identify with the team that was on television on a regular basis every April and May thanks to those championship playoff runs.

    Oilers netminder Laurent Brossoit enjoyed seeing the support his team gets from Alberta’s eastern provincial neighbour.

    “That is nice to have a couple of provinces that considers us their home team,” said Brossoit. “It is definitely a nice feeling. It is a lot of support for us.”

    Saskatoon product and rugged defensive defenceman Eric Gryba has always enjoyed his homecomings during his NHL career, and he noted there is a bit of an extra attachment when he returns home as a member of the Oilers.

    “Any time I come home and play in my hometown (before) a lot of friends and family is always a special thing,” said Gryba. “Obviously, the crowd is excited to have the Oilers in town.”

The Oilers and Hurricanes get set for a faceoff.

    While the Oilers haven’t won a Stanley Cup title in 27 years, a lot of fans in Saskatchewan still have an attachment to the team’s glory days. When the club is in a down stretch, the jerseys will sometimes be placed in the closet, but they are always ready to be brought out for that next memorable playoff run.

    Oilers fever hit a high pitch in the province in 2006, when the team advanced to the Stanley Cup finals only to fall 3-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Hurricanes. During that playoff run, many fans that weren’t alive to see the Oilers 1990 victory got to indulge in what appeared to be a team of destiny out of nowhere run.

    Edmonton proceeded to miss the post-season for the next 10 straight years.

    Last season, the Oilers returned to the playoffs posting a 47-26-9 record in the regular season. They eliminated the San Jose Sharks 4-2 in a best-of-seven first round series and fell 2-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

    Thanks to that run where they came up a win short of qualifying for the NHL’s Western Conference championship series, the support for the Oilers is gaining momentum again. With McDavid under contract for the next nine years, hope is high the new cast of characters that make up the current Oilers can bring home another Stanley Cup championship win.

    During a public autograph session that was part of the Royal University Hospital Foundation’s Celebrity Golf Classic last June, the players that received the most autograph requests were Gryba and Oilers starting netminder Cam Talbot. You could tell the run in the 2017 NHL playoffs was fresh on the minds of the fans.

    In Saskatchewan, there will always be strong followings for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs due to the NHL’s historic Original Six days.

    Thanks to the Stanley Cup runs from 1984 to 1990 and the sprinkling of playoff marches that have occurred since, the Oiler will always have a big backing locked down too in “the Wheat Province” too.

Other thoughts from Wednesday’s NHL stop in Saskatoon

The Oilers skate off the ice after saluting the fans at the SaskTel Centre.

    The fans that attended Wednesday’s NHL pre-season game at the SaskTel Centre got to see a good show.

    While a 4-0 score in favour of the Edmonton Oilers might say otherwise, the Carolina Hurricanes had a number of solid chances to score. After outshooting the Oilers 13-4 in the second period, Carolina looked poised to rally from a 2-0 deficit. Connor McDavid scored twice inside of the final 10 minutes of the third to seal Edmonton’s victory.

    I have seen the NHL pre-season games that have been held in Saskatoon annually for the last four years. Last year’s game that saw the Ottawa Senators down the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime was the most exciting of the four.

    The games that have been held each of the past two years were far better than the ones I saw in 2014 and 2015. The contests the past two years were held late in the pre-season, and teams hit the ice with lineups that more resembled the ones that would be used in the regular season.

    The games in 2014 and 2015 definitely weren’t worth paying ticket prices ranging from $59.50 to $112 including fees to go see.

·         Hurricanes defenceman Haydn Fleury looked like an all-world player during his WHL days with the Red Deer Rebels, which wrapped up following the 2015-16 campaign. The sophomore pro looked ordinary trying to defend McDavid on a one-on-one rush on the Oilers fourth goal on Wednesday. McDavid seemed to toy with Fleury and cause the rearguard to move into position where he screened netminder Cam Ward. Fleury isn’t the first and won’t be the last player to look ordinary going against McDavid.

·         Wednesday’s attendance of 10,387 was quite a bit higher than the 7,541 that saw the Oilers play in Saskatoon in 2015. McDavid suited up for that 2015 contest, picking up an assist in a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild. Back then, McDavid was going through the paces of his rookie campaign.

·         Defenceman Eric Gryba of the Oilers and Trevor Carrick of the Hurricanes engaged in a late third period fight. Carrick managed to get some decent shots in, but the bout ended quickly after it started when the pair slipped down to ice.

·         Way less media from Edmonton attended Wednesday’s game compared to past years, when the Oilers came to Saskatoon. Outside of the crew putting together contest for the Oilers website, only one Edmonton based reporter was present during post-game interviews. In past years, a number of members from the Edmonton media were on hand. There were no appearances this year by legendary Edmonton sportswriters Jim Matheson and Terry Jones, who are both first class guys. It was another sign of Canada’s worse than skeleton crew media cut era. On the bright side, all of Saskatoon’s local outlets were represented.

·         I covered Wednesday’s game for The Canadian Press. My story for that wire service can be found right here.

Anthem protests didn’t have to happen

Some fans have burned their NFL gear over anthem protests.

    The sports world, especially the professional sports world, has been overwhelmed with protests regarding the United States national anthem, and the recent wave didn’t need to happen.

    A year ago, Colin Kaepernick, who was then the quarterback of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, at first sat and later kneeled during the playing of the U.S. national anthem to protest social injustice – primarily inequality and police violence against blacks. Issues involving race have always been a huge elephant in the room in the United States. Canada has its racial issues too, but arguably, they are not as wedge oriented as those in the United States.

    A number of other players joined Kaepernick when he started doing his protest, but the story really died down to the point it was pretty much off the radar at the start of the current NFL season.

    That changed last Friday, when U.S. President Donald Trump made a speech to supporters in Huntsville, Ala., and attacked players who kneeled in protest of the U.S. national anthem.

    Trump said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

    He followed with a storm of inflammatory tweets. When NFL games rolled around on Sunday, there were massive protests that included over 200 players sitting or kneeling during the U.S. national anthem. Most teams locked arms in standing for the U.S. national anthem.

    In the CFL on Sunday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders locked arms during the Canadian national anthem before their 15-9 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium as a show of support to the NFL players in the U.S.

    Since Trump’s speech last Friday, the anthem protest story seems to rise again with each passing hour with another story containing a different angle. It really feels like this is a story that is out of control. Had Trump not said what he said last Friday, life in the professional sports world and the overall sports would have gone on as normal.

    Now, you have two camps. You have those that kneel and lock arms to peacefully protest during the U.S. national anthem for Kaepernick’s original cause of protesting social injustice and police violence against minorities.

    You have the other camp that believe the peaceful protests during the U.S. national anthem show disrespect for the United States flag and military. The peaceful anthem protests were never about the United States flag or military.

    That same scenario goes for Canada and the Canadian flag and military.

    The two sides seem to keep escalating each other up, where you have fans burning jerseys or other team gear. The fact Trump, who started all this in the first place, keeps stoking the fire on this subject also doesn’t help.

    For myself, I will support anyone that feels moved to the point they believe it is necessary to make a peaceful protest during the national anthem in the United States or Canada like what has happened in the last five days. If someone wants to just stand at attention during the national anthem in the United States or Canada, I support that action too. Freedom of expression is a right in both countries.

    In the amateur sports world, I know a large number of teams who are serious when it comes to standing at attention for the national anthem, and it has become part of something those teams have always done. If they do anything else, it feels weird. Those teams should feel free to continue what they have always done.

    Had Trump not stoked the subject up last Friday, the divisiveness that followed would not have happened.

RIP Hugh Hefner (1926-2017)

A 2010 documentary on Hugh Hefner.

    On Wednesday, Hugh Hefner, who was the founder of Playboy magazine, died at the age of 91 at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California.

    Due to Hefner’s age, his passing isn’t a shock. It still feels surreal due to the impact he had on culture in North America and the world during his life. It seems everyone likes to relive the joke that they checked out Playboy for the articles as opposed to the naked female centerfolds, but Hefner’s life impact expanded beyond that publication.

    Before Playboy was published, talking about sex in North America was locked in the puritan sense in that you didn’t talk about or acknowledge it at all. He helped society break free from that where the attitude toward sex became more free.

    What often doesn’t get discussed is that Hefner had a huge impact in advocating for free speech, civils rights and social justice causes, and he was way ahead of his time in advocating for those things on a number of fronts.

    Back in 2010, filmmaker Brigitte Berman produced the documentary entitled, “Hugh Hefner Playboy, Activist and Rebel.”

    The film does a fantastic job of telling the story of Hefner’s life. The majority of the interviews are with his supporters, but there are also interviews from his detractors and went into detail about the adversities he faced.

    Hefner spoke freely about his adversities. His supporters note Hefner always carried himself like a gentleman.

    The best part of the film was it was shot when Hefner was in his mid-80s, and he was still really vibrant. Judging from social media posts from people that were close to him, age finally caught up to Hefner on the health front in recent years. If you find a copy of Berman’s documentary, it is a must to check out in my opinion.

    I believe Hefner made the world a better place and did a great job in living life to the fullest.

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