How do you get down off an elephant?

... you don't get down off an elephant; you get down off a duck!

Embarrassingly, I never got that joke until many years after I first heard it; and only then when my big brother explained it to me.

How do you get down from a Stanley Cup championship in southern California? If you're a Duck, it's from meeting a hot team in the first round of the playoffs.

The Dallas Stars were full measure for their eliminating the defending champion Anaheim Ducks in 6 games. Stars netminder Marty Turko was almost unbeatable much of the time. I think the Ducks just never quite recovered from that blowout in game one on home ice.

Am I disappointed? Yes. However, the Ducks did provide an exciting season, especially with the return of Scott Niedermeyer and Teemu Selanne who scored several key goals down the stretch.

I am mostly disappointed that the Ducks have missed the opportunity to repeat as Stanley Cup champs. Winning back to back may have placed them among some of the great teams in NHL history. But it was not to be. Quack.

Never give up

I can't believe they actually came back and won it all. The Kansas Jayhawks men's college basketball team had led at various times during the the NCAA tournament final against the Memphis Tigers, but they were down by 9 points with two minutes left, and were not shooting well. Miraculously, they came back to within 2 points with sufficient time, but the real miracle was yet to come.

Kansas missed on a good chance to tie it from 2 points down, and then, after fouling Memphis, the Tigers went up by three with about 10 seconds left. That meant that Kansas had to make a three pointer, something that they were lousy at doing all through the game up to that point. But then it happened.

With Memphis playing tough defence, Kansas somehow got the ball down court quickly (remember, they only had 10 seconds to do something). The Kansas dribbler was completely covered, but managed a pass back to Mario Chalmers just outside the 3 point circle and it was all or nothing. Memphis players were also all over Chalmers by the time he received the pass, but he let fly a shot with a great arc and somehow we all saw and heard the swish of nothing but net. Tie game with 2 seconds left!

So we are off to overtime, and Kansas, with the momentum, puts Memphis away for good to win the title. What a stunning turn of events. I keep learning from determined young athletes to never give up, even when it looks hopeless.