In Edina, it’s cool to be a cake eater

The Cake Eater Classic sounds like it belongs on a one-shot marquee in a satirical primetime cartoon episode. Its trophy looks like it was pilfered or purchased from the Food Network’s hardware vault.

Not so on either count. Since 2005, the multi-tiered girls’ hockey tournament has been a culturally quintessential event in Edina, Minn. It combines the game that every conversation in the area seems to come back to with a historically significant expression. And it culminates with the victors hoisting a silver, three-layered cake-shaped cup topped with a hockey-player figurine.

“It’s one of the coolest trophies for a tournament I’ve ever seen,” local product and Buffalo Beauts forward Corinne Buie told Pucks and Recreation.

Buie all but represents an intersection of evolution in Edina. The town’s first ambassador to professional women’s hockey was born seven months before The Mighty Ducks depicted her community.

A crucial storyline in the 1992 film revolves around cultural and class clashes in the Minneapolis area. In so doing, it popularized an epithet — traced back to the out-of-touch “Let them eat cake” statement misattributed to Marie Antoinette — that had been frosting the rich side for decades.

“It has followed the community since the ’50s or early ’60s,” noted Pete Waggoner, the Edina Hockey Association’s tournament director, in an email to Pucks and Rec “Minneapolis Washburn was known as the original Cake Eater city/school.”

The Mighty Ducks does not mention Edina by name. But in the 1994 sequel, the Adam Banks character cites it as his hometown. With that confirmation, the citizens of the historically affluent suburb could retroactively view the villains’ district as enveloping their locale.

In the movie, the district is home to the dynastic Hawks peewee program, whose embarrassment of talent and resources is luck of the geographic draw. It is like what the Montreal Canadiens enjoyed in the NHL’s pre-draft era, when every Quebecois prodigy was automatically theirs.

But the Ducks’ (nee District 5) astute ally, Hans, discovers one key exception that took otherwise unnoticed effect. He informs coach Gordon Bombay that, due to offseason realignment, the Hawks MVP Banks’ block now sits in their territory. The league promptly addresses the error, leaving Banks to either transfer or forego the balance of the season.

Upon first entering his new team’s locker room, his literally soft-spoken line typifies his innocence of snobbery. “I just want to play hockey.” That does not suffice for Duck Jesse Hall, who curtly interrupts captain Charlie Conway’s welcome statement to mutter “Cake eater.”

Hall had used the same term earlier upon learning that Bombay is himself a former Hawk. The statement sets off a temporary strike by the long-underprivileged District 5 team.

But by the final time Hall speaks the term in the screenplay, he ices it with decidedly sweeter connotations. As Banks is wheeled off after sustaining a concussive hit by an old teammate, his new friends pledge to avenge his injury by derailing the dynasty to usurp the state championship.

Waggoner, like many locals old enough to remember the movie’s release, sees a real-life turning point for the term there. The likes of Buie have since grown up savoring the playful jabs.

“I think my parents heard it more when they were growing up,” she said. “My cousin, who played in a neighboring community, definitely didn’t let me forget about the nickname. It was always in good fun, though.”

As more Cake Eater Classic alumnae move up the ranks, the history and sustained relevance of the epithet-turned-endearing moniker fades. Grace Bowlby, a Wisconsin Badgers freshman and veteran of the U.S. 18-and-under team, admits she has never watched The Mighty Ducks or D2. (She did, however, see D3, which again contains no mention of Edina and only one utterance of “cake eater.”)

“Personally, the term never made sense to me,” Bowlby told Pucks and Rec. “It never really bothered me when I heard it.”

She added, “I’ve heard it mainly from people that aren’t from Minnesota.”

Based on Bowlby’s accounts, bona fide ’90s kids who grew up on the movies have ample reason to feel old. And neither Bowlby nor Buie have listened to the “Cake Eater Anthem,” a viral video from the Game On! Minnesota YouTube channel.

But the locale’s largely agreed-upon choice to reclaim the phrase is as fresh as pumpkin pie every November. The Cake Eater Classic consists of six tournaments for different age groups and skill levels at the three-sheet Braemar Arena. A slot in the showcase is arguably the most coveted of any weekend on the Minnesota girls’ hockey almanac.

The host Edina Hornets jealously guard their nest while their visitors crave a bus ride home with the metallic confection. Attendees can indulge in real cake from Braemar’s concession stand while getting their fill of competitive hockey.

Some locals sport T-shirts bearing the slogan “Cake, the Breakfast of Champions.” Others emulate the Green Bay Packers fan base by substituting dessert-shaped hats for Lambeau Field’s legendary cheese lids.

The town’s youth basketball program has even taken the tournament’s name for its own bonanza.

“There was some controversy over the name,” Waggoner recalls. “Some members in the Edina Hockey Association and in the community did not want to draw what was deemed negative attention to it.

“My belief is that the use of the term in The Mighty Ducks normalized the term. And to most Edinians, it is a term of endearment.”

More importantly, for Buie, Bowlby and future youth players, the Cake Eater Classic has catalyzed the Hornets’ endeavor for equal renown in girls’ and boys’ hockey. Bowlby was born and Buie turned six the year the EHA introduced a formal girls’ program. Buie did not cross over from the boys’ side until age 10.

Today, she noted, “We have the largest girls’ youth ice hockey program in the state, if not the nation.”

The program was rich with incentive based on the town’s blue-blooded history of boys’ hockey. Edina High School won its first boys’ state title in 1969, and has logged 12 banners in total. The late Bill Nyrop was on the 1969 team, then had a 209-game NHL career with Montreal and Minnesota.

Calgary Flames president Brian Burke, New York Islanders forward Anders Lee and Islanders prospect Kieffer Bellows highlight other Edina alums. Bellows’ attendance is a result of his father, ex-North Star Brian Bellows, settling into town for his post-playing career. Lou Nanne and Doug Risebrough have done the same, as have many other key North Stars and Wild figures.

But if there was any inequality of concern in Edina hockey, it was in the gender gap. Buie’s bloodline was instrumental in rectifying that. It began with two of her aunts playing in a house league cofounded by her grandparents in the mid-’70s.

“It started because my grandmother, Joann Buie, went to the Edina City Hall to request the program,” she noted. “She also did work on behalf of the Minnesota League of Women Voters to help ensure that Edina High School adhered to Title IX legislation.”

When that progress was still blooming, a prodigy named Jenny Potter played interscholastic hockey for the Hornets’ boys’ JV team. One year after graduating, she helped Team USA to the first women’s Olympic gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Games.

But in Potter’s time, there were still no paid professional leagues for women. In her former town, it took almost another decade for the girls’ game to freeze its own foundation. With that said, the impact was instantaneous when it did.

“It was fun to have our own tournament,” said Buie, who was in the eldest division at the event’s inception. “And I think we probably thought it was kind of funny to be called the Cake Eater Classic.”

Funny name, sweet-tasting sideshow outside the dashers, serious interest between the boards. Nearly four months before the 2017 Cake Eater Classic, the EHA tweeted that registration for the event was “nearly full.” The six levels combined for three remaining openings at the time of the July 31 warning.

In the scholastic ranks, visiting parties are bound to covet bragging rights more than before. Before she left this year, Bowlby — who in 2013 helped the Hornets to their first Cake Eater crown at her level — captained Edina’s first Minnesota girls’ state championship.

“There had never been an Edina team to actually win the Cake Eater tournament,” she said. “And it’s one of the better tournaments that we played in all year.”

Now Bowlby’s former mates will wear a target not unlike the Hawks. Or perhaps they are best described as one of the new favorites, much like Banks’ team in the sequels.

Whether they appreciate the references or not, chances are, like Banks, they just want to play hockey. And for her part, to answer Jesse’s admonishment to Banks, Buie will not forget which side she is on.

“Although the movie was inaccurate about a lot of things,” she said, “it was so cool to have such a classic hockey movie based off my hometown. I always rooted for the Ducks!”

Miracle’s Nathan West: ‘It all started with Mighty Ducks 2’

Long before he played through a bruise on the leg as Rob McClanahan, goaltending prodigy Nathan West launched his acting endeavors by taking a bruise on the palm. Before he fought a rival-turned-teammate in character as McClanahan, he briefly brawled with Ken Wu. And before he reenacted an historic Olympic gold-medal clincher, he surrendered a scripted Goodwill Games shootout decider.

Nathan West entered the pristine, palm tree-flanked mansion, and felt right at home.

The aroma of Anaheim Arena’s untouched ice resembled that of his home rink in Alaska. The unseen machinery sustaining the surface made for a comfortable cold snap. The state-of-the-art (by 1993 standards) scoreboard hovered with an infectious aura of professionalism.

And the open space and free time left limitless roaming and running possibilities until it was time to get the work. The eventual influx of seat holders signaled that time. The time for the cast of D2: The Mighty Ducks to christen the rink of the soon-to-be-renamed Arrowhead Pond.

“It was crazy to see people walking in that building, and we had been all over,” West recalled to Pucks and Recreation. “It was our playground.”

At age 14, going on 15 by that summer’s end, West and his castmates were about to feel a fever of fun spread to the ceiling. Audiences reportedly exceeding 12,000 flocked with free admission to the July and August shooting sessions of D2’s gold-medal game scenes.

For West, it did not matter a single ice chip that he was playing an anonymous foil. He had an uncredited part as the goaltender for the villainous Iceland squad.

Anyone remotely fascinated with hockey goalies is bound to learn the late Hall of Famer Jacques Plante’s old saying. “How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?”

Being a movie, D2 was a somewhat different dynamic. Its championship segment packed the majority of the Mighty Ducks trilogy’s Harlem Globetrotter-type antics. Yet it was faithful to the sport with repeat jokes at the expense of the netminder for its Washington Generals. (Or should we say Reykjavik Hershöfðingjar?)

As part of his job, West has his character’s shutout spoiled by a pint-sized converted figure skater late in the second period. He then confronts the scorer after being taunted, only to lose the fast fight upon getting the stick-gloves-shirt treatment.

Iceland proceeds to blow a 4-1 lead in the third period en route to a 5-5 regulation tie and eventual shootout loss. Along the way, West is snowed by USA Ducks speedster Luis Mendoza. He is mentally handcuffed by Russ Tyler’s equalizer on a preposterous “knucklepuck” shot from the other attacking zone. In the ensuing shootout, he is struck by Fulton’s famous slap shot with such force, he falls flat on his back with his head across the line and the puck trickling in after it.

By his own account, the audience ate it all up.

“Everyone was abuzz in that building,” West recalled. And he could not have relished the energy more.

The mixture of athletes, actors and observers were crossing into various forms of virgin territory. For the spectators, this was a free tune-up for when world-class professionals stepped onto the Pond’s ice in the same uniforms as the film stars. For the actors, this was a riveting replica of an athlete’s big-game experience.

And for the athletes, West included, this was an opportunity that never promises to duplicate itself. Here he was, a high-school hockey player with big-league dreams, taking time 2,400 miles away from home to inaugurate what many would come to liken to a Taj Mahal of sports facilities. One of those writers, Orange Coast Magazine’s Tom Singer, added that “Sports open the doors for international prominence.”

“We skated on that ice before the NHL Ducks even did,” he marveled.

“I don’t think you understand how much it means to those young kids to get on that ice between periods at a National Hockey League game,” he continued. “We all find it to be adorable, but for those kids, that is something that is engrained in your mind. It will never leave you, it’s going to be there for the rest of your life.”

Almost a quarter-century later, the afterglow of the opportunity still manifests itself across West’s life. Everything he has done on the ice, in other camera-laden settings, in a recording studio or even at home, he can trace back to D2.

Singularly scouted

The Nathan West of the ’90s was Nathan West, hockey prospect. Goaltending was his natural position, and the first scout with Mighty Ducks ties noticed.

Jack White, a Canadian-born animator by trade, was mixing Hollywood with hockey as early as the mid-’70s. With the help of Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr, just to name two, he started introducing the sport to novice skaters in the Los Angeles area.

His skills clinics grew rapidly in age range, and his roster of clients eventually included movie stars who needed to learn the game for a role. His earliest coaching credits included Michael Keaton’s Touch and Go and Rob Lowe’s Youngblood.

When Disney got in on the game, it lured White out to Minnesota, where he served as the hockey technical advisor for The Mighty Ducks. He also portrayed the referee in several ice scenes.

The icebreaking movie hit theaters on Oct. 2, 1992. Within five months, the company had its own NHL franchise in Anaheim, and the choice of nickname was natural.

To go with that offshoot, a sequel was already in the works, and it would follow White back home. The protagonists of The Mighty Ducks were going global in a fictitious Junior Goodwill Games tournament, shot on location in and around L.A.

Coming down from another direction and another prototypically puck-friendly state, West and his team had a real weekend tournament. By that point, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim merchandise was permeating the pro shops, and a Jr. Mighty Ducks youth hockey program was seeing action.

The local players from that program would make convenient recruits as extras and skating doubles. But White wanted more bodies to fill the rosters of the USA Ducks’ opponents. He found one in a visiting goalie from Alaska who turned in a tournament MVP performance.

West was not even a novice actor at that point. He had never thought about acting. Yet he remembers White pulling him aside after the final game of his visit. “All of a sudden, he’s like, ‘Hey, my name is Jack. Do you want to me in my movie?’” he recalled.

 

 

As it happened, West’s father was living in Southern California at the time. That connection was a pivotal blessing the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal lacked two years prior. (Gyllenhaal, a lifelong L.A. resident, had been cast as Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks. But his parents reportedly withdrew the 11-year-old from consideration, as the role would have entailed spending two months two time zones away.)

And so West spent two-and-a-half more months in the fledgling hockey market, where his assets were maximized, and his weaknesses muffled. Iceland, which supplanted Russia as the villain due to the then-recently ended Cold War going banal, was meant to spook with its superior size and skill.

For that, West had the physical maturity and the positional proficiency White and company needed. That, in turn, earned him the privilege of making his self-proclaimed “playground” out of the Pond.

But all playgrounds are bound to witness the occasional injury and upset. For the Hollywood neophyte, who hardly foresaw his future roles in Miracle and numerous non-hockey projects, the growing pains typified that reality.

Appropriately, West’s only “line” to make the final cut in D2 was a reaction to a relatively mild ailment. During Iceland’s 12-1 romp of Team USA in a round-robin game, Fulton is ordered to unleash his searing slapper in hopes of getting his club on the board and generating momentum.

Instead, West snuffs the shot with a deflating snare. Famed play-by-play announcer Bob Miller conveys the immediate letdown to the U.S. faithful, then speculates that the impact of the grab would leave a mark.

Sure enough, on cue, West doffs his trapper and lets out a pained grunt as he unveils a puck-shaped bruise on his left palm.

The goalie did have more to say, West recalls, but “I think I was so bad they had to just cut it all out.”

With that being said, “that really kicked off my acting career without my even knowing that I wanted to be an actor.”

The following fall, West returned to Anchorage and tended the nets for another three years at Robert Service High School. The Service Cougars hockey program, which later produced Brandon Dubinsky, is a big enough deal to have its own cheerleading squad. And West’s own overall popularity among his peers got him the title of 1996 prom king.

 

 

Afterward, he ventured back to the Lower 48 to pursue major-junior hockey rather than college. Undrafted but undaunted, he landed a roster spot with the OHL’s Detroit Whalers, where Robert Esche was the incumbent starter. Esche entered the 1996-97 campaign as the Phoenix Coyotes’ sixth-round selection, and the difference in the two stoppers’ ceilings translated to the stats.

Esche, who went on to play 11 seasons in the pros, saw action in 58 of Detroit’s 66 regular-season games. West managed 16 credited appearances, posting a 2-3-2 record, .841 save percentage and 5.31 goals-against average.

The 1997 Whalers sank before Sault Ste. Marie in the first round of the OHL playoffs. The Greyhounds, led by soon-to-be No. 1 NHL draft pick Joe Thornton, doubled them up in five games by a cumulative score of 22-11. With the scorchers on Esche, West made one relief appearance, which turned out to be his last formal hockey shift.

But to his pleasant surprise, there were still talent-seekers at his games who wanted to hear from him. Through Whalers bench boss Peter DeBoer, West received a card from a Michigan-based casting agent.

As his melting ice and dripping blue paint grew more readily apparent, he trusted the confidence of the entertainment scouts. Despite some previous frustrations at acting workshops, he decided to dabble in it again. He patiently paddled through the rapids of tough-love coaching and directing, and the dividends surfaced in the form of his first three acting credits in the autumn of 1998.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I look back now and think, ‘Gosh, it’s been an incredible career,’ and it all started with Mighty Ducks 2.

“Here was this Disney move that offered me this opportunity that opened a door to a whole world that I never thought was there.”

Esche, who capped his junior career as an OHL all-star in 1998, made the American League’s all-rookie team in 1998-99. West did not fare too shabbily for himself in the concomitant television season. He made two appearances on The Practice and one on The Adventures of A.R.K. In the subsequent spring, he guest starred on ER and Smart Guy.

His career change would only look smarter after the change in millennium.

Forward thinking

The Nathan West of the ’00s was Nathan West, actor, newlywed and new parent once, twice and thrice over. Of those titles, the latter two were only true because of the first.

“My wife, who I love with all my heart,” he said, “I met her in an audition.”

Chyler Leigh, of Grey’s Anatomy and Supergirl fame, had also been acting since adolescence. Their paths crossed in 1999 on the set of an upstart series, Saving Graces, which never saw action on the screen. But the next fall, they co-starred as guests on 7th Heaven, and they were both cast in 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie.

While filming the movie — Leigh’s first and West’s third after Bring It On — he popped the question in a manner initially disguised as a standard scene shot. The moment lives on as part of the DVD extras.

They were wed in Anchorage in the summer of 2002, a time when another Disney hockey movie was brewing. It would be West’s chance to live a portion of yet another, though distinctly different, stretch of the studio’s sports output.

When he was a teen thinking he would be a one-off actor, Disney lived off kid-oriented comedic fiction for its athletic accounts. D2 came amidst the Mighty Ducks trilogy, plus Angels in the Outfield, The Big Green and two Air Bud projects.

The pattern had changed to living legends by the time West was perpetually pursuing new roles. When movies were his staple, Remember the Titans, The Rookie and Invincible defined Disney’s sports-movie output.

Between the second and third of those, the company conceived a film that would retell the story of the 1980 Olympic team. West was between agents when casting calls went out for it. But Leigh’s agent, whose husband was an avid recreational skater and hockey fan, made sure the word got to him.

Upon obtaining the script from Leigh, he recalls, “I read it, and I was, like, ‘I have to be a part of this.’” He went so far as to tell director Gavin O’Connor, “there’s no way in hell they’re making the film without me.”

 

The basic common threads with his first film a decade prior were not lost on West. In fact, he said, the connections were “100 percent” apparent. While he took nothing for granted, he knew that the prior Disney association, which came about specifically on account of his hockey skills, would be a plus.

But in stark, though ultimately favorable contrast to D2, West was no longer an outnumbered novice actor. O’Connor wanted proficient pucksters for every role, and, with the exception of retired NHL netminder Bill Ranford, no stunt skaters.

“His approach was genius,” West said, “because we’re telling a true story.”

Eddie Cahill, for whom Ranford doubled behind the mask as Jim Craig, and Kenneth Mitchell (Ralph Cox) would be West’s only company of seasoned actors portraying the players. Of the 20 young men who comprised the Olympic team, 10 have logged zero Internet Movie Database credits before and since Miracle.

And only West went in knowing what it was like to be on the ice with cameras and clapboards everywhere.

Nonetheless, he found one more way to stray from his comfort zone. He eschewed his familiar goalie pads and tried out as a skater, landing the part of first-line forward Rob McClanahan.

With McClanahan’s most famous contributions to the 1980 narrative, West was on a smooth path to some intriguing hockey movie motifs. Where the Iceland goalie shakes off the bruise to his palm, McClanahan resolves to “play on one leg!” when the opposite limb brooks a contusion.

“I never really thought about that,” he admitted. “Really interesting.”

But he should know as well as any ex-athlete that those bumps, bruises and scars are the investments for glory. And as an actor portraying an athlete, West scored the privilege of being involved in the last onscreen goal of D2 and Miracle alike.

In the U.S.-Iceland rematch at the Pond, the deciding shootout is deadlocked, 3-3, entering the fifth and final inning. In the top half, Adam Banks — who has his own laundry list of past ailments — looks to give the Ducks the lead. He does so by pinballing a close-range wrister in off the back of West’s right leg. Gunnar Stahl’s subsequent stubbornness to shoot into Julie Gaffney’s glove means Banks’ goal stands as the clincher.

“His approach was genius, because we’re telling a true story.” - Nathan West on Miracle director Gavin O'Connor

In the last game of 1980 Olympics, none other than McClanahan snapped a 2-2 deadlock for Team USA’s first and permanent lead with 13:55 to spare in regulation. The cast’s reenactment of that goal was the only highlight of the Finland game to make the Miracle cut. West can be seen burying the biscuit through the five-hole in slow motion as Kurt Russell, in character as Herb Brooks, narrates.

West is as good as Hollywood hockey’s answer to Edgar Renteria. Just as the Major League shortstop hit a walkoff base hit to clinch the 1997 World Series and grounded into the final out to lose the 2004 title, he got to be on both sides of a gold-medal goal.

When reminded of that distinction, he was practically as speechless as McClanahan would have been in the real moment.

“I guess I feel kind of honored to have been a part of those moments,” he said. “They come at a moment in each of these films that are so pivotal to telling the story. Whether it’s nonfictional or fictional, it doesn’t matter.”

West also has the honor of being doubly featured in fan-fiction crossovers. On Jan. 11, 2009, a clever YouTube user by the pseudonym “mmattuc” uploaded a “preview” for D2: The Minnesota Miracle. The mashup takes the audio from Miracle’s trailer and replaces the accompanying footage with clips from D2.

“I did not see that,” West admitted, sounding intrigued. “I should probably check it out.”

To instill interest among the indifferent-to-hockey majority of the American populace, Disney unquestionably needed a flare of compelling intensity in its Miracle trailer. The film’s reenactment of Brooks’ confrontation with the injured McClanahan was a natural fit.

For the Duck-oriented rendering, mmattuc interspersed clips of Gordon Bombay protesting Dean Portman’s abrupt ejection from the first Iceland game and Portman’s ensuing locker-room tantrum. But naturally, viewers only hear Russell and West dubbed over.

Other highlights in the creation include three of the USA Ducks’ shootout goals against Iceland. This means West and only West has both his voice and likeness (albeit masked) in the teaser. Because West and only West had the pleasure of performing in both of Disney’s full-length films about international hockey.

That also makes him an authority for establishing the comparisons and contrasts between each project. Both, he says, are important to keep in mind, especially when it comes to comparing the experience of making each.

 

“(It would be) interesting to somehow bring those two films together, maybe not,” he said. “They’re both hockey films, they’re both very special. But the stories are so different, they each kind of stand on their own.”

“There’s no way to compare those two experiences,” he added. “They’re very special experiences in their own way.”

A decade after the Pond, a smaller arena in Vancouver posed as the Lake Placid rink and served as a whole new playground for the twentysomething West and company. For the U.S.-Russia game that spawned the movie’s title, the Canadian crowd was more out of its element than anyone.

Of the big D2 shoot in 1993, Len Hall reported in the Los Angeles Times, “The crowd, many of whom had seen the first movie, needed little prompting to start the "U.S.A., U.S.A." chant.” (This is to say nothing of the more audible “We Will Quack You!” segment.)

Getting the audience in British Columbia to do the same was a more important prerequisite for Miracle. But as West remembers it, the crew had to yank the bystanders’ nationalistic fangs.

This was a place where the presence of a red maple leaf more than matched that of the Mighty Ducks’ crest around Anaheim. Even pretending to root for the rival to the south was an apparent affront.

“Imagine,” West said, “putting them in this arena and then telling them to chant ‘U-S-A.’ That combination was unreal, because they wouldn’t do it.”

At first, O’Connor openly pleaded through a megaphone to no avail. But two bystanders had the cure. They unfurled a strikingly large Canadian flag and draped it from the upper seating bowl.

That elicited the thundering din the filmmakers needed. And the locals eventually started to play along and act like they bled blue in addition to their natural red and white. The chant came late, but better late than never.

“(Both) unique moments in time for me,” West said, “and things I have great stories from.”

Loving life with Leigh

The Nathan West of the ’10s is East of Eli, singer and guitarist, at least professionally. Personally, he is Nathan West, devoted husband and doting father. His son, Noah, was on the way when Miracle was in the works. Now Noah is almost as old as Nathan was at the tournament that led him to D2.

Meanwhile, West’s youngest daughter, eight-year-old Anniston Kae, is taking up hockey this season. “So it’s still a huge part of my life,” he says.

Family business is somewhat bigger, though. With East of Eli, West and Leigh have more control over their opportunities to creatively collaborate. Sometimes known as WestLeigh, they have warmed North American and European audiences through 2015’s “Love Lit The Sky” and 2017’s “Nowhere.” Their duets, and East of Eli’s recent work in general, are expressly about appreciating one another and the family they have formed.

At times, when performing, West’s facial hair, shirt and hat make him look like an American Aldous Snow impersonator. He is anything but that, and WestLeigh is anything but the building-up-letting-down power couples people are accustomed to following. They stay out of the tabloids the same way start-to-finish smooth flights stay off the national news.

Of the concept of “Nowhere,” West told People magazine, “There’s a lot of times right now with our careers where there’s a lot missed opportunities to be together…that’s what I was thinking about. While I was thinking of her she was thinking of me. It’s special because love knows no boundaries.”

In the same People interview, Leigh offered, “We thought this would be a great opportunity for us to not be working together playing somebody else, but working together being ourselves.”

The only ponds the resultant straight-from-the-heart melody evokes are the kinds that uneventfully ripple before an impeccable sun-and-shade ratio. But West remains unequivocally grateful for his shift on the artist formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond.

After all, it did, in effect, lead him to Leigh. And he can claim membership on one of the same all-time rosters as Ranford and Ken Dryden (both of Miracle). Ditto Chris Chelios, Cam Neely, Luc Robitaille and Wayne Gretzky, who all appeared in D2.

“This whole door opened kind of by accident, but man, Jack White had started it. Without that, I don’t know that I would have my three kids. Kind of funny to look at it from that perspective.” - Nathan West

“I’ve had a very unique hockey career,” West told Pucks and Rec. “I did get to be a pro hockey player…not as a professional athlete, but as an actor.”

Per his IMDB page, West has not logged an acting credit since 2010’s Alleged. But one year before that, he elicited his hockey background once more to land a guest spot on the puck-themed episode of Bones, “Fire in the Ice.” As it happened, Robitaille also cameoed in that episode as himself, just as he had done in D2.

Robitaille has appeared in two movies and on seven scripted TV shows, be they dramas, primetime sitcoms or even cartoons. The current president of the L.A. Kings typically goes no more than four years between entertainment spots.

In a way, that pattern could extend Robitaille’s status as “someone I always looked up to” in West’s playing days. As West was wrapping up his chat with Pucks and Rec, he supposed that another as-yet-unforeseen, but ultimately enticing hockey/acting project could always emerge.

He has a point. The speculation may never stop as to a potential D4 film. That is unless it actually happens, in which case it could pursue a two-time Disney veteran with ample rink knowledge.

Or perhaps in another couple of decades, the 1998 gold-medalist U.S. women’s Olympic team will be made into movie material. Or maybe the to-be-determined fate of the 2017-18 women’s national team will become film fodder. And maybe by then, the likes of Anniston Kae West will be in a prime position to portray a player.

Or maybe she will just have a fun, innocent youth playing career while Dad kicks back as a spectator. Even that could come with an intermission twirl at L.A.’s Staples Center or Anaheim’s Honda Center. At least in that scenario, Anniston’s father would handle her moment in the sun with an informed perspective.

Either way, it would be sound symmetry for Nathan West, who is where he is and has what he has because he manned the crease so deftly in the winter of 1993.

“This whole door opened kind of by accident, but man, Jack White had started it,” he said. “Without that, I don’t know that I would have my three kids. Kind of funny to look at it from that perspective.”

Mighty Ducks movie viewership: The rookie and the re-visitor

The first Mighty Ducks movie, if not the whole trilogy it begat, can pass as a Slap Shot for kids.

It takes a protagonist team of athletes of roughly the same age as the intended audience on an age-old Cinderella path. Along that road, it spawns a slew of you cannot get out of your head, but can certainly spread to your peers’ brain books.

But with the film’s silver anniversary comes a more visible reality that, for the youngest age groups, viewership is not necessarily automatic, even for budding hockey enthusiasts. Unlike Slap Shot, where a first-time screening can be like a curious youngster’s first beer, the 1992 Disney film may not be passed down as easily.

Case in point: Pucks and Recreation boasts one correspondent who admitted to never having seen the movie. To rectify that in a fun, productive way, he belatedly broke that ice while a colleague who grew up on the film rewatched it after a protracted hiatus.

Both viewers’ assessments yielded ample encouragement for Ducks devotees who hope their childhood staple cements its place in the collective peewee pucksters’ entertainment library.

Ceremonial faceoff: Enlightening exposure

Eugene Helfrick: Growing up in Florida means a sport like hockey was never on the radar as a kid. Sure, you knew about the sport and would watch it on occasion. But in general, hockey was that “other” sport that existed on that magical surface known as ice that you only saw in cubed form.

Due to this lack of knowledge of the sport, I never saw The Mighty Ducks in theaters or on VHS. Somehow, well into adulthood and hockey fandom, I still never saw the movie that popularized so many tropes about the sport.

My question going in: Does the film hold up after 25 years, or is nostalgia its only hope for long-term appeal?

Zach Green: Conversely, I grew up outside of Philadelphia, one of the most hockey-crazed cities in the world. I am a little too young to have been able to see any of the Mighty Ducks movies in theaters, but was just the right age to watch them whenever they were on TV.

When my friends and I would play street hockey, oftentimes, one team would be the Flyers and the other would be the Ducks. It went so far that one of my friends had a Mighty Ducks mask that whoever was playing goalie would wear. 

With Eugene seeing The Mighty Ducks for the first time, this was the perfect opportunity for me to watch it again as someone who views it with nostalgia, and to get my feelings as to how the movie has held up.

First period: How the film holds up with millennials this day and age

Eugene: To start off, the film is very watchable. This may sound like weird praise, but there are many sports movies released in the ’90s (especially ones made by Disney) that are simply unwatchable today.

Obviously this is a film made for children and young adults, so much of the humor falls on deaf ears. And sure, the plot is one giant cliché, but it works. It helps that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, with everyone on board with the fact that they are in a Disney sports movie.

In fact, The Mighty Ducks doesn’t feel like a Disney film, which also helps its appeal. It is firmly entrenched in the ’90s, allowing for scenes that would never happen in a Disney film today. Just look at how, within the first 10 minutes, the lead character is shown drinking and driving, smart-mouthing a cop and swearing.

Even the kids get on with this theme, openly swearing and making mildly racist remarks in a Disney film. While it does fit with the era, it also comes off as very forced at times when you can tell that the kids are supposed to be nothing more than attitude.

Zach: I completely agree about how watchable it is. Children’s movies in general get tougher to watch as you get older, but not The Mighty Ducks. It stands the test of time, which is something that very few movies do, and is a film that I will be showing my future children. It was super-entertaining to me as a kid, and still is today.

While yes, this is a kids’ movie that does toe the line on appropriateness, it isn’t unheard of from Disney. I agree that some scenes wouldn’t fly today, but Disney has more recently made some PG-13 movies like that aren’t in the studio’s classic mold. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise comes to mind.

This is where I feel The Mighty Ducks fits in. I agree with Eugene as well when he says that it is helped by the fact that it doesn’t feel like a normal Disney movie. Otherwise, I might not be able to enjoy it as much as I still do.

Second period: The quality of the hockey scenes

Eugene: I did appreciate how authentic the actual hockey looked onscreen. This was supposed to be a peewee league, and it actually looked like a bunch of unstable kids on the ice. Players were constantly falling and skating slowly, which gave the film a little more realism in the one area where realism matters.

Zach: This was such a crucial detail that Disney got just right. They could have cast some elite hockey players for the roles, but didn’t.

Another observation I made was that the ice they played on wasn’t perfect either. Had it looked like they brought out the Zamboni before every shot, it may have been noticeable and brought me back to a reality that wasn’t real.

Third period: The quality of the humor

Eugene: The few moments that made me laugh out loud weren’t related to the film at all, just some retrospective thoughts.

Chief among them, the two NHL teams that were briefly shown in the film — the Minnesota North Stars and the Hartford Whalers — don’t exist anymore. Yet the franchise spawned by the film will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next year. Times change fast when it comes to sports franchises.

Zach: I still love the jokes in the movie. “Cake eater” is my favorite hockey insult ever, and absolves this movie of all poor attempts at humor.

In addition, I am a sucker for cheesy jokes, of which there are plenty. I now see the comedic irony of the teams featured, but didn’t ever think of that as a kid. 

Overtime: Conclusion

Eugene: In all, The Mighty Ducks is worth watching, if for no other reason than to understand some of the quotes the movie spawned. Everyone knows the Flying V and the “Quack” chant, so having the context to those jokes is nice after so many years.

The movie itself holds up well, and is fun enough to keep it as one of those classics that stay around for another 25 years.

Zach: I still love this movie, and now am going to go watch the other two. Surprising as it may be, some things never change, as evidenced by how similar our observations are on this movie.

It is a must watch for any hockey fan, regardless of age, if only to learn the jokes from the movie that have become commonplace in hockey-related conversations.

AHL Mighty Ducks were pro hockey’s last Cincinnati Gardens party

Eggplant — the purple produce and the color alike — can elicit disgusted interjections through mere mention.

But just as every dog has its day, the much-maligned hue had its heyday in the ’90s. The Cincinnati Gardens grabbed that glamour while it was hot, and while taking on what would be its last professional hockey tenant.

After 68 years, the historic Gardens is officially condemned for demolition by the end of this calendar year. When the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks arrived in 1997, it was already apparent that more time sat behind than ahead.

But the antique arena would not resist a redress while it was still functional. When Anaheim’s NHL franchise, whose team and building were both born in 1993, selected Cincinnati as its new AHL satellite, the dependent went all out.

The Cincinnati Gardens seating bowl took on a new eggplant-and-jade pattern, “which certainly weren’t two colors ever seen previously in the building,” former team broadcaster John Walton told Pucks and Recreation.

And at center ice, the instantly iconic duck-shaped goalie mask and cross-sticks occupied one half of the faceoff circle. The other half was filled by Cincinnati’s own Duck emblem, a helmet-and-visor-clad bird sneering before two interlocking twigs.

This was in the radiating afterglow of the Mighty Ducks’ marketing peak. One season earlier, the namesake live-action film trilogy had released it final installment, while ABC ran a single-season animated series. The actual Anaheim team was coming off its first Stanley Cup playoff, which lasted two rounds and likely helped to sustain young bandwaggoners from afar.

Up to that point, that bandwagon did not have much steam in the minors. After starting in its natural region with the IHL’s San Diego Gulls, Anaheim turned to the AHL with the expansion Baltimore Bandits. But the Bandits lasted a mere two seasons before seeking relocation.

With Cincinnati, the Mighty Ducks would get their first child club to take the parent’s name. While there were other variables in play, the Cincinnati Gardens would have Anaheim’s AHL team for eight seasons, quadruple the run of the team’s two prior incarnations.

“I know it was important to local ownership in Cincinnati to have a Disney-branded marketing angle,” said Walton. “And obviously Anaheim and Disney were okay with the terms of the agreement.”

The cultural commodity was a refreshingly effective asset for steadfast Gardens loyalists. By fostering the Ducks and their unconventional colors, the building witnessed a swift succession after the tempestuous exit of the IHL’s Cyclones.

The Cyclones had arrived as a Double-A ECHL franchise in 1990, ending the facility’s 16-year hockey drought. The place had a dense and integral hockey history, beginning with its inaugural event, a neutral-site clash between the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Texans in 1949.

But after the AHL/IHL Mohawks (1949-58) and AHL Swords (1971-74), it appeared the newer and larger Riverfront Coliseum was Cincinnati’s go-to puck abode. It hosted the WHA’s Stingers in the latter half of the ’70s and a short-lived Triple-A Central League team in the ’80s.

With the Cyclones, it looked like the Gardens and Cincinnati hockey in general had gone back to the future. That was until the brand was elevated to the IHL in 1992, then moved to the Coliseum (by then renamed The Crown) five years later.

“Since 1990, the Gardens had served as the team’s home, and the crowds were terrific,” said Walton, who started working in professional sports as a public-address announcer for Reds baseball at Riverfront Stadium, next door to the Coliseum.

“Sellouts all the time, Jerry Springer, Reds players among their season-ticket holders. It really was remarkable how a low-level minor-league team had captured a city that had been without a pro team for the better part of a decade.”

But then, he continued, “The lure of a bigger downtown arena was too much for the Cyclones to say no to.”

The move to a building almost 25 years younger and more than 4,000 seats larger was a sign of the times for the IHL. Besides Cincinnati, the league added a rash of teams in NHL-size cities between 1992 and 1996.

The Cyclones variously opposed Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Orlando, San Antonio, San Francisco and Utah. A few teams left, but most stuck, giving a league full of unaffiliated franchises the look of a big-league box with bush-league contents.

When the AHL filled the Cyclones void in 1997, it gave Walton his first pro hockey play-by-play gig after two seasons at Miami University. His take on the civic divide: “In theory, both the caliber of play in the AHL and the name and theme gave the Ducks an edge over the IHL Cyclones.”

The two Triple-A leagues would coexist in the Queen City for four seasons, and it was nothing short of a divisive dynamic. The literally once-in-a-lifetime AHL-IHL overlap would not inspire interleague friendlies like the then-novel Mets-Yankees regular-season baseball sets in New York or Cubs-White Sox cards in Chicago. No one was sporting mixed-logo apparel to show support for both teams.

“There was a lot of resentment on both sides to two teams being in town,” Walton said. “Fans of the Ducks were generally angry that the Cyclones abandoned the Gardens, a building they loved. Cyclones fans disliked the presence of the Ducks, too, as some saw the Ducks trying to steal their fans.

“There just weren’t enough hockey fans to go around in a city the size of Cincinnati. There was a bit of poisoning the well on both sides, although personally the situation gave me my first pro job, so I’m a little biased about the situation.”

If there was ever a story where professional Mighty Ducks successfully emulated their Hollywood namesakes, Cincinnati’s saga was it. At first, the AHL Ducks were the new brand on the old block, an ostensibly disadvantageous double whammy.

Indeed, for each of their first three years of coexistence, the incumbent Cyclones drew better attendance figures. But that changed after the IHL crashed from its sugar rush, as the Ducks averaged 5,001 nightly fans in 2000-01.

The Cyclones, who had consistently been in the 6,000 or 7,000 range their first eight Triple-A seasons, dipped to 4,636. They were one of five franchises to fold along with the IHL that summer, though the ECHL picked up the brand.

Walton’s assessment of the struggle’s outcome evokes a familiar theory. On the eve of the IHL’s folding, Andrew Bourgeois of Hockey’s Future noted that the Cyclones’ circuit had developed “major-league travel budgets and salaries, and a major-league attitude that didn’t sit well with the NHL.”

Based on that, it is no surprise the Cyclones were the first to blink in their staring contest with the Mighty Ducks. Based on Walton’s informed take on the locale, it is only surprising the struggle persisted for four seasons.

“I still have family (in Cincinnati),” said the current voice of the Washington Capitals, “and while it’s easier than it used to be to find a hockey game on at a restaurant or bar, truth is most times I’ve had to ask for it to be put on, even in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“I think the Cyclones misread the market back in the ’90s, and thought they were bigger than they really were.”

Conversely, the Baby Ducks continued to cooperatively uphold their half of the cross-country shuttle with Anaheim. By 2001, their reward would come in the form of more hand-me-downs than just the Gardens.

With the merger, Cyclones fans who missed the matchups with Cleveland, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Houston, Manitoba, Milwaukee and Utah could go back to the Gardens and see the Ducks complement those rivalries. With that elixir of entities, a host of old and new blended as the next millennium began in earnest.

“The Gardens was never a building with anything close to modern amenities like you’d see in big buildings today,” said Walton. “But the views were good, the tickets and concessions were family friendly, and a lot of future NHL stars came through the building during that time.”

To that point, the 2001-02 season also saw Cincinnati yield a few Stanley Cup champions. In their third and final year as a shared Anaheim-Detroit affiliate, center Jason Williams topped their goal chart with 23. Williams, along with fellow Cincinnati product Jiri Fischer, got his name on the Cup with the 2002 Red Wings.

The next season, with Anaheim’s full custody of the Baby Ducks restored, a team rifer with Cincinnati alumni, including newly promoted coach Mike Babcock, began its unlikely Cup final run by sweeping the reigning champions in the first round. Though that run ended in defeat against New Jersey, former Cincinnati stopper Jean-Sebastien Giguere corralled the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The occasional opportunity to see established Mighty Ducks stars also made the Gardens a go-to venue. Walton, who left late in the 1999-00 season, remembers Teemu Selanne dressing for a preseason Anaheim-Nashville game.

As the NHL’s top goal-getter at the time, Selanne won the 1999 Rocket Richard Trophy. The trophy is named for the legendary Canadien whose team graced the Gardens for its first event 50 years prior.

Nightly attendance in Walton’s final year hit 5,386 fans, which would be the second-best in the team’s run. The 2001-02 campaign, the first one featuring all of the IHL refugees, would be No. 1 with 5,459.

As the Mighty Ducks generation got older, along with the Gardens, the eggplant-and-jade luster faded in the Fountain City. After the 2004-05 NHL lockout year, which saw Ryan Getzlaf come to Cincinnati for a two-round Calder Cup playoff run, Anaheim transplanted its prospects to Portland, Maine.

The forlorn facility initially looked primed to restore the AHL with the RailRiders circa 2006. But that franchise never saw action, and was sold to a group in Windsor, Ont., then to Rockford, Ill., where it lives on as the IceHogs.

Meanwhile, in its dusking years, the Gardens had a low-level junior team for one season. Otherwise, the Mighty Ducks account for its freshest hockey legacy, one that posthumously produced 10 of Anaheim’s 2007 Cup-winning players.

At U.S. Bank Arena (nee The Crown, nee Riverfront Coliseum), the Cyclones live on in the ECHL. There is no sign of the brand getting up for another promotion like it did in 1992. This means the Mighty Ducks remain Cincinnati’s last Triple-A hockey franchise.

In addition, the Baby Ducks’ eight-year stay at the Gardens will forever be the arena’s second-longest run by any hockey tenant. The record belongs to the Mohawks, who were there for its first nine years of existence.

The Cyclones could have had that record if they wanted it, but they didn’t. As a result, local fans got their chance to experience the sport’s Disney dazzle. And the likes of Walton got a career launching pad that ultimately brought him to The Show.

“I thought our staff did a fantastic job to generate interest and get people to come out and see our games,” Walton said. “Marketing was great, financial support for ad buys was always there, but southwest Ohio’s saturation for hockey interest just wasn’t as high as it is in other places.”

He concluded, “The Ducks gave it a good run, but it was always going to be an uphill battle. But I was proud to serve alongside some good people there, who believed in the product we had and wanted to make it work.”

How D4: The Mighty Ducks should unfold, if it ever happens

Those who were born the year the Eden Hall Warriors gave way to a Mighty Ducks mascot have reached or are on the cusp of legal drinking age.

Is that enough time for the opening and closing slow-motion flashbacks from D3 to lose their authority? Can the vault reopen for a long-rumored/proposed D4 late in this decade or early in the next?

In the quest for an answer, the most encouraging aspect is the widespread approval of the trilogy’s veterans. In a 2014 Time Magazine piece, Matt Doherty (Averman), Elden Henson (Fulton) and Marguerite Moreau (Connie) all indicated they would want in. Joshua Jackson (Charlie) has repeatedly expressed comparable sentiments.

Technically, “when” still has yet to upend “if” on this matter. Regardless of that status, the question of “how” has more open ice to work with.

To drop the puck on Pucks and Recreation’s 25-day look back on The Mighty Ducks and all of its offshoots, a quartet of staff writers offer their ideal plotlines for a hypothetical D4.

Eden Hall ensemble

Two years ago, Jurassic World gave us one sound example of how to pick up on a ’90s film series two-plus decades later. That is, it rehashed a familiar storyline and brought back a few familiar faces, but let new blood take to the forefront. And that would be the way to go for a belated D4.

With several of the Mighty Ducks actors now focusing on other careers, there is no sense in reassembling the old flock. With that said, there is no reason to shut out the characters whose performers are still in the business. There should be enough to create a story-hopping screenplay that catches up with a handful of former Ducks in their adult, post-playing lives.

Charlie is an obvious must-have, and maybe by now he could be coaching Gordon’s teenaged son at Eden Hall. Meanwhile, to reflect the progress the women’s game has made, the school should field a girls’ team co-coached by Connie and Guy, a la Shannon and Matt Desrosiers.

Like their coaches before them, the new players carrying the Ducks torch will take everything that comes with it, including off-ice hijinks and run-ins with rival teams. A bonus narrative could revolve around the injury-prone Adam Banks trying to end his professional playing career with dignity. – Al Daniel

Like Gordon, like Charlie

The logical choice for D4 would be to bring back many of the central characters, but keep the focus on Charlie. In the same way Gordon grew distant from hockey in the events leading up to the first film, a possible plot in D4 could involve Charlie returning from his own hockey hiatus, this time as a coach of his son’s team.

Throughout the movie, the cast of the original trilogy could make cameos, with Bombay assuming a similar role as Joss Ackland’s late Hans character. Gordon could supply the hockey wisdom Conway needs in his first attempt at coaching.

By the end of the movie, returnees such as Fulton, Banks and Julie Gaffney could all make an appearance to cheer on Charlie and his son’s team as they face their main rival.

Who would be that rival? If the primary antagonist is a player from a previous Ducks movie, be it an ex-teammate of Charlie’s or a former opponent, conflicting loyalties could make for an interesting D4 plot twist. – John Morton

Aging with grace

The Mighty Ducks trilogy’s original fan base has grown over its quarter-century of existence. It would therefore make sense if the movie universe had moved on in time as well. So, if D4 is made, it should be set in the present day with a recently retired Charlie Conway.

Conway went on to have a long, successful career in the NHL, and is now coaching his son’s team. He is struggling in that role because he is overbearing on his kids, and must realize that he is becoming like Coach Reilly from the first movie. He must learn the balance of getting his players to win, but keeping it fun for them in the process.

Conway’s relationship with his son would be a major storyline in the movie. Due to his time away from the family in the NHL, he doesn’t have a great relationship with his son. Having missed many special events, he decides to coach his son’s team to rebuild their relationship. But with his intensity, their already shaky relationship becomes even rougher.

Eventually they get it together and face off against a rival team with Conway’s son winning on a breakaway with a quadruple deke because the goalie only expects the triple deke. Charlie Conway had made the triple-deke famous in the NHL, therefore the move has become commonplace. – Zach Green

The more things change…

If D4 ever happens, the time that has passed since the original three came out offers a great chance to go full circle. The kids from the original film would likely be in their 30s by now, perhaps with kids of their own playing youth hockey

D4 should focusing on two teams, one for each generation. One would be the traditional Mighty Ducks, made up of a few children of some of the original team, and perhaps a few other players. It would be most fitting for Charlie to coach the team. As Bombay’s protege, it is only fitting that he would go on to fill his shoes someday.

The tactics and style of play would now be engrained into Mighty Ducks hockey, and the team would truly be a force to be reckoned with. They are no longer underdogs, but the dominant team in the area, much like the Hawks once were.

The other side of the film would focus on the original crew, now playing on an adult-league team coached by Bombay. The guys would have grown up to be successful in their adult lives, thanks to the shift in focus from winning to teamwork fun as the original films progressed.

Along with the success in their day-to-day lives, the hobbies of the original crew would be shown. Among these would be reflecting on their “glory days” of hockey, watching their children play for their former team and playing their own games. – Andrew Wisneski