His picture is prominent on the enormous mural on the front of the building where his team plays. He has been the team’s centerpiece since he arrived in 1994.

These are the days he has waited for over the past nine years.

“I never thought of leaving here,” he says. “I never looked anywhere else. I believe in this organization.”

So says former UMaine hockey All-American Paul Kariya, now an essential element of the magic of the most unexpected comeuppance of the NHL playoffs – the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

The Ducks swept the defending and heavily favored Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in round one. Now they are on the verge of upsetting the number one team in the Western Conference, Dallas, leading that series 3-1.

We sit in the Ducks locker room and I ask if he has time to talk for a BDN column. “Sure,” he says, that’s what keeps you grounded.” How’d he know that?

Kariya is excited about Anaheim’s surge in the postseason, but as always, being grounded has its priorities.

“This is an opportunity in life to accomplish something [win the Cup] and you realize how limited such opportunities are,” he says. “This is about a dream.”

“Everything in the playoffs is magnified. It’s fun to be at the rink,” he says. “People here care about hockey. Sure, there’s a bandwagon, but that’s what sports are all about.

“Off the ice, you can’t go anywhere without people wishing you good luck and wanting to talk about the play-offs,” Kariya adds. “It’s fun to be part of the excitement here in Anaheim and to experience the excitement of the city of the team you’re up against.”

The competitive fires burn bright within him, but never so bright as to obscure who he is and wants to be as a person.

“Who you are is that person you are in your private life, in those times when it’s quiet and you’re alone,” he reflects.

“I was grounded to begin with,” he smiles, “and that hasn’t changed.”

Not with the fame. Not with the money. Not with the adulation.

“Growing up we never had a lot of money, but I was never denied anything,” Kariya remembers. “When I needed skates, I got them. When I needed support, it was there from my parents.”

For Kariya, life’s emphasis was always on the core items because that’s where his Mom and Dad placed it.

“Even when I was playing at Maine,” he says, “when I talked with my parents there were never questions about hockey. They always asked how my grades were and was I getting my homework done.” He smiles.

His Dad died this past year.

“Mom comes to some games. She cheers for my teammates and is always talking about how well Giggy [goalie J.S. Giguere] or Krogs [Jason Krog] is playing. She talks about the team,” he says.

“We talk on the phone once a week or so. I call collect,” he laughs. The discussions are short on the hockey matters. “She has her own life,” he respectfully says.

One is struck by the simplicity of Kariya’s depth. Simplicity comes from having harnessed the most complicated of life’s issues and reduced them to the truisms you’ve decided to live by.

Paul Kariya is as comfortable in his own skin as he is in a Ducks’ sweater.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.