When Dan Lanning addressed his team on Monday before the Minnesota game, he showed them a clip from "The Shawshank Redemption," Andy Dufresne chipping through the rock for 20 years, then crawling through the foul sludge to freedom.
"Think about the adversity you faced as a team this season," Lanning said, "Some people look at it as a negative. I look at every piece of adversity we faced so far this season as a positive. Talk about this season being from the dirt."
The weekly talks and presentations provide the Ducks with a kind of psychological armor. The game itself becomes the joy and the reward, the rain that washes away the sludge.
In the game footage fans see the joy. For the team, everything they practiced came true. The matchups and moments they worked for were realized. The celebrations are authentic, hard-earned and deeply felt, born in the weight room at 6 am.