“Hurry up batter. It’s gonna be a short game and I gotta get home for lunch.”
This was my thought before the game started, eating hot wings with my dad and little brother. The Sandlot was a great movie. What a great game though, the team now resembles some kind of winner, with the confidence and everything. Edmonton was a beaten team, they kept trying and kept getting denied. The Ducks had the better hits, more fiery offense and the better team.
Randy Carlyle
“We feel we can play the game at a higher level than we’ve been playing, there are still areas of improvement. It’s nice to see our younger guys get an opportunity and take advantage of it.”
Today was a good hockey day for me. My roller hockey team won and we played very well and of course the Ducks beat the hell out of the Red Wings. It was interesting to watch the post game show and hear Brian Hayward praise the entire team and single out a few of the younger players.
I like the quote above from Carlyle because he thinks the team can play better, which they can. I don’t think they could have given any more effort or played more physical, those were through the roof. The line shuffling worked for sure though, well balanced physicality and speed. It really looked like every line was similar to the Pahlsson - R. Niedermayer - Moen line. Detroit looked completely over matched from start to finish.
So we are still undefeated as far as regulation losses, 10/12 points, frickin’ great! I can not wait to see that number in two weeks, in two months. But I hope everyone is circling the 25th of this month, at Edmonton. I think the only other comparison could be Terrell Owens returning to Philly two weekends ago. Also, Monday, November 6th. Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury come to town. We got our own sensational sophomores and rookies to compare though.
I think it is safe to say that the hockey team stationed in Orange County is finally above the Kings in the eyes of many. Things are looking up from here. Now lets get more people in the Honda Center, we can’t just pack the place when Detroit comes to town.
I need more hits, this is fun to me, so I keep doing it. I am going to start something new though. I want to have all the players up and pick one or two of them and do some sub-commiting on them every game. I wont give too much info yet, needs a little more thought to be a good idea, but I can see something else beyond that if it works. I can’t wait to see if it works.
It’s really late, but I couldn’t wait to get home and watch the team play. The first period was pretty good, I love Todd Marchant, that guy is all hockey and needs to be a captain on some team. Horrible second period and a slow third and a great finish. We saw the team rally and play better than Dallas, great effort, that is what it takes to really win and prove the hype. And the Goalie thing…
What an effort by a team that needed to prove they had it, you have to play good against the good teams. I am just happy to see that the team I root for actually has some pride. I think Dallas gained a little more respect for a team they usually kick around. They still look out of sync, not quite moving like that machine we usually see in Detroit or the quick Avalanche team with size, the ones that dominated the conference. 3-0-2 is not that bad.
Todd Marchant was the best players on the ice in this game. Corey Perry’s 3 spins for a scoring chance. The game was exciting to watch, glad I recorded it. Randy Carlyle didn’t look very happy with Ilya Bryzgalov, is that going to piss him off that he didn’t get a chance to redeem himself. Where is Travis Green, didn’t he get a decent salary?
Another good job by Carlyle though, sticking to it and letting everyone get the experience. I know there were a lot of penalties taken and some people might have been tired, but he still let the greener players play a bit. Sammy Pahlsson even had a chance to get even higher from his two goal game by giving him a chnace to extend the game. He is letting everyone play, if he needs a goal in a shootout, he puts Scott Niedermayer in one of the first three slots.
Thought this was funny, remember these players? When the team was biting ankles in the league, J.J. Daigneault…what else can be said.
The Ducks traded Green and their first-round draft choice (Scott Kelman) in the 1999 NHL entry draft to Phoenix for Oleg Tverdovsky in June 1999. Green was originally acquired by the Ducks along with Doug Houda and Tony Tuzzolino in a Feb. 6, 1998, deal that sent Joe Sacco, J.J. Daigneault and Mark Jenssens to the New York Islanders.
This game goes to show you what happens when you have a couple breakdowns, three goals in two minutes. It was shocking, the building went pretty silent, no more buzz in the air. I was kind of happy it happened like this, because now they had a chance to show they could lock it up, buckle down and climb back. They showed that last night, but it doesn’t really matter since it should have never happened.
“We came out and dominated that first period, and we had a ton of scoring chances, they came out a lot better in the second period and we didn’t have the same intensity and speed that we had in the first. But we battled hard to come back and take the lead and showed a lot of fortitude.”
This is a pretty accurate quote from Chris Pronger. But you know what I saw, I saw some swagger in a team that shouldn’t be showing off quite yet. When Chris Simon scored the third goal, I told me my girlfriend they were going to get ripped by the coaches pretty soon, then the Ducks called a time out about 10 seconds after that. It stopped the bleeding and you saw that the players skated harder, you saw they were disappointed as well. Glad it was the Islanders that embarrassed us, because we almost salvaged it. Had that been another good team, they probably would have stomped us.
Fans, media types, columnists, bloggers and casual fans are buzzing about these All Mighty Ducks, but the players tell it best when they say its all hype. Great team on paper, lets put the results on the ice and let the post game stats on paper tell the story. I think intimidation works in some forms, but not really hockey. If you don’t bring it every night, you get worked. Lets see the lineup that takes stage versus Dallas on Sunday, I bet it has Travis Green in it and Bryzgalov starting.
PS: Randy Carlyle is pretty smart, he is preparing his young team to be hard nosed come the end of the season. They fought back last night and the rookies / sophomores were on the ice in all situations late in the game. So when the time rolls around in critical games, players will be ready.
Ugh, the company I work for is great. I have 3 suite tickets to use for tonights Ducks game. I love these seats, I am so excited. DirectPush to your phone…the greatest thing ever! So my girlfriend and my little brother get to go this time, instead of my other little brother and sister on Monday. Maybe I will take some kind of picture tonight, my cameraphone sucks…
As I usually do at work, I read a lot, I have roughly 8 hours of free time every working day. I open up SharpReader, spend a while reading the RSS feeds of my favorite sites and then move on to some sports news, mainly hockey. I came across an article today on ESPN.com written by Linda Cohn. She wants the NHL to shorten its schedule and start the season a little earlier. She made a good point for starting the season earlier, get a head start on the NBA and baseball playoffs. Can’t do anything about the juggernaut that is the NFL, that is one big media driven empire, a god damn goliath.
I just wanted to comment on her story though, because she stated the NHL isn’t doing enough to market itself, to sell the sport to the casual fan and attract new ones. The NHL and hockey as a sport are unique, it isn’t like the other sports people salivate over on TV.
Lets be quite honest here, the NFL and NBA are so big because they market well, consumers want the product. So, naturally, advertisement follows close behind because a lot of money can be made. Think of Google and how they make money, mainly from convenient, strategic advertising on the backs of others looking to make some money. They hit the web advertising business with the most efficiency, thus, they are the most successful. The same can be said about the NFL and sometimes the NBA. Paul Tagliabue was masterful, he took the violence of the game and the player personalities and put those out for the people to see. Now, with the mass coverage from the ESPN network, it grows even more, so much money to be made. Now it is out of control, no wonder he left.
Which brings me to that little Canadian sport, hockey. Recently relegated to being a niche sport, at least in the United States, it gets the shaft when it comes to other professional leagues. While it thrives in countries which value sportsmanship and competition on an athletics level, it is scoured at here. But hockey is not a sport where you will see its athletes complain too much or make a scene to get attention. But I will have to say that I see it starting to happen, maybe it is just because of the media coverage. That could have something to do with the league and its responsibility to its players.
While I know most players who grew up playing hockey were well off financially, you kind of have to be to travel so much, it doesn’t always mean that players understand that side. Nor do they always get the whole “freedom” thing, not being shuttled around by parents, suddenly free willing and loaded with cash, where are some girls, alcohol and trouble I can get in to. Not everyone has Super Mario to guide them after all. The NFL has programs it makes rookies take on money management, life skills and all that. But the exact opposite can be said for the upbringing of quite a lot of the NFL athletes.
The NHL has a unique opportunity, in that it can take what it wants from the other successful leagues and apply it. But I really hope it doesn’t go ahead and screw everything up by trying to market the sport in a negative way. Hockey players are the best athletes, it is simply amazing what they can do on the playing surface. Hail Mary passes, half court shots, heroic home runs…Ovechkin’s goal last year was more spectacular then any other play I can think of in other sports. Paul Kariya’s goal in the Finals after Scott Stevens knocked him out, sports lore.
So Linda Cohn, don’t talk about making the sport bigger with a fan base that doesn’t get it.. I don’t want it to turn into the NBA, we like our athletes to inspire, not incite riots with fans. Put a good product on the ice, the true fans came back, hockey thrives within those who adore the game. Level playing fields will also help the league, if most teams have a chance to make the playoffs within the last week or two, the casual fan will still be interested, he will come to the playoff environment stretch games. If Joe Blow in Columbus is a casual Blue Jackets fan and his team is good all season, he is more likely to pay more attention to the buzz.
Last thought, let the players play a little more. I want to see more hitting and board work. All this cut down on clutching and grabbing… Sure, I don’t want to see that. But there has to be a middle ground, pretty soon the defensemen will be wearing tutu’s, just to signify they can’t touch the opposing teams players. Can you imagine Chris Pronger in pink?
Eric Clapton, I love thee. Anyway, I went to the game tonight against the Blues. My stepmom called me up at 6:20 and asked if I wanted to go, I was watching the pregame stuff already, of course I wanted to go. All I knew was 4 tickets, me, my girlfriend and little brother and sister. Then I find out the tickets are for row N on the bottom level!!! I haven’t sat that close to the ice in years and I couldn’t wait. It was a great view, right on the blue line, so I was making offside calls all night, waiting for big hits to come. They never came…
I was rather disappointed with the tempo of the game, it was very dull. It was great that the team won, but nothing flowed. Not to mention that the Ducks gave up too many chances in the crease. O’Donnell had his usual hiccups, but nothing that created opportunities. Pronger AND Niedermayer did make mistakes of that nature though. They looked a little better than they did in game one, very happy about that. Couple more games together and everything should be good to go.
I noticed something though, sitting that close. Pronger and Niedermayer should not play together, it is just not needed. When they are both on the powerplay, what is the point. Beauchemin is more than capable of handling the puck and hammering it in to traffic, he has an excellent slapshot. It is an opportunity to have either of them resting up to 5-6 minutes a game. The younger guy can do the same job and you wont have to over work your horses. It is nice to roll them both out, but I would rather have well rounded, crisp defense the entire season instead of a worn down one.
First , I wanted to say thank you to FSN for keeping Brian Heyward and Steve Carroll together. They make watching hockey very fun, very informative. They show you the good of the game and Heyward is awesome. Also FSN and the VS. network for upping your commitment to hockey. They are hoping that it can take off and they can ride it in. ESPN did ok, it had a real professional production to it, Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are some of my favorite announcers.
Now that I have side tracked completely, how was the game? I had to tape it, coached a high school game, kinda fun. I sat down, watched it, flied through commercials, went back when I wanted hear something again. I enjoyed it so much better like that…
I will have to say that the team played well when it was on, but it also had its slip ups. But I would like to say the Kings played a good game, Anze Kopitar is pretty good, see how he drove past our new road block? Kings should be good next season.
All the goals were from the Ducks just muscling the opportunities away from the Kings. It was pretty funny to see, the Kings didn’t give much effort in the third, past that Visnovsky PP goal. Heyward brought up a nice point after the game was over, the Kings didn’t have a single shot after the game delay when Giguere went down. Pronger or Niedermayer, roll over the boards every other shift in the third and then together for the last shift. Or how about the 4 tic tac to passes resulting in the Kunitz goal, brilliant.
I will sum it up as, all the other teams better play tough against the Ducks. When they work out the kinks in the system, it will only be tougher to score on them. Remember the Red Wings in the late 90’s? That was a tough team to play against, very dominant. I just think we are on track for a very good start and season. Leadership is everywhere, slumps wont happen and neither will down games. I can not wait to watch it again tomorrow night.
This is a quick little tip for all of the hockey bloggers in the world. Microsoft has a new application that lets you submit posts to your blog directly from a program you launch on your computer, it is called Live Writer. Now, when Microsoft Word 2007 comes out, it will have this capability, but this is free and supports a slew of blogging API’s. Blogger (and the beta), LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress (I use this) and others.
It is a good little program, it makes posting easier. It supports your formatting, style, categories. You can insert links, pictures, save as a draft for later posting. If you have more then one blog, no problem, it handles that as well.
Check it out, I bet you wont go back to the old way of submitting.
