Archive for March, 2007

29
Mar

He Shoots, He Scores

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Ducks, Game Reviews, Hockey and Videos

 How impressive was that rebound goal by Parros? Too bad that didn’t happen at home, the Honda Center would have gone crazy, like they just won in overtime or something. George Parros looked so unnatural scoring that goal too. He ‘over powered’ Holmqvist and banged it home, what a great moment for the team, to see him finally contribute. That might be the last time we see Big George this year, but now that he is a scoring threat, who knows.

As for the rest of the game, it was up and down. The Ducks looked flat at some times during the game and pretty good other times. That line of Getlaf, Perry and Penner is unbelievable, they own the puck down low. I don’t care if that was a young team, they still cycled the puck almost every shift. That will be huge down this shaky stretch. It sure makes you happy as a Ducks fan that they did so well on the long homestand, because average play of late has let the Sharks and Stars back in it.

I do believe that second place in the conference is the lowest seed the Ducks will get and have an decent chance at grabbing the top prize from Nashville. Today is another day to prove it though, lets see if they can grab 2 points from the Blue Jackets, that has been hard to come by this year.

If you want to see the Parros goal click here.

19
Mar

…And That is Why Modano is Captain No More

By Daniel 1 Comment
Categories: Hockey and Videos

 

And this is why Mike Modano is no longer the captain of the Dallas Stars. He gets hit, his teammate gets punched in the face and the culprit is smaller. All he did was nothing, he skated around like he wanted to maybe do something but he didn’t. Brendan Morrow is the captain because he would have stepped in there and stomped Tootoo. Congratulations on the most goals as an American Mike, but seriously, that is why you are not the captain any more.

 

09
Mar

Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Ducks and Misc

So I was browsing around trying to good image of the webbed D in the Ducks logo and was pretty unsuccessful, but I found some other interesting images in the process.

How many people went to Anaheim Bullfrog games when the RHI was around? The company my dad worked for had some awesome club level seats at center ice for everything that went on at the Pond and I would watch anything hockey. So we went to most of those during the season, it was not as fast as ice hockey but I enjoyed it a lot. I think my most memorable time was in 1997 when the Bullfrogs won it all and the players were throwing sticks in to the crowd. I went with my mom this game and I remember complaining, almost crying, that I wanted a stick. Remember, club seats, how irrational I was at 15, actually, what a baby…haha. Anyways, I thought about that moment when I saw this picture, so I figured I would post something. Another stupid fact, the cheerleaders were called the pollywogs, how original.

Now, some stuff about the Ducks, because that was the whole reason I was on this adventure.

I remember when the announcement was made on January 26th that the team would change its name, colors, jersey and logo. So I was always on the lookout for what it would look like, maybe some voting by the fans or something. To my knowledge that never happened, which was surprising, but that is how they did it. In April I found the picture to the right, my initial thought was that they sucked, both of them. I was thinking that the crest would be that Duck Hunt logo and the arm patches would be the other part, how extremely non-threatening. I could see the opposing team simulating gun shots and jumbo-tron’s showing videos of the classic game when they scored on Anaheim. Kind of funny when you think about it, that would have been great to see at the Staples Center, those old NES light guns would be at all the tailgate parties.

My personal favorite is this one, because I have no idea where it came from. The filename is Draft-AnaheimDucks2.gif and I found it on one of those picture sharing sites, I want to say Flickr, but I don’t remember. I kind of like it to be honest and I did not know that ducks had talons…It almost looks like a the Philadelphia Eagles logo, but I still think it is very fresh looking. Maybe this will be the third jersey down the line or something. But if I were to pick a third jersey, it would be the one from last year, because that was a solid looking piece of fabric. I almost went to the Ducks team store and bought one when they had that huge sale on old merchandise, but I figured since that was still at markup cost, I would pass. Lets see what happens with this one, maybe it does get used in the future or maybe it is just some hardcore fan with some artistic ability and time on his hands that made this one.

07
Mar

Wiki Integration, Finally

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Blog, Ducks, Game Reviews, Hockey and Players

So, there is about 2:00 minutes left in the game and I have been working on this since the third period started, after about 30 minutes I was able to finally get it to work. Personally I think it was the Jack and Coke, but what do I know, I have been drinking. The point is that it works and I am excited. I am hoping to make this the best resource for any information you could want to know about the organization. I am almost certain that everyone who has been on the internet in the last 18 months or so has been to Wikipedia once or twice and I am using the same application as that.

The whole point of a wiki is to have the community maintain the information, add random facts, stats and information that you find relative. Imagine comming to one site to find out who scored the first goal in franchise history, first power play goal, first captain, a list of captains over the years. Anything you can think of, it can be added to the database, by any registered user. If you see something inaccurate that another user wrote, you can change it. This is the kind of thing you work on a lot in the off-season, when you do not have much hockey to watch but you want something hockey related to do.

You have to log in twice right now, but it is still the same login. Down the line, the plugin maker said he will try to use the same session from the blog, so you wouldn’t have to login twice.

And since the game is over, congratulations to Joe DiPenta and Ric Jackman, they had some swolen shoes to fill and they came through in a big way. You have to love how DiPenta’s goal when in, a few weeks ago the Ducks didn’t get that bounce. Maybe things are looking up.

07
Mar

Is it Raining in Phoenix?

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Ducks, Hockey, Injuries, Players and Pre-Game

Or is that just Roenick crying some more? I used to love that guy, he has a great personality for a hockey player, I wish more had it but he needs to stop complaining. If you wanted to be traded you should have worked harder at your goal to be like Teemu Selanne was last year.

The Ducks welcome the Coyotes to the Honda Center tonight, hopefully to continue the dominance they had over the last few seasons, even though the last few games were horrible, lets rap it up tonight. Teams like the Coyotes are dangerous because they have players coming up or players already on the roster that are fighting for a slot for next season. You gotta know they are going to bring a fast and physical game.

Some injury reports now.

Chris Pronger jammed his toe in an off-ice workout and has been labeled a game time decision tonight. Todd Marchant recently started skating again and the biggest news of all…Brad May is projected to return tonight. So looks like both Jackman and DiPenta will play tonight if Pronger can’t go. I hope he doesn’t, let him have a night off or something.

 

Update:

I guess the previous report I read was wrong, Chris Pronger will be out for two weeks with a broken toe. ESPN link here.

04
Mar

Swagger Time

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Ducks, Former Ducks and Pre-Game

After a crappy loss to the Kings in overtime only got the team one point and then thoughtfully beating the Sharks around, Anaheim is going to get a Nashville team that is pretty hot as of late, 4 wins in a row. They beat the Kings 6-3 at the Staples Center yesterday and I watched a little of that and Forsberg looked very good, he was all over the place and had all kinds of room. Who wants to bet that the shutdown line and the defensemen wont give him any room to pull any of his shenanigans.

The Sharks looked awful and have looked awful for at least a couple weeks, if they don’t tighten that ship up, Bill Guerin is going home early and all was lost for that deal. My bet is, they don’t get everything sewn up in time and fizzle out, just call it a hunch. They don’t really have a guy who can bring it all together in the locker room.

Nashville though, that is another story, my bet is that they are going to be a tough out. Like a good contact hitter who will go 10-12 pitches, fouling them off until he gets his pitch. Forsberg has got to give them that confidence, that extra little boost that this team needs. I also believe that the Ducks are going to shut them down tommorow and bring that back to reality. Every line is playing well and contributing and Ryan Getzalf is a stud on skates, he is going to be a great player next year and down the line.

If my what I see in my head comes to reality, Anaheim will battle one out with the best in the West and bring the Predators back to reality. This is the last time these teams play each other in the regular season. Lets hope it’s a statement night, should be physical.

 

Jots and Jabs:

I wonder if Shea Weber wants to fight Travis Moen again?

Vitaly Vishnevski is comig back to town after being traded from Atlanta to Nashville a while ago.