If It Wins Like A Duck

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.