Anaheim Ducks: The Danger in Being too Nostalgic

With the Anaheim Ducks home opener upon us, and puck drop hours away, it’s almost time to hop in the time machine and throw it back to the good old days. Today, I wanted to briefly share my thoughts on nostalgia and my concerns as to how it can lose its novelty when overused.

Before I go all “Negative Nancy”, I just want to say that I’m really excited to see what’s in store for the Anaheim Ducks and Ducks Nation at home games this year. The media team started us off strong by doing a great job with the retro Ducks Center videos during the offseason. They were pretty goofy but it’s intentional so it makes “the cringe” a little more bearable.

On top of that, we were given a large list of giveaways and special events that kept the hype rolling up until where we are now.  While I’m 100% on board with it, because I’m a sucker for nostalgia, a part of me feels compelled to not totally invest myself into all the hype.

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I don’t think that it’s going to get old but its definitely a possibility. We’re still a fairly “young” franchise so our history isn’t as extensive as a team like Montreal or Boston. I think it’ll be somewhat easy for the Anaheim Ducks to keep things fresh.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that you have to knock it out of the park to make celebrating nostalgia and history worth it. We have it pretty easy because the Mighty Ducks branding is one of the league’s most iconic ones. It makes it easy to push merch, themed nights, giveaways, etc. because of how loved and cherished it is amongst the fandom.

I think the best way to summarize how I feel is, I don’t want it forced down my throat. At the same time, I don’t want it to be lazily thrown together to just make sales, knowing it’ll sell well because of the nostalgia factor. Ya feel?

We live in a day and age where throwbacks and remakes are fairly common and almost the new trendy thing to do. There’s somewhat an oversaturation and, I guess you can say, overreliance of nostalgia in all media. It feels like a cop-out sometimes to go back and try and recreate something that was once successful.

The Ducks are off to a decent start with the home opener and the jersey retirements of Paul Kariya and Scott Niedermayer headlining the 25th-anniversary celebration. However, nostalgia isn’t about reliving the “glory days.” We’re celebrating what the Anaheim Ducks have accomplished and are looking forward to the future.

To finish us out here, I want to reiterate again that I’m pumped for all that’s in store for us this year. Coming out of the gate with two wins has been a pleasant and welcome surprise thus far.

Here’s to celebrating twenty-five years of Ducks Hockey!