Saturday was actually a big Ducks day as it was the annual Select-A-Seat event at Honda Center and just that morning the 2007 Stanley Cup Final clinching game five was on the NHL Network.
Naturally I stopped surfing the channels to re-watch the Ducks hoist the Cup. The odd thing about it though, was that I seemed somewhat disconnected for most of the game. Maybe it’s because that game was in the bag as soon as the Ducks scored first. Maybe it’s because the team today is so different from that unstoppable force. Maybe it’s because it’s just been a long time.
I do remember being strangely relaxed on that fateful night of June 6, 2007, but this time even when the last seconds ticked away and Doc Emerick announced that the Anaheim Ducks are Stanley Cup Champions, I didn’t really get the rush that I had other times that I’d re-watched the seminal moment in franchise history. It did all come flooding back however when Pierre interviewed Teemu after the game. Just seeing the clip on the NHL”s “No Words” commercial is special but the full impact of that moment is something else.
Anyway, that’s enough nostalgia for a little while. Congratulations to the new Cup Champions, the Boston Bruins, and boo to the rioters in Vancouver.
Select-A-Seat was a pretty cool event with free drinks, hamburgers, hot dogs and a short address/Q & A session with COO of the Ducks and Honda Center Tim Ryan and GM Bob Murray. One of the reasons this blog has been delayed almost a week is because I guarantee it won’t be as good as Robby’s over at Anaheim Calling. We learned from Ryan that Honda Center will be undergoing some upgrades with full wireless capability for this upcoming season and an enlarged team store, upgraded VIP areas and a sports bar (similar to the Jack Daniels Club but for non-club level ticket holders I assume) which will likely be ready for the 2012-13 season. Here are some artist’s renderings of what it might look like from the Ducks website.
From Murray we learned that he’s optimistic about the Ducks’ draft position this season (22nd overall in the first round), he likes what he’s seen from prospects Emerson Etem and Devante Smith-Pelly and expects them to be in the lineup within the next few years, and he isn’t a fan of this year’s Free Agent pool.
When asked about his priorities for free agency this summer he said that his focus is on building a third line because there isn’t a defenseman of high enough quality (e.g. Niedermayer or Pronger) available so it wouldn’t be worth it to chase a number two guy. Most telling of all was that he slipped called it a “shitty year” for free agents before correcting himself and saying it’s a “bad year.”
He also said that he wants to build a third line with an identity of its own, rather than just copying the Sammy Pahlsson line from the glory days. He mentioned Sammy a couple other times, making me realize how hard it must have been for him to trade Sammy away, seeing as he clearly has just as much of a man crush on Sammy as we all do.
Most importantly Murray had some light to shed on the Teemu situation. He said that he knows more than he ever has about Teemu this summer and that Teemu wants to play as long as his lingering knee issues (that have dogged him since before the lockout) are not a hinderance to his training.
According to Robby’s Select-A-Seat post, Murray also mentioned (in a separate session) that he had lunch with Teemu and Paul Kariya where Murray expressed his interest in bringing Kariya back in one form or another.
That section of Robby’s post got me thinking all kinds of crazy things, but yesterday I learned from about a 17th hand source, my mom told me that one of my dad’s co-workers ran into Kariya at an In ‘N’ Out, (investigative journalism at it’s finest) that Kariya isn’t able to play this upcoming season but would like to stay in the game.
While that’s somewhat disappointing it is good to see that the organization is reaching out to Kariya to at least build some tradition and history within the franchise, similar to how Rocky Wirtz welcomed back the greats of the past in Chicago. Now we’ll just have to convince the 50% of Ducks fans who never want to see him in the building again that it would be a good thing for the franchise.
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Saturday was also my second official hockey game. We were crushed 5-2 (even though the stats sheet only gave us credit for one goal for some strange reason) by a team that may or may not be too advanced for our Rookie league.
They scored on their first two shifts and it was a little bit infuriating because we didn’t have the puck much for the rest of the game. There was also a certain player on the other team (the orange clad “Total Chaos”) who was better than everyone on the ice and knew it. I took offense to a fake out move he tried to put on me while making a face, but I kept my composure because it would not have been worth it to try and teach any lessons.
The name of this blog is becoming increasingly apropos, as our team (Flashback) is starting to look a bit like the pre-Bombay District 5 squad. This may be a little hard to follow but bear with me. Total Chaos, the team that we were just killed by, lost 4-2 in week one to Goal Diggers who in turn put a 7-2 curb stomping on Train Wreck otherwise known as the team we lost to in week one. So by the transitive property I predict that we will be run out of the building by the end of the first period next week when we match up against the Goal Diggers. In the mean time our next game is against Outta Control who lost 5-6 to the aforementioned Goal Diggers on Saturday.
At least now I know what to expect and it should be a little easier to take the beatings in stride. Plus if we somehow pull a win out it’ll be all the sweeter.
District 5 Hockey 