Dead Last in the League, at Least There’s 24/7

A couple posts ago, I wrote that I don’t have much to say about this team.  Despite a coaching change we’ve seen more of the same.  With the Blue Jackets’ shootout win last night, the Ducks officially slipped to 30th in the league standings; just another milestone on the road to a lost season. 

At the beginning of November, I wrote here that if the Ducks continued to play the way that they did on that horrendous road trip through their upcoming homestand they would find themselves in a hole too deep to dig out of.  I didn’t believe it would actually happen, but it did and there is no sign of change on the horizon.

I talk tough about the season being over on off days a lot now, but the thing about being a crazed fan is that it isn’t really that simple in the heat of the moment.  The wins, few and far between as they are, mean less and the losses are just as frustrating.  As such, it’s hard to get fired up enough to post on a daily basis.  I have been keeping up with my contributions over at Anaheim Calling though.  Here are the links to catch up with my work for them, if you’ve missed it.

Anaheim Calling:  My reactions to Bruce Boudreau’s first game

Anaheim Calling:  I debate Robby over the new NHL realignment for next season

Anaheim Calling:  My Tribute to Teemu and the trade that originally brought him to his Happy Place

Luckily, I’m not just a Ducks fan.  I’m a hockey fan too, and besides the playoffs this is the best time of year to enjoy being a hockey fan.  HBO’s 24/7 Flyers/Rangers Road to the NHL Winter Classic starts tonight.  Last year’s season was such a work of art, there is some potential for dissapointment.  It isn’t enough to be the same, there is prescedent; It isn’t groundbreaking in and of itself anymore; and as Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy has warned, there is a fear of growing inauthenticity in this season.  Still, I have full confidence in it’s ability to restore my faith in the game Sidney Crosby’s return, as short lived as it was.

On a closing note, last week the DVD of last season’s 24/7 arrived and I noticed, as I started to watch the first episode for about the tenth time (at least), that the opening “Hockey Night in Pittsburgh” sequence had different music than it did when it originally aired.  There must have been some kind of rights issues.  I liked the original better, but I can live with it, since we don’t have to save four hours of HD DVR space for the first season anymore.  The fact that I can pick that out at 1:30 AM probably shows how much of a nerd I am for this show, but I’m totally fine with that. 

Happy 24/7 Premier Day, everybody!

“It seems like there’s going to be lots of murders. Make sure we have enough ambulances, huh?”

-Ilya Bryzgalov

Preseason Game One: Ducks 4, Coyotes 7

 

It wasn’t the best of games, but it was hockey.  Lots of Ducklings and Coyote pups on some awful ice led to some seriously sloppy hockey, even from the veterans.

It seemed the puck just wouldn’t settle down for anyone and there were a lot of shots and passes with little behind them as a result.  Even Lubomir Visnovsky seemed to have trouble corralling the puck on the power play a few times.  When he did get a hold of the puck for a point shot it looked like his shoulders had healed quite nicely since the playoffs.

One of the young standouts, in a positive sense, was 2009 first rounder Peter Holland with an assist, four shots and at least one memorable hit in 21:33 of ice time (including just over two minutes of power play and penalty kill each).  Randy Carlyle put him over in his post game press conference, Holland himself attributed his play to working on a line with Andrew Cogliano and Teemu Selanne.

Speaking of Teemu, there was a pretty funny moment early in the game involving the Finnish Flash.  The crowd noticed him come out for what was probably his second or third shift and as he chased a puck down the right wing boards into the Phoenix zone the noise level rose to greet him at the unofficial start of his 19th season.  Then a Coyote defender stepped in front of him and Teemu proceeded to hook, hold, clutch and grab the defenseman all the way from the blue line to the faceoff dot.  The excitement dissipated, everyone’s human.

Devante Smith-Pelly had a couple of nice forechecking shifts, including one that created a turnover deep in the Coyotes’ zone and led to the Ducks first goal of the game.  He also had a couple of big hits that seemed a bit late (no call on either); chalk it up to a rookie power forward getting a little over zealous in the first preseason game of the year.  Overall I liked what I saw from DSP, but I’m not going to start a petition to get him on the team or anything.  The expectations may have been a little bit too high coming into camp after he reportedly lit up the Memorial Cup in the spring.

Also forechecking like a machine was Brandon McMillan.  I really liked the jump in his step and the way that he was going to the net, though it didn’t show up on the stats sheet.

It was a relatively quiet game in terms of the fisticuffs for a preseason matchup.  Usually the fringe guys go out of their way to show that they’ll do anything for a spot on the team and drop the gloves.  This year with the Ducks it may just be a case that the prospects are not as inclined to pugilism.  There was one dust up where J.F. Jacques put a relatively decisive beat down on established tough guy Ryan Hollweg.  It won’t be enough to nock George Parros off the roster, but the brass in Syracuse should be impressed.

Emerson Etem and Kyle Palmieri each had decent enough games (0-1-1, -1 and 1-1-2, -1 respectively) and combined for a nice goal.  Etem carried the puck into the zone and delayed for a split second near the left wing dot before taking a shot/pass off the hard charging Palmieri’s stick and into the net.

A little bad news:  Igor Bobkov is not ready for prime time.  Luckily, we don’t need him to be.  I’d expect him to back up Jeff Deslauriers in Syracuse this year.  He looked a little frazzled, seemed to be out of position quite a bit and on several occasions clearly had no idea where the puck was after kicking out rebounds. 

Preseason Game Two goes tonight against the Sharks and likely a whole new group of guys to evaluate.

Training Camp & Preseason Game One

Training Camp is now in full swing and today is the next step toward real hockey, the Preseason Opener.

Saturday’s training camp at Honda Center was great, if only to see some guys who could actually skate, as opposed to the Rookie League players I’ve been seeing all summer.  As expected, the cavernous space of the arena took a little bit away from the ambience that has existed in the past at Anaheim Ice.  I’m pretty confident, however that the 1200 people that showed up would not have all fit into the practice rink and it gave everyone an opportunity to see both groups practice, since they were not split onto two ice surfaces at the same time. 

The first group was a little bit less exciting than the second.  It featured Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Dan Sexton, Dan Ellis, Jason Blake, Cam Fowler and 2010 draft pick/touted prospect Devante Smith-Pelly among many others.  Going in I was most excited to take a look at Smith-Pelly and Emerson Etem (Group B) as the two players most hyped coming off of last year’s junior season.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much from DSP, mostly (I think) due to the fact that he is all about the power game.  There were a few contact drills but they didn’t really last long enough for an untrained eye to get a good feel for what it would be like in a game situation.  Hopefully we’ll see him in tonight’s preseason opener and will be able to evaluate further.

What really stood out was speed and shooting ability.  Nicolas Deschamps (Second rounder, 2008 Draft) was the eye catcher in Group A, picking corners with wicked wristers all over the place.  There was also a point when some guy in an orange jersey made a nifty move at the blue line and roofed one only to reveal himself as Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry. 

The most exciting part of Group A’s session (and Group B’s for that matter) was the breakaway race where each player did crossovers in the defensive faceoff circles then one lap around the circle and raced for a puck at center ice and shot on the goalie at the other end.  Perry and Getzlaf went head to head each time and got everyone all riled up.  They seemed to be really competitive until one of them won the race to the puck and then the other would simply let him have his break away.  After the closest race, which Perry won there was some serious smack talk going on.  Seeing the way guys react toward each other outside of a game situation is one of the cool things about attending practice.

That drill also gave a practical perspective on San Jacinto, CA native Jake Newton (whose family happened to be sitting two rows in front of us).  He didn’t win all of his races, as is to be expected from a defenseman his size, but when he lost them he was one of the few players to take an angle and play some real defense against the puck carrier, always good to see.

Also, some breaking news from Group A:  Dan Sexton is super fast. 

Group B came out with a grand entrance.  One by one the big names came out of the dressing room.  First was George Parros who played up to the crowd and got the expected response, then came the moment we were waiting for, Teemu stepped onto the ice to a standing ovation followed by Jonas Hiller.  Some have said the Hiller ovation was even bigger, but I say Teemu got the prize. 

This group was a little bit faster paced and showed a little bit more desire, for lack of a better word, than the first.  Prospect-wise my eyes were focused on Emerson Etem.  The 2010 draft pick from Long Beach, CA is speedy and can get some serious bite on that wrist shot. 

The main thing that stood out about him was his skating style.  He almost looked like he was too fast for his own feet.  It kind of reminded me of Shaggy running away from some ghost or monster in a Scooby-Doo cartoon.  His chest is almost parallel to the ice and his legs are just whipping back and forth desperately flinging his body forward.  Needless to say it isn’t exactly a textbook stride, but it seems effective enough.

There was a scary moment when people started to realize that Teemu had left the ice in the middle of the session, but he came back just in time for the breakaway race drill and ended up winning a couple.  Not as many as one would expect from the “Finnish Flash”, but it is only training camp, we don’t want him using that knee up too soon.

I wasn’t at Sunday’s session or Monday’s scrimmage but Jen and Daniel over at Anaheim Calling covered them very well.  I may have taken a peek at the live video stream of the scrimmage yesterday but I couldn’t tell who anyone really was from the video quality.  I did see someone (who turned out to be Emerson Etem) rock a defenseman (apparently Sheldon Brookbank) at center ice take slash and go in for a goal which was pretty exciting.

Also, Bobby Ryan apparently strained his groin on Sunday and got day of rest yesterday.  It isn’t believed to be serious but it can’t help.  Luckily it’s still only training camp and there’s some more leeway for rest.  We’ll just have to hope it doesn’t turn into a bigger issue during the season that makes him miss time.

Now it’s on to some (slightly) more competitive hockey with the Preseason upon us tonight.  Phoenix is in town and according to Adam Brady Teemu, Saku and Lubo are scheduled to be in the lineup.  One step closer to real hockey.

The Final Week of Summer

It’s been a pretty exciting week to be a Ducks fan.  Monday was the third annual “Get Your Ducks on a Roll” sushi competition at RA Sushi in Tustin, season tickets were delivered, players report for training camp today and it opens to the public tomorrow.  Oh, and I almost forgot one thing …

TEEMU’S BACK! TEEMU’S BACK! TEEMU’S BACK! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YESSSSSSSSS!

I probably talk about Teemu coming back a little too much, but I can’t help it.  I’ll get back to that in a little bit.  First, the sushi event:

It was pretty cool.  It helped that Amy and I got a premium spot right along the counter where the boys (Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, newcomer Andrew Cogliano and fan participant Jeff Banner) were making the sushi themselves.  Amy tried the “Captain Crunch” roll made by Getzy, directly served to her by the balding one himself.  (Note:  it was basically a tempura shrimp rolled in rice and seaweed with a little bit of spicy tuna, the least risk of mercury poisoning our unborn child a.k.a. “the bun”).  I just missed out on getting the last Bobby Ryan roll the “Hat Trick” as he was working the crowd for the fan favorite vote, but as Getzy did the same I did manage to get a high five. 

Cogliano won with his spicy jalapeno “Break Away” roll, although my favorite was Getzy’s entry.  As sushi goes, Cogliano’s was just too overpowering, there was no flavor besides heat.  The “Captain Crunch” had a nice kick at the end but it allowed you to actually taste the other ingredients. 

Still, the best part of the experience was being in a room filled with people ready and raring for hockey to get started.  Having a small event like that where 100-150ish people were crammed into half a sushi bar just to get some semblance of a hockey fix gives, at least the impression of a high intensity fan base.  It’s the opposite that I’m worried about tomorrow when training camp opens at Honda Center rather than the traditional venue of Anaheim Ice:  A giant, empty arena overwhelming the few hundred or maybe a thousand hard-core fans.

On Wednesday our season tickets were delivered, and Robby over at Anaheim Calling detailed the haul quite nicely yesterday morning.  The tickets themselves feature gold-ish sepia-toned photos of action shots and fans, along with a tag that can be read by your smart phone for online content.  So far there’s not really anything to look at after scanning the ticket with your phone, but presumably it will have a game day preview or something of that ilk, which is a pretty neat idea. 

The tickets also came with new orange and white lanyards, season ticket holder pins (one for each seat) and an orange and black Ducks messenger bag, but more exciting than all that is the return of the Finnish Flash! 

Just when you thought you couldn’t like him any more the Ducks post this video of him announcing his return.  “My middle name is One More,” Teemu you’re incouragable. 

Like I said, I’ve probably already talked about it too much in my last few posts, but I have to repeat that this season is laid out for a perfect farewell season for Teemu with a victory lap in Helsinki, and one in Winnipeg.  Let’s just hope that it’s a healthy and successful one.

I’ll have more from training camp over the weekend or early next week.  Hockey season is upon us!

 

 

Return to the Blogosphere, Summer Recap

It’s been over two months since my last post and while there have been some extenuating circumstances, the real reason is that this summer has been extremely boring for a Ducks fan.  Here’s a quick recap:

Jonas Hiller is feeling fine in Switzerland and looking forward to the season

The Ducks traded for and signed Andrew Cogliano, formerly of the Edmonton Oilers

Bob Murray also traded away Andy Sutton to Edmonton for Defenseman and Masterton Award winner Kurtis Foster

… And

Teemu still hasn’t decided…

That’s about it.

Luckily, two Saturdays ago was the Fedorin Cup, the annual charity hockey game held at Anaheim Ice that’s become the unofficial start of the hockey season around these parts. 

Usually a host of current and former Ducks participate and this year was no exception although there were more former Ducks than current ones.  In fact the only player that could be considered a current Duck participating was Teemu; which brings us to the most intriguing news of the event.

Teemu was only scheduled to “appear” at the event.  What that meant we didn’t know.  Would he drop the first puck, referee or just schmooze with the VIP ticketholders?  As it turned out that he decided to play.  Naturally this caused quite a stir among the Ducks’ faithful in the crowd (AKA 99% of the spectators).

There are two ways that this development could be read however.  The first and more commonly held belief is that his knee is feeling up to playing in a charity hockey game, which is only a few (huge) steps away from playing another season.  The second, however is that he isn’t worried about saving his knee for “One More Year” as the chants would suggest. 

“So far, so good. I’ve been skating three weeks now, and I’m really optimistic,” Teemu told the OC Register’s Randy Youngman on the day of the Fedorin Cup, and if he’s optimistic, so am I. 

This season is custom built for a Teemu Selanne Farewell Tour.  From an exhibition game against his Finish team Jokerit, to the NHL Premier in Helsinki, and a return to Winnipeg where his NHL career started with a bang it doesn’t get much more storybook than that.

While we wait for his knee to tell him what the future holds and for him to relay that to us, as SKEleven over at Ducks and Pucks has pointed out, there are only 11/14/31/38 days until training camp/pre-season/Season opener in Helsinki/true home opener in Anaheim.

It’s good to be back in the proverbial saddle and hopefully Teemu feels the same way soon.

Thank You Paul Kariya and more …

As predicted the Draft last week was less than exciting.  The Ducks traded down in the first round to get a bottom six type center at the number 30 slot and made some moves to end up with two extra picks that they didn’t have going in.  So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice, but again nothing like two no-brainer picks in the first round last year.  Still this week was another big one  in terms of summer Ducks news.  It all went down on Wednesday, whether we knew it or not. 

First was the news of Todd Marchant’s retirement and that he will stay with the club as Director of Player Development.  I’ve always appreciated Marchant’s game, he was a solid faceoff man, a great penalty killer and back checker and now that I think about it probably the one player who my game most resembles in the Adult League, but to be a fan of Todd Marchant is to be a fan of his character.  This is a guy who would do anything he could to help the team even if it was something as small as design T-Shirts while sitting out of the playoffs with an injury.

My best Todd Marchant memory has to be the 2007 Fedorin Cup charity hockey game at Anaheim Ice.  Having never been to Anaheim Ice before we were looking for a parking spot, but apparently we were in the player parking area because there was Todd Marchant setting up traffic cones around his SUV.  It was just one of those moments where you think, only in hockey would a player have to set up his own cones around his car. 

It was also shortly after the Ducks had signed Todd Bertuzzi.  Bert was playing in the game for the Canadian team while Marchant was on the Americn team, and a woman in the crowd, either pro-american or anti-Bertuzzi, kept cheering “Go Todd …. Marchant!”  From that day forward any time he did something cheer worthy Amy and I carry on that tradition.

Before I get to the big Ducks related news of the week there was also a Teemu update.  Yesterday Eric Stephens of the OC Register confirmed that Teemu had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Wednesday in Finland.  The OC Register report says that it may have been exploratory, I’ve also heard that it was to remove some loose cartilage (an apparently minor procedure) but anything having to do with Teemu’s knee is scary considering that’s what nearly ended his career around the time of the lockout.  The good news is that Teemu had some issue with this knee earlier in the season but it didn’t show much if at all so hopefully it’s not a big deal.  The procedure will delay his decision on whether or not to return to the NHL for an 18th season.

Sandwiched between those pieces of news was the announcement via Eric Duhatschek of The Globe & Mail that Paul Kariya will retire after having missed all of last season with post-concussion syndrome.  According to the story Kariya is symptom free but has been advised by doctors that the risk of further concussions is too great for him to play.  Kariya also had some strong comments to make about the NHL and its lack of action when it comes to concussions.  It’s a sad story for Ducks fans who were hoping for a Teemu/Paul reunion and a sad story for a player whose career and potential was cut short by injury, regardless of the fact that we’ve already known that for years.

Part of me was hoping that he would come back just to get the sour taste out of some of the fans’ mouths but I’m now that it’s official, I’m glad that he didn’t come back to the Ducks because it wouldn’t have been the same Paul Kariya.  It would have been interesting to see what he could do with Teemu and Saku at this stage, but it wouldn’t have been the same. 

402 goals and 989 points in 989 games makes him a marginal Hall of Famer in the Eric Lindros category of what could have been, and hopefully both of them get in some day, but he was and always will be a Ducks legend.  The face of the franchise, lending legitimacy to what most hockey fans saw as a laughing stock of corporate advertising.  I hope that one day we’ll be able to look up into the rafters of the Pond and see an eggplant and jade number nine. 

Anaheim Calling has three different Paul Kariya tribute posts up.  While reading those I tried to think of how t0 frame mine.  I was never as angry as most other Ducks fans at Kariya’s departure in the summer of 2003, though I did change my favorite player to Teemu when Paul held out in 1997.  But while reflecting on his career I realized that I don’t have as many vivid memories of Paul Kariya in his prime as I feel like I should.  The image of him lying on his back and lurching back into consciousness and the fog on his visor after being crushed by Scott Stevens in the ’03 Cup Final will haunt me forever, but apparently I was too young and/or too new to the game to fully appreciate what he did in those great years with Teemu by his side.

Last summer I remember flipping through the channels and stopping on the NHL Network to watch Classic Series:  1997 Western Conference Quarterfinals Anaheim vs. Phoenix and being shocked at how fast Paul Kariya was back then.  In his prime I remember being able to tell that he was on the ice just by his stride.  He could be wearing an all black, numberless/nameless jersey and a 10-year-old kid could tell “THAT’S PAUL KARIYA!” just by the way he skated.  After multiple concussions and years away from Anaheim that faded in my memory.  Now that those days have become hazy I have this faint feeling that I’ve missed out a little bit, if only I could have seen Paul Kariya in his prime, while I was in my prime as a fan.There’s no use in wishful thinking like that though. 

I was born in the perfect storm to become a Ducks fan:  Young en0ugh to enjoy the movies, living close enough to watch the games on TV and go to a few as a kid, and I had Paul Kariya to follow as I learned the game.  He was on the cover of the program of the first Mighty Ducks game I ever went to, I had his hockey cards, I had his posters on my wall, I still have a T-Shirt with his name and number on the back and I even remember drawing pictures of the guy.  To have an icon like that as a young child is something you can’t replace.  Much like BoC’s Earl Sleek and Jen from Anaheim Calling and every other Die Hard Ducks fan, Paul Kariya made me who I am today and I’ll never be able to thank him enough.  Now I have to stop writing before my misty eyes break out into full on sobs.

Select-A-Seat; Adult League Update & More

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.

*****

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.

The End of a Very Good Season

Right now there is a lot of disappointment surrounding everything about the Ducks, but the fact of the matter is that Nashville was the better team, as is the case when any team wins a seven game series, and this was a Hell of a season for the Ducks. 

If Brandon McMillan was standing one inch closer to the crease or if Teemu’s shot off of Shea Weber’s skate had deflected a millimeter to the left I probably wouldn’t be writing this now, but this has been an extremely successful season.  This team has come a long way from the group that opened up the season with three straight losses in embarrassing fashion.  The league leading goal scorer, the highest scoring defenseman in the league, home ice advantage (regardless of whether it played out) despite losing a clear cut, number one, all-star goalie for almost half the season, and one of the best seasons ever produced by a player over 40 is pretty impressive when you consider this team was supposed to finish 12th at best. 

Seeing Teemu play like an absolute madman throughout the year, especially in the playoffs and double especially in that last game was simultaneously the best part about this season and the worst.  He scored some unbelievable goals at unbelievable times, he almost seemed as fast as he was during the peak years of Teemu and Paul and he just never ceased to amaze.  At the same time the only thing I could think while watching him yesterday is that he was playing like he didn’t want this to be his last game, but he thought it would be.  He was trying to go out with a bang or not at all and he didn’t disappoint.   This wasn’t a farewell tour, and part of me thinks that’s a good thing, but I also can’t get enough of watching him play.  He can still do it but maybe it’s better this way. 

Regardless of what Teemu decides to do over the summer, it’s a sad day for Ducks fans, but at least we aren’t pulling a Vancouver.  They exceeded expectations and we should be proud.

Maybe later this week I’ll do a more analytical post about what I thought of the performances this season and post season, but for now the bottom line is it was about as good as we could have hoped.

Ducks Tie Series; Ruutu Hits Erat

The fire that Teemu Selanne lit under the Ducks’ collective butt appears to have been just what the doctor ordered as they beat Nashville 6-3, evening the series at 2-2 and bringing home ice advantage back to Anaheim. 

It’s amazing how much the first goal has meant in this series.  The team to score first has also scored second, never given up the lead and therefore won every game.  Beyond facts like those the team who draws first blood has also felt in control of the game.  There were moments in last night’s game where the Ducks’ grip on the game was tenuous.  In the last five minutes or so of the second period, for example, the Ducks were bottled up in their own zone, tied at three and got into a little bit of penalty trouble, but came out of it with a shorthanded goal early in the third which ended up being the game winner.

Brandon McMillan acted as the bellwether for the Ducks.  At times when Nashville was pressing McMillan seemed to be straining under the pressure, but he came out of it smelling like a rose with some great penalty killing, a huge play on Corey Perry’s game winner and a goal of his own. 

There was some controversy in this one as well, when Jarkko Ruutu shockingly put a hit on Martin Erat that lands smack dab in the middle of rule 48’s considerable the grey area. 

“Rule 48 -Illegal Check to the Head – A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted.” 

What is “lateral”?  What is “targeted”?  Nobody knows.  What we do know is that Ruutu came at Erat from an angle, but was established in front of him.  It appears that the head isn’t the only point of contact but Ruutu does seem to catch Erat, who didn’t return to the game, on the chin. 

The one thing Ruutu has going for him is that he didn’t raise his elbow or leave his feet, which makes it a very difficult play to figure out.  However, the most important piece to this puzzle in my view is that Ruutu is the kind of player that the NHL is willing to make an example of.  He bites people, he takes runs at super-stars in the olympics, he dives, he chirps and leaves his gloves on; he’s just not the kind of guy that gets the benefit of the doubt. 

Joe Thornton got suspended for two games back in November for a seemingly similar hit on David Perron of the St. Louis Blues, and he is the type of player that gets the benefit of the doubt.  Thornton got more head and less body but I still don’t see how Ruutu gets off with only a late call for interference on the play, unless nobody east of Anaheim and north of Nashville cares enough to make a big deal of it.   

The Verdict:  In the wake of the Chris Kunitz and Steve Downie suspensions, Ruutu gets one game so the NHL can almost appear as if they’re trying to be consistent on these rulings. 

In the end it sucks for Nashville.  The Ducks may or may not lose a player that contributes a little to the penalty kill for a game or two while the Preds may or may not lose their second leading regular season scorer with a concussion. 

Also it comes at just about the worst time for Nashville.  The series is getting a fresh start in Anaheim and the Ducks are getting their first line left winger back from suspension. 

Was this game a rallying point for the Preds or the tipping point for the Ducks?  Tune in Friday to find out.

Refs Have Sucked, Ducks Worse

Bob Murray’s comments on Monday about the Preds diving and getting calls have caused a lot of commotion.  Flame wars in the comment sections of blogs and on twitter have raged over who is cheap, who dives and who is dirty.  However, before the hullabaloo even started Pierre LeBrun had the last word on the subject in Monday’s installment of the ESPN:  Hockey Today Podcast when addressing Bruce Budreau’s comments on the officials:

Complaining about officiating at playoff time?  That’s as old as the sand on the Earth.  I mean, come on, it’s playoffs the emotions are up, teams become the biggest whiners in the world.  No one’s happy with any call and the fans are even worse now and social media’s made it worse.  I have no time for it.  What comes around goes around.  You’re going to get calls you’re not going to like but the next game you’re going to get calls going your way.  I spend no time, I know in my coverage, even focusing on officiating because I think it’s a useless an fruitless exercise.  Just shut up, the game’s played on the ice, you’ll get your breaks and some of them will go against you.

The Hockey Gods giveth and the Hockey Gods taketh away.  Whining about the officiating is a loser’s game. 

One final note on Murray’s comments; based on his grin in the picture and his comment about his scouts picking up a few divers while they’re in Europe for the World Championships, I think he was being facetious as much as he was trying to influence the officials or the team.  Much more impactful comments were made to the press after Game Three by Teemu Selanne.

“We had no business in this game,” Selanne said. “No business. They wanted it more. They won the battles. We were lucky to even be in the game. Very disappointed. 

“That’s not the way how we should play,” he added. “That’s embarrassing at this level. I hope everybody’s going to be pissed off about it and learn something about this.”

On Monday a calmer, more positive Teemu said, “I felt like last night, we didn’t … I hate to say that but it looked like we didn’t want it. As a professional athlete, that’s the worst thing you can really say.”

In addition to coming out with his opinion in the media, Teemu reportedly took a strip off of the team in the locker room after Sunday’s effort.  Based on my observations of the game and my knowledge of locker room lingo from 24/7 that address may have sounded a little something like this:

Come the f*** on!  We had no f***ing business even being in that f***ing game!    We played like s*** in the first game and played like s*** for two periods in this game!  Where the f*** is the compete level that I saw out of this team on Friday?!  If we’re going to go anywhere in this f***ing series somebody needs to f***ing grab their f***ing s**k and take control of the game!  I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I do know that my 40-year-old ass can’t carry you f***ing guys much longer!  So, f***ing s**k up and play like it’s the f***ing playoffs for f***s sake!

Now, Teemu seems more like the lead by example type of guy, rather than the paint peeling, outspoken character I’ve portrayed above, but he certainly wasn’t pleased with the team on Sunday and he let them know it.  From a guy as well respected as Teemu is around the hockey world, and especially on this team, that should be enough to spark the team into playing more like they did in Game Two. 

As Budreau said in 24/7, “You can’t just go out there and think you want it.  You’ve got to go out there and f***ing want it!” 

Let’s hope the Ducks f***ing want it tonight.