Ranking the 10 best Mighty Ducks movie quotes

The official silver anniversary of The Mighty Ducks is finally here.

The NHL Network will shrewdly honor the occasion by screening the film Monday evening. Meanwhile, this site has gone on a, shall we say, Flying XXV for the last 25 days, touching on a comprehensive array of Duck-related topics.

Today’s finale of the 25 Duck Days series comes back to the cultural phenomenon’s point of origin. As collaboratively selected by the Pucks and Recreation writing team, here are the best of the original Mighty Ducks movie quotes.

10. “A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn.”

Evoking the words of his late father, Gordon Bombay directs this statement to his boss, Gerald Ducksworth. Tellingly, he is also in earshot of his former coach, Jack Reilly when he asserts, “A team isn’t a bunch of kids out to win.”

You have to think he is asking for a couple of sour glares in that context. Predictably, he gets just that from Ducksworth and Reilly alike. As such, the added underlines to each man’s antagonistic status lend an appropriate touch of humor to the homily.

9. “Does that sound stupid to anyone else?”

This is how Greg Goldberg closes his first set of dialogue with Charlie Conway and Terry Hall. Charlie has just reminded him that his goaltending position means the puck is “supposed to hit you.”

Whether it’s courage, a basic grasp on the game or both, Goldberg is lacking in this early stage. Besides the amusing ignorance it conveys, this line illustrates how much he and the team have to learn. In that vein, it sets the core target audience up for a bolder flavor of fulfillment later on.

8. “To think I wasted all those years, worrying about what you thought.”

The big bad side of Reilly has persistently haunted Gordon, as three of the film’s four flashbacks affirm. In the latter-day championship, the worst of Reilly surfaces when a current player intentionally injures Gordon’s pupil.

At that point, Gordon flatly confronts Reilly with this statement. And maybe by standing up to him before the current Hawks, he will spare the next generation similar torment.

But for the moment and the kid-movie obligations, Gordon’s handling of the cheap shot is the game’s clear turning point. He sets up his empathetic audience for the sweetest sip of redemption possible.

 

7. “They know that if they mess with one duck, they gotta deal with the whole flock.”

Bombay prepares to put his respectability on the line when he says this. He can confidently doff his coat to display the jersey because he has made his point about the strength of a sum.

This lesson briefly backfires when the bulk of the team strikes upon misconstruing Bombay’s response to Reilly’s disrespect. But the entire squad uses it again in school, precipitating the point of reconciliation with their coach. And of course, they elicit it again when the Hawks mess with a Hawk-turned-Duck in the playoffs.

6. “Teach them to fly.”

The title team name is still not a concept when Gordon visits Hans for the first time in adulthood. But as if the eventual sponsor is not enough, Hans’ words of advice must have held partial sway.

As the movie and the series alike progress, Hans’ stress on this sentence keeps resonating. In the original, Gordon uses the metaphor upon unveiling the uniforms, and later when calling for the “Flying V” play. The team punctuates the championship turning point in D2 with a “Ducks fly together” rallying cry.

And poignantly, at Hans’ funeral in D3, Bombay entreats everyone to “Remember it was Hans who taught us to fly.”

5. “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth!”

Before taking his own long-time-coming verbal punch, Reilly watches Bombay dish out a more humorous helping to Ducksworth.

Earlier in the film, the habitually brash Bombay pokes fun at Ducksworth’s surname the same way. The key difference this time is that he does so to his face rather than his subordinates.

And why not? He is freshly fired at that point, so what does he have to lose?

 

4. “Losing fair is still losing.”

After Gordon’s gamesmanship improves him to a self-proclaimed 30-0 in the courtroom, he takes the proverbial Icarus flight. His taunting of rival lawyer Frank Huddy ignites Huddy’s killer instinct for three subsequent driving-related charges.

But in between, Bombay’s counterpoint to Huddy’s “I’d just like to lose fair” establishes his lofty learning curve. Add the fact that this is only two scenes removed from the first flashback in the opening credits. Reilly’s lasting damage to his demeanor has as much room for improvement as Goldberg’s fear of the puck.

3. “You really quacked at the principal? Are we Ducks or what?”

Gordon and the audience know something the kids do not when he marvels at how his whole team incurred a detention. He comes to their school within moments of quacking at his own detested authority figure.

If not for those concomitant displays of like-mindedness, all hope might have been lost. But the stars have aligned, and it’s smooth sailing toward Gordon’s prophecy of a playoff date with the Hawks.

The scene even offers a subtle callback, be it intentional or unintentional, to another Emilio Estevez classic. Fans of The Breakfast Club can doubly appreciate Gordon wearing his Ducks varsity jacket to a detention classroom.

2. “I believe in you, Charlie. Win or lose.”

Standing up to Ducksworth within Reilly’s earshot is Bombay’s first step toward self-exorcism. Confronting Reilly after a Hawk maliciously sends a Duck to the hospital for cheap scoreboard gains is the second.

The final step is sending Charlie off on his penalty shot with a pep talk 180 degrees removed from Reilly’s. After three rancid reflections on that scarring episode, he takes his third stride toward redress with substantive strategy advice on a move involving three dekes.

Is it a trite and sappy pattern through the adult eye? Yes. But it does what it is supposed to for a narrative of this nature.

1. “I’m proud to be a Duck, and I’d be proud to fly with any one of you.”

The movie paces itself before lending its title relevance, but Bombay’s speech makes the wait worthwhile.

This comes on the other side of Bombay ceremoniously revealing his team jersey after his flock loyalty lecture. It also marks the first of the aforementioned takeoffs on Hans’ advice.

And one could argue that it even gave Disney a boost when it chose to branch out the brand. Despite persistent ridicule, plenty of NHL personnel have been proud to be Ducks over the last quarter-century.