I love it when good things happen to good people. When Todd Marchant buried his wrist shot behind Chris Osgood after 101 minutes, it was another example of a good person getting over. Call it my faith in cosmic karma—or maybe it’s just my way of justifying the randomness of the world. But every time I’ve seen interviews or articles about Marchant, I’m always struck with with his good-hearted nature and likeable personality. So in that 6th period on Sunday afternoon, it was a helluva shot and it really shouldn’t have been surprising. After all, this isn’t the first time he’s done this! Check out this memorable overtime with Marchant ending the Dallas Stars 1997 season.
During the broadcast, NBC kept talking about Marchant throughout the game. Don’t get me wrong, they picked a good guy to be talking about—I just wasn’t sure they were on the right track when they were talking about potential heroes. I understand that Marchant had a great playoff overtime goal on his resume, but it was 12 years ago! It’s been all about the Ducks 1st line throughout the playoffs thus far. In fact, before Marchant’s goal in the 3rd OT, Ryan Getzlaf had a hand in the first 5 Duck’s goals of the series. But as you can see, Marchant didn’t need Getzlaf’s help to even the series at 1 game a piece.
But if you take a step back and look at the big picture, Game 2 was just another example of how the Ducks thrive in the playoffs. They played well in the first couple of periods; so well in fact that they made Detroit look BAD in the 2nd period. That doesn’t happen very often. But starting in the 3rd period, the momentum started to shift to the red jerseys. But the Ducks found a way to win. In the playoffs, it doesn’t matter if you look good doing it, if you get dominated in shots on goal or even if you deserve to win. All that matters is the W—and the Ducks found a way to win yet again.
Good things have a way of happening to good people...
It’s this intangible quality that separates teams like the Red Wings and the Ducks from teams like the San Jose Sharks. Don’t get me wrong, it takes immense team depth and overall talent to win the President’s Trophy and dominate the league over the long 82 game schedule. But the playoffs are a different animal. It takes elevated goaltending, immense heart and an unrelenting WILL to win that separates the men from the boys.
When you watch the Anaheim vs. Detroit series, you see that BOTH teams “get it.” When push comes to shove, neither team is going to back down. I know that seems like a given, but look at the majority of the teams that lost in the first round. All of them are quality teams, but none of them were able to take the step up to compete with the big boys.
Two games into the series and I already hope this one goes 7. You know it’s good hockey when you don’t particular care for either team, but you love watching the quality of the two teams going at it. It’s one of those things: I don’t like them, but I respect them. If we can see 7 games like we saw in Game 2, then I could care less the outcome. Good hockey is good hockey—and Game 2 was some great hockey.
Ok, I need to stop complimenting the Ducks and the Red Wings. I’m starting to feel dirty.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
