Meet your blogger
In one of my comments fields, Mike W asked a valid question: "Earl, I have to ask: are you born/raised Californian hockey fan or are you from Canada?"
Here are 5 interesting facts about Earl Sleek the blogger:
- "Earl Sleek", of course, is a pen name. The name comes from an obscure video game called Forsaken on the old Nintendo 64. For various reasons (employment being the most pressing), that name will suffice for these posts.
- I have lived in Southern California since I was 2 (I am 28 now). For the most part, I lived within 15 minutes of Disneyland (Villa Park, Orange, Santa Ana). For the past five years, I have lived in Redondo Beach, CA, and worked in downtown Los Angeles (about 8 blocks from the Staples Center).
- I am half-Irish and half-Korean. That doesn't mean much except that I come from two races of mean drunks.
- I have never played the sport of hockey, on ice or on roller blades. Rather, I actually became a fan of hockey through the popular video game NHL 94 on the SNES.
- As the Mighty Ducks franchise pre-dates that video game, I have very little first-hand knowledge of the inaugural team, as I had no interest in hockey at that time. I don't know much about the Ducks before the Kariya-Selanne days, other than what I've read.
If you're curious to know more, shoot a question in these comments and I'll respond. I'll probably post something at a later date about how a guy who never played hockey became an NHL nut, as that might be of interest in the debate about 'growing the game'.
8 comments:
NHL 94 on SNES! Awesome!!!
There haven't been a lot of Korean players in the NHL, Richard Park being the only one I can think of that plays currently.
The other one that comes to mind is Jim Paek, defenceman for the Penguins in the early 90's when they won their back-to-back cups.
Bit of random sports trivia... Troy Loney played with Jim Paek in Pittsburgh and won the Stanley Cup with them as well. He was acquired by the Ducks for their inaugural season in 93/94, and was named the captain of the team.
Troy Loney, first captain of the Ducks. That alone should be a pretty good indicator about how well their first year in the NHL went. Their record was 33-46-5, and their leading scorer was Terry Yake, with 52 points in 82 games.
And to finish my thought (heh), that first year the Ducks finished eleven points back of the San Jose Sharks, but were five points ahead of the Kings, and seven ahead of the Oilers!
Richard Park spent some time on the Ducks. He was raised also in Southern California, and I believe is one of the few NHLers who began his game on roller blades, not ice skates.
Why affiliate with the Ducks instead of the Kings (much closer to your current work & home)?
Why affiliate with the Ducks instead of the Kings (much closer to your current work & home)?
Once you're on one side of the fence, you're stuck on it, I guess.
What's ironic is that one of my good friends living in O.C. is a Kings fan. Nothing we can do about it.
Sigh...yes, 1994 was a bad year for the Smythe (Pacific, whatever): Calgary and Vancouver were the only .500+ teams.
NHL 94 is definitely a good thing.
Did you see the proposed 2006-07 Ducks logos Mirtle (I think) had posted a couple of weeks back? If so, any thoughts?
Did you see the proposed 2006-07 Ducks logos Mirtle (I think) had posted a couple of weeks back? If so, any thoughts?
Actually, I posted them, and I should reiterate that these were proposals (there is an announcement planned this summer for the real thing).
I am very against the idea of changing our team name, especially since the move seems motivated by non-Duck-fans who cannot stomach our team name. While I am no real fan of the MD movies, I think it is just stupid to throw away a decade of tradition, whether they were great years or not.
To add to this, I am also of the opinion that all team names suck. I don't think all of a sudden we will get a "cool" name that makes Anaheim respected in say, Edmonton. Respect based on a team name sucks anyway.
All that said, if we did have to change it, I am glad at least that it is "Ducks" rather than something completely new. The new logos, they're not so bad, but I'm probably wearing the old colors for a while.
Earl, some unsolicited advice ..... if you're only 28 you should give some serious thought to learning to play ice hockey. You can watch the NHL when you're a senior citizen, but your window for playing starts closing by middle age (that's where I am right now, and the joints are begining to fall apart).
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