Sometimes, life imitates art. Actor and director Emilio Estevez is well-known for his role in hits like The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire, but many sports fans will always remember him for his role as Gordon Bombay, the coach in the Mighty Ducks movies. Those movies led to the creation of the actual Mighty Ducks of Anaheim as a Disney-owned NHL franchise, and while the team changed their name to the Anaheim Ducks after Disney sold them in 2005, there are still always plenty of Mighty Ducks jokes on Twitter whenever they’re playing. Those jokes were further amplified Monday night, when Estevez went to the Ducks’ playoff game against the Chicago Blackhawks (fittingly enough, the Hawks were Bombay’s old team and the Ducks’ rivals in the first movie), turned into an Anaheim superfan, and made a zillion Mighty Ducks references on Twitter:
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While the Blackhawks and Ducks’ clashes in this Western Conference final have been real instead of fictional, they’ve had plenty of cinematic-level moments, from Anaheim scoring three goals in 37 seconds Saturday to Chicago captain Jonathan Toews scoring from an impossible angle to send Monday’s game to overtime, a goal that seemed as impossible as any knucklepuck. Matt Beleskey’s overtime winner for the Ducks Monday also showed the speed (and the lack of stopping ability) of Luis Mendoza. Estevez getting into the spirit of things here only adds more to what’s been an incredible series. Don’t say that he’s a distraction, either; he’ll just put that distraction in a fire in a barrel.
Now, the Blackhawks should respond with a celebrity of their own. At least they’ll have a few options. Sadly, Lane Smith (who played Hawks’ coach Jack Reilly) died in 2005, but Carsten Norgaard (who played villainous Iceland coach Wolf “The Dentist” Stansson in D2) is still around, and lives in Los Angeles! Perhaps he could be recruited. Alternatively, there’s always noted Blackhawks fan Vince Vaughn, who could team up with current NBC analyst Jeremy Roenick. (Making Gretzky’s head bleed may not help in this specific situation, though.) Really, though, if this series winds up going back to Anaheim and the Ducks are trailing, they have to let Estevez give the between-periods pep talk:
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