Star Wears: Anaheim Ducks award Gordon Bombay 'Mighty Ducks' jacket to player of game

Welcome to Star Wears, where our Short Shifts squad will highlight each participating NHL team’s unique and creative way to honor their player of the game after each victory, handing them a token of appreciation that usually lasts at least one season, and sometimes takes on a life of its own.

Team: Anaheim Ducks

Item: Gordon Bombay jacket

Origin Story: If you are reading this story or this website, we fully realize that you likely have seen sports movie classic “The Mighty Ducks.” But just in case, the movie is about Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez), a hotshot lawyer sentenced to do community service and, since he once was a youth hockey star, he is tasked with taking on a ragtag team of misfits. And (spoiler alert), of course he turns them into winners.

NHL Connection: The Anaheim Ducks were called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim upon their founding in 1993, when the team was owned by the Walt Disney Company, the same company that put out the movie. (The team was sold in 2005 to current owners Henry and Susan Samueli and became the Anaheim Ducks).

Fun Fact: An internet uprising in recent years has declared that the famous “Flying V” play from the movie would have been offsides, but take a look for yourself. The puck carrier is definitely the first one in the offensive zone. Now, does it make sense strategically? That’s an entirely different conversation.

Quotable: "Someone saw the jacket and thought it would be a great idea," Ducks forward Alex Killorn said. "It's heavy too, big heavy jacket. I don't think they're going to wash it, so at that point when you're getting it, you don't care how bad it smells."

NHL.com independent correspondent Dan Arritt contributed to this report