ANAHEIM — Seconds before the first puck dropped Sunday, someone tossed a catfish onto the ice, which would have been outrageously odd were this not the NHL playoffs.
Evidently, the pitched fish was intended to carry on a Nashville Predators tradition, although it also allowed the Ducks, at the start, to be only the second most-dead thing inside Honda Center.
In Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, however, the home team sprang brilliantly to life, soon enough this time to put together a 5-3 win and tie the series at a game apiece.
In desperate need of an adrenaline-spiking spark, it helped that the Ducks had a player whose motor compares favorably to an American television icon, pink floppy ears and all.
“The one thing that’s been consistent with him (is) he’s been a type of Energizer Bunny,” said Coach Randy Carlyle, speaking of Ondrej Kase and inviting a fuzzy fictional character into a very cold and real ice hockey showdown.
Moved up in the second period to the line featuring Ryan Getzlaf and Nick Ritchie, Kase scored the goal that pulled the Ducks even, 3-3, then was out there six minutes later when Ritchie produced the eventual game-winner.
That’s how important depth is in the NHL postseason, Kase, a 21-year-old from the Czech Republic in just his fifth career playoff game, coming through after replacing long-time Ducks staple Corey Perry.
“Moving him up and down in our lineup gives us some flexibility,” Carlyle said. “He’s a fearless player for his size (6-foot, 180 pounds). He goes into the (tough) areas and can make plays with good players.”
Various Ducks have been spotted walking around the locker room lately wearing T-shirts that, on the back, read “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.”
This is presumably a nod to the strategy of populating the area in front of the opposing goalie and not a reference to the members of the media, who, with the Ducks advancing two rounds, have grown to reach hallway-choking numbers.
Bodies, bodies, bodies in front of Pekka Rinne is pretty much a necessity when facing Nashville’s goaltender, a 6-foot-5 deterrent who’s about as inviting as a closed garage door.
Kase’s score Sunday was an example of the benefits of jamming the traffic in front of Rinne.
As defenseman Shea Theodore sent the puck toward the Predators’ goal, no less than five players — including Kase, Getzlaf and Ritchie — congested the front of the net.
The puck then deflected off someone or something and slipped free to Rinne’s left, where Kase picked it up and slid it — just barely — into the goal.
It was so just barely, in fact, that Kase didn’t even recognize this shining moment of his career as it happened in real time. He never saw the puck pass the goal line.
“Nick Ritchie said goal,” he explained, “and I started celebrating.”
And so the Ducks survived another listless start. Oh, they attempted to show more life early on Sunday, although, frankly, it would have been difficult for that not to happen.
They opened Game 1 on Friday with sloth-like sluggishness, the Ducks performing in a manner that suggested they forgot the players are expected to take their pregame naps before arriving at the arena.
The game operations folks at Honda Center tried to help. For a fleeting moment two minutes into the game, the overhead scoreboards listed the Ducks as having 99 shots on goal instead of the one they actually had at that point.
Yet, they still gave up the first goal, took the first penalty, surrendered the first power-play goal, took the second penalty, allowed the second goal and, 16 minutes in, had just two shots on goal.
The second Nashville tally was particularly discouraging in that goaltender John Gibson lost sight of the puck so completely that James Neal could have scored using a spatula.
Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson apparently eclipsed Gibson with one of the NHL’s all-time most comprehensive screens, Gibson looking and leaning to his left as Neal flipped the puck into the sudden open space to his right.
The sequence was defeating and deflating, all of Honda Center joining the home team in going limp.
But goals 99 seconds apart to finish the first period and start the second lifted the Ducks back into a 2-2 tie and provided the spark they needed, a spark Kase kept lit as the middle period progressed.
“I think it’s great,” the winger said of the victory. “If we were losing (the series) 2-0, it would be so hard.”
Sure, the Ducks now have come from behind in six of their nine postseason wins. But another loss Sunday would have tested this team on all sort of levels, both mental and physical.
Not only are the Predators the hottest team going, but this franchise — and it mostly has been this same roster over the past two postseasons — enters Game 3 on Tuesday having won nine in a row in the playoffs at Bridgestone Arena.
“We know how important these games are,” Carlyle said, “and every one gets more important as we go forward.”
That’s the fact everybody understands today, even that poor catfish.