I've been thinking about “The Mighty Ducks” this week, which is to say I've been breathing, walking, eating, sleeping, and generally living my life this week. With that being said, a couple of items piqued my interest in all things quack attack.
First this tweet found its way to my timeline:
No wonder Coach Bombay couldn't score to win the '73 Finals. #Greyhounds pic.twitter.com/keJ3FhruAi
— dcm (@dcmoseley) September 17, 2013
If you're wondering, that is a zoomed in picture of the goaltender that Gordon Bombay faced on his ill-fated penalty shot. As you can clearly see, the goalie's mask is terrifying. But that's not what stands out to me. It's the “Duluth East” scrawled across his sweater. As a former Duluth East Greyhound myself from pee-wees through high school, I've long taken pride in the fact that my program handed the Hawks their only championship loss over a nearly twenty year span. Add in the fact that the overtime defeat virtually ended Bombay's playing career, and, well, the Greyhounds have established quite a legacy.
While the '73 championship game was great, Duluth still had a role to play in the trilogy. In D2, team tutor Michele MacKay announces that she hails from Duluth during the greatest intermission speech in movie history. Could MacKay have a had a sibling on the East team that knocked off Bombay's Hawks? Could her dad have been the coach who bested the villainous Reilly? Is that why Gordon spurned MacKay's advances in favor of the Iceland chick?
Perhaps. Conspiracies abound. Just as these thoughts were stewing in my brain, though, I came across something that made them irrelevant to this post entirely. Truthfully I snuck in that bit to remind everyone that my pewee hockey team was better than all of yours.
At any rate, apparently Kenan Thompson appeared on Fox Sports 1's “The Crowd Goes Wild” on Wednesday. And yes, D2 was brought up. And yes, Keenan Thompson a.k.a. Russ Tyler reenacted the knuckle puck.
I have to give Thompson a lot of credit here. As anyone who has ever tried the knuckle puck knows, getting the puck to sit perfectly on edge is incredibly difficult. Russ Tyler mastered the trick only after years and years of practice on South Central LA's notoriously rough asphalt. And Thompson's shot itself really wasn't all that bad. While it lacked the sporadic movements of season's long passed, the puck did nestle into the corner of the net.
Only time will tell if this video will prove to be the launching point for Fox Sports 1. Right now it sits at just under 30k views as I type this. That doesn't bode well for the nascent channel. If shameless references to D2:The Mighty Ducks doesn't spike ratings than what will?
A full Ducks reunion, that's what. Make it happen Fox Sports and you'll win us all over before ESPN can start a “Win, win, win” chant. Because they're the Hawks, or Iceland for that matter, of sports broadcasting. And the only thing that can defeat a Hawk is a Duck, or, doncha know, a Greyhound.
H/T to Allan Muir for the link
