My more rationally minded colleague Lauren has attempted to make sense of the Anaheim Ducks' first-place start, and to investigate whether they are actually a good team or not. This is fine, for those of you interested in things like "cause" and "effect" when it comes to results. But some of us have more of what I might call a medieval peasant mindset toward a sport that inherently features a whole lot of randomness, and it is becoming clearer with each victory that the Ducks are blessed by some power greater than "being good at hockey." Call it what you like—mojo, juju, puck luck, duck luck, the favor of the Canaanite goddess Astarte—the Ducks have it.
Consider Tuesday's 4-3 shootout victory in Pittsburgh, a showdown of semi-aquatic birds. The Penguins took 47 shots to Anaheim's 28, had five power plays to the Ducks' one, enjoyed 80 percent of the game's high-danger scoring chances, and generally broke the Deserve To Win O'Meter. Yet it was the Ducks who came away with two points—duck, duck, deuce?—for they enjoy the inscrutable blessings of fate and physics.
It took a pair of miracles to get there, but that's simply the way the puck bounces when things are going good. The first came at the end of regulation—the very, very end. 19:59.9 of the third period, to be precise, when the Ducks, down a goal, down a man but with their goalie pulled, skated in on a Pens defense that looked fairly prepared for the desperation attempt. But rookie Beckett Sennecke was allowed a shocking amount of room to maneuver on net (play the man, not the puck!) and attempted a short pass across the goalmouth that, had things gone according to Sennecke's plan, would have seen time expire. "I wasn’t really keeping track of the time,” Sennecke admitted.
But the pass bounced off the hand of a sprawled Erik Karlsson and in, with 0.1 showing on the clock.
"It hit my hand and went in. There was no question about it,” Karlsson said. “How it came to be that way, I don't really know." Yes! Join me in freeing yourself from the shackles of causality! This is the NHL in December, where nothing makes sense and nothing really matters. The Pens are an inexplicable 1-7 on games that make it to overtime? Sure, why not. The Ducks are 19-10-1, and have won three straight despite being down to their third and fourth goaltenders? Tell another one.
Ville Husso, said third-string netminder, is on a very Ducklike heater, in that he's winning game after game despite not playing a very good goal. He's allowed three or more goals in four of six starts since stepping in for the injured Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek, and he's 5-1 in those games. A representative bit of Husso magic came in overtime, when Sidney Crosby along the goal line pushed a lovely pass out to Tommy Novak in the opposite circle for the one-timer. An off-balance Husso reached out with his stick ... and didn't get anywhere near it.
It's tough to see, even on replays, but Novak's shot hit the post and rode up Husso's stick, and he deposited it in an only slightly less dangerous part of the crease, until it was fortuitously cleared away. I'm not sure Husso really did anything here, let alone earned the "save of the year" caption, but all that ultimately matters is straightforward enough to be described to a caveman, and puck no go in.
Leo Carlsson's first-round shootout goal stood up, as Husso added three more stops to go with his 44 saves.
Husso has likened the Ducks' hot start—and we're past a third of the way through the season, so this is more than a fluke—to the Blues' Stanley Cup run he enjoyed from the bench in 2019. "I feel like there’s a lot of similar stuff happening here. The atmosphere and everything. The rink is buzzing. Fans are excited. Everything is just like clicking." Do not underestimate the power of buzzing and clicking. Something weird and fun is happening here.
