When Game Disappoints, ABC Is Otherwise Engaged

Tears flowed as a Cinderella in a Mighty Duck jersey was fitted with a diamond ring Monday night, except this one was named Christina and she didn’t skate a minute during the Stanley Cup finals.

Unlike the hockey team he supports, Duck fan Steve DeSena knows how to finish, getting down on bended knee to propose to Christina SerVoss on national television, bettering his promise to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring if the Ducks won the championship.

ABC knows how to finish too, milking this melodramatic story line, through seven grueling games and a couple of overtimes, until the bittersweet end. By the time it was over, Christina had her ring, just like Martin Brodeur, and broke down in tears, just like Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

If ABC’s really lucky, maybe somebody in San Antonio will announce he’s divorcing his wife if the Spurs don’t win the NBA title. Anything to pump up those sorry ratings.

ABC didn’t get the Game 7 classic it was openly rooting for Monday. No real surprise there. Already in these finals, the Ducks had lost three times in New Jersey, each time by a three-goal margin, the first two by 3-0 scores.

Final result from Game 7 in New Jersey:

Devils 3, Ducks 0.

Depending on how strongly one believes in track records, recent form or the supernatural, this one was decided early. Just like sister network ABC, ESPN knows how to pound a subplot into the ground, dispatching Barry Melrose one more time to visit “Angela the Meadowlands Psychic” before Game 7 to get her latest predictions.

Angela fondled a hockey puck, looked blankly into space and declared, “Again, Barry, I feel that the Devils are definitely going to take the Cup home.”

It was so cheesy, even Mickey Mouse would have gagged. Even on his birthday.

You did know Monday was Mickey’s birthday, didn’t you? If you watched Game 7 on television, you surely did. Disney’s hockey announcers couldn’t let that grand occasion pass, informing viewers during a lull in the action -- there were lots of those Monday -- that the old rodent just turned 69.

“So, Mickey, the Mighty Ducks just lost the Stanley Cup. Where are you going next?”

“To Leisure World!”

The Ducks were done early. Two Devil goals in 10 minutes turned a 0-0, first-period stalemate into a 2-0 rout with 7:42 left in the second period, although goalie analyst Darren Pang raised the point that New Jersey’s Jamie Langenbrunner might have interfered with Giguere on the first goal.

As a replay showed Langenbrunner clearly bumping the knob end of Giguere’s stick moments before the goal was scored, Pang sent it back to the booth with, “Fellas, that’s a little bit of goaltender interference there.”

It was a valid observation, a “good catch,” as John Davidson acknowledged, although Pang was quickly shouted down by Gary Thorne and Bill Clement.

Thorne: “Complain, complain, complain. Darren Pang is a former goaltender, by the way.”

Clement: “Excuses are for losers.”

But what if that goal decides the Cup, because the way these defenses are grinding and the way these goalies are holding the fort

Check that. Ex-Duck Jeff Friesen just scored again. Devils, 2-0, and, hey, what else can we talk about?

How about the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is presented to the most valuable player of the NHL playoffs?

Giguere has been the favorite ever since his gymnastic theatrics carried to Ducks to early-round upsets of Detroit and Dallas. So with six minutes left and the Ducks still trailing, 2-0, Thorne asked his partners, “If this score stays the same, is Giguere still the winner of the Conn Smythe?”

Clement said, “I do believe so.”

Davidson added, “I think so too. Absolutely.”

Thorne wasn’t so sure.

“I would have to hesitate,” he said. “Marty Brodeur is pitching a shutout. That’s three in the finals. He’s only the third to do it.”

True, but not many goalies in the history of the Stanley Cup have worked behind as formidable a defensive shield as the Devils provide Brodeur.

“Brodeur has been solid, but it’s a team-type game here,” Davidson countered. “This team is so good right now -- as a team.”

Clement compared the Devils to a sci-fi “creature that you can chop off an arm or leg and they will just grow another one right away.”

The Devil fans are no less frightening. With the Stanley Cup having just returned to New Jersey, a red carpet rolled out onto the ice and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” belching out over the Continental Airlines Arena sound system, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stared into that abyss before announcing the Conn Smythe winner and gulped.

Bettman carefully noted that the Professional Hockey Writers Assn. votes on who wins the Smythe, and that the trophy goes to “the most valuable player of the four rounds of the playoffs” -- not just the finals. Buffered by those disclaimers, Bettman bravely informed the crowd that Giguere had won the award.

The resulting boos were deafening.

Professional hockey is a fraternity and some of the Devils, feeling sympathy for the Duck, started clapping for Giguere.

Davidson applauded the Devils for their display of class.

“They showed a lot more respect than some of the fans here,” Clement added.

The Devils’ crowd was pulling for the home goalie, Brodeur -- days after cursing him for the dropped-stick goal that handed the Ducks their Game 3 victory, of course.

Memories are extremely short in sports. This time, Devil fans gave Brodeur a standing ovation as he held the Stanley Cup aloft. And this time, Brodeur didn’t drop a thing.