MIghty Ducks Season 2: Who We Need To See Return

Season 1 of Mighty Ducks Game Changers just concluded on Disney plus. I personally enjoyed the show more than I thought, it had some flaws and room for improvement. Overall it was a strong season with a very nostalgic ending for diehard fans. 

Spoiler Alert 

The Don't Bothers win back the Mighty Ducks name.

Spoiler Alert Over 

While Disney has not officially announced a Season 2, much like the Cobra Kai series it has become customary for fans to make a wishlist of which franchise characters they'd like to see in forthcoming season(s). Like I did at the end of Cobra Kai season 3, here's my wishlist of Mighty Ducks characters I'd love to see in the next season.

McGill & Larson (Mighty Ducks)

McGill (Michael Ooms) & Larson (Casey Garven) were teammates of Adam Banks when he played for the Hawks and frequent bullies of the District 5 team. The three seemed inseparable but it turns out they really weren't friends once Adam moved to the Ducks.

McGill & Larson were last seen in D2 along with an unnamed teammate tied to a tree by Fulton when they attempted to sabotage the Ducks. It'd be interesting to see if they're still living the cake eater life and how far their hockey careers went. It also be cool if one of them was the modern day coach of the Hawks using some of Coach Riley's philsophies for a new generation. 

Bringing the Legacy Hawks back into the fold would also allow Bombay to revisit his past as a member of the team, and looking back what's wrong with the pressure kids were under then and now to win. 

Side gripe: There was a Hawks team in the same league as the Don't Bothers, but it was clearly a different Hawks team with a different lineage. Those Hawks wore orange and Blue, when we need the black and white Hawks. Unless as I'm hoping it's saved for additional seasons, waste of a great storyline potential.

Don Tibbles

Don Tibbles made his only appearance in the franchise in D2. An executive with Hendrix Hockey he's the one who persuaded Bombay to coach Team USA. He also introduced Bombay to a potentially lucrative career and lifestyle that took his focus from coaching Team USA.

Don is a good guy just a guy who's trying to make money and keep his job. Don would obviously be retired by this time but he may still have connections to Hendrix Hockey (which gets a Easter egg in episode 1). His connections could help out the new Ducks in season 2 regarding gear or maybe upgrades to the Ice Palace to become the Hendrix Ice Palace. 

Michael Tucker who played Tibbles is in his late 70's and I'm honestly not sure if he's fully retired from acting but a small cameo would be very rewarding to long time fans.

Coach McKay

Coach McKay (Kathryn Erbe) was the tutor of the Ducks while they competed in the Junior Goodwill Games as Team USA. Side rant: it was never made explicitly clear in the film, but I was always under the assumption the competition took place in the summer to account for teams of minors traveling from all over the world to compete. So I always confused why they had an tutor. Anyway she joined the team as an assistant coach out of necessity and was an catalyst for Gordon realizing the error of his changing behavior. 

Honestly the character didn't offer much more than that. However as an educator she could be helpful in helping Bombay and Alex navigate the tricky landscape of student atheletes in todays world and all the rules that come along with it. She may also help some of the team with a school subject they're struggling with, showing the delicate balance these kids must endure being student atheletes. 

Casey Conway

Charlie Conway played by Joshua Jackson is the heart of the Mighty Ducks franchise. When the series was announced fans were clamoring for Conway to make an appearance, but Joshua's schedule and covid made appearing this season impossible.

There is hope Charlie can appear in a season 2 in the event that he can't, an appearance from his mom would be an welcome addition.

Casey played by Heidi Kling could appear and provide some detail on Charlie's whereabouts. It was hinted at in episode 6 during an appearance by the OG Ducks that Charlie holds some resentment towards Bombay. Casey could further that storyline and give Bombay an idea of where the resentment stems from, until he and Charlie can hash it out once he makes an apperance. She also kind of had an romantic relationship with Bombay in the first film, maybe they take steps to try again or just have an friendly conversation that helps Bombay find a spark he's missing.

Coach Orion

Ted Orion played by Jeffery Nordling appeared in D3 as the Ducks new coach at Eden Hall. Orion wasn't an believer of the Ducks pee-wee hockey style. As such his style didn't mesh well with many of the Ducks and he came across as harsh and dismissive of the Ducks way. The two sides eventually learned from one another and defeated the Varsity Warriors.

The Orion character was written to show how things change in life and how you have to adjust. While we didn't get to see the character lead the Ducks to championships, it'd be interesting to see how his life turned out the past 25 years.

Did he lead the JV Eden Hall Ducks to state championships? Did he move to coaching Varisty when the Ducks moved up? If so did they win the state championship those 2 years? Is he still at Eden Hall? Could he be the athletic director of the school now?

Based on what we know him and Bombay have mutual respect for one another. Bombay could call him in for a coaching session of the new Ducks. Providing them hockey skills Bombay doesn't posse to make them more well-rounded players such as playing two-way hockey.

More O.G. Ducks

Besides Charlie Conway who everyone wants to see, fans are clamoring for more O.G. Ducks anyway we can get them. Kenan Thompson who played Russ Thompson is the biggest star out of the Ducks and he's rumored to have agreed to make an appearance in season 2, should scheduling line up. The six who appeared in season 1 were Fulton (Elden Henson), Connie (Marguerite Moreau) and Guy (Garette Henson), Averman (Matt Doherty), Ken Wu (Justin Wong), and Adam Banks (Vincent Larusso). 

That leaves characters like Portman (Aaron Lohr), Julie Gaffney (Colombe Jacobsen), Jesse (Brandon Adams), Luis Mendoza (Mike Vitar), Dwayne Robertson (Ty O'Neal), and Goldberg (hopefully Shaun Weiss works through his issues.) There's also members who were never mentioned again after the first film including Jesse's brother Terry (Jussie Smollet). Karp (Aaron Schwartz), Peter (J.D. Daniels), and siblings Tommy (Danny Tamberelli) and Tammy (Jane Plank).

If they bring several O .G. Ducks in for an episode at once or sprinkle cameos throughout the season, fans would be elated either way. Every one of them could bring something to the table in guiding the new Ducks to success. I for one am looking forward to seeing how the originals are bought back into the fold.  

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Too much emphasis on Coaches?

The Orioles abysmal season of 47-115 has come to an end. With half the roster gutted during the midseason trade deadline,
Adam Jones likely playing his last game as an Oriole. Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette statuses up in the air, with one likely done or both.

  Often when teams collapse like the Orioles did, someone has to be the sacrificial lamb and that often is the manager.
Hired to lead the team managers get all the praise and all the blame depending on which way the wind blows.
When managers are released the reason often given is their “message” has gotten stale.

  While it may be true that after so many years especially on teams with veteran players, they may get tired of hearing the same thing.
The philosophy of the coach may sound like a parent repeating themselves.
Or as the generation gap widens between coaches and players, they may find they cant relate to the players.

  Now for all of the blame managers get when things go south real fast, there's one tangible managers don't do. That's play on the field and produce. At the end of the day if a team is not equipped with stars who produce, they may not get very far.      
 Coaches defined as the greatest ever often had power players on their team, that’s not to take away from their style or philosophy. At the end of the day their style and a roster of play makers made for good managers.

The Bill Belichick's of the world, Bill Parcells, Phil Jackson, Joe Torre, Pat Riley, John Madden, Vince Lombardi and so many more. Yes their great coaches but put them with a D league roster and let’s see how far their philosophy will take them.

          That raises a question, is too much emphasis placed on head coaches or not enough emphasis? Yes their paid millions of dollars to lead the team, but their also field generals. Often not having much say in decision making and one way or another being told to get it done with what they have. Come of think of it their often given directives that regular folks experience just making way less money.  Coaches can raise trophies or head home into oblivion, either way I think the amount of emphasis placed on head coaches is sometimes unfairly just right or wrong.

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