Goalie two injuries away from NHL dream
Oilers EBUG says that the dream of playing in NHL never goes away
Marc-olivier Daigle missed it all.
Edmonton’s EBUG wasn’t watching Dave Ayres, the Toronto Zamboni driver and Maple Leafs practice goalie become a name to remember in hockey history.
Daigle wasn’t watching Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday when the 42-year-old Ayres, who 15 years ago had a kidney transplant, became a famed name in the game.
Much like, perhaps, the little person Eddie Gaedel that Bill Veeck sent up to bat for the old St. Louis Browns, except this wasn’t a publicity stunt, it was the real deal.
Daigle, the No. 1 goalie of the Grant Macewan Griffins, was the backup for a game against Lac La Biche Portage College Voyageurs blissfully unaware that one of his EBUG (Emergency Back-up Goalie) brethren of usually anonymous existence was becoming a legitimate legend.
NHL home teams are required to provide an EBUG for use in the event both goaltenders of either team happen to get hurt in the same game.
“After our game, I found out that the dream had come true for an emergency backup goaltender,” said Daigle.
There’s no money in being an EBUG unless you actually get into a game and get a league-mandated $500 and get to keep your game-worn jersey.
Daigle has been the EBUG for all but four Oilers home games this year that happened to conflict with the Griffins’ away games. The Griffins play their home games at the Rogers Place community rink that’s closed during NHL games.
That also works out well for Daigle, who keeps his equipment at the rink full time.
“When I am playing an away college game they have somebody else, maybe the Zamboni driver,” he laughed.
Daigle doesn’t get a dime. But he does get to enjoy the pre-game media meal with all the scouts and hockey people, watches the games from the press box with all the popcorn and pop he can consume and figures it’s a pretty damn good deal.
If one goalie gets hurt and you’re suddenly the backup, there’s not much difference other than you get cut off from the pop and the popcorn and have to relocate from the press box to the dressing room.
“If the starting goalie gets hurt, you have to go down and get dressed. But you don’t sit on the bench. You wait in the dressing room on standby. If the backup also gets hurt and you have to go in, they have a contract ready to go. That’s when I’d sign it and go out there,” said the Montreal product who played junior for the Halifax Mooseheads, where he was a teammate of Nathan Mackinnon for a year.
Daigle finished in the AJHL with the Drayton Valley Thunder before heading to Grant Macewan, where he’s been for four years and was named male athlete of the year in 2018-19 after enjoying the best season in program history.
Daigle knew most of the details of what happened in Toronto when I talked to him Sunday morning and I filled him in on some of the rest about the triumph that trumped Alex Ovechkin’s 700th NHL goal.
On the 40th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice — the U.S. win over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics — the unbelievable event unfolded for Ayres, whose last official nonbeer league game had been five years earlier for the Norwood Vipers on the Ontario Allan Cup trail, where he lost 14-4 and the team folded the following day.
Saturday, he became the oldest goalie ever to win his debut game in the NHL, skated out as the game’s first star and was offered honorary North Carolina citizenship by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Both Carolina netminders, James Reimer and Petr Mrazek, were hurt in the game. In came Ayres, who gave up two goals on three shots at the end of the second period, inspiring Kelly Hrudey to make the comment on HNIC: “It’s not fair to Carolina. They’re going to lose this game something like 12-4 . ... He’s hopeless.”
The ’Canes wouldn’t let the Leafs touch the puck in their own building in the third period to get any quality shots on their own Zamboni-driver employee, who was officially credited with eight saves on 10 shots and even a shot on goal against the humiliated and embarrassed Maple Leafs.
Daigle said if all that were to happen to one EBUG, the hockey gods picked the right guy.
“To me, it was like life saying to him, ‘OK, here’s your shot. Go have fun and enjoy your halfhour of fame.’
“It’s so amazing, especially for a guy who has been through a kidney transplant and that kind of stuff. It’s great. I’m really happy for him.”
Daigle said it’s the same for all EBUGS around the NHL.
“The moment you start playing hockey as a kid, you want to play in the NHL. As long as you play, a slice of that dream doesn’t really go away.
“Obviously in the situation,
I’m only two injuries away from reaching that dream. I could still realize my dream of playing some NHL minutes.”
The closest Daigle has come as an EBUG involved the Maple Leafs when they were here earlier this year.
“When they were in town they wanted to get a little rest for Freddy Andersen, so they contacted me to go and practice with them. For me, that was kind of touching my dream there.”