Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Ducks Gameday—Vancouver Five-O

Oh yeah, we have a real game tonight, huh? Anaheim Ducks (18-2-6, 1st in west) at Vancouver Canucks (12-12-1, 8th in west)

Don’t have time for too much today, but Tom Benjamin asks the question: Why does the NHL continue to lose ground in the United States? In the comments, there is some discussion about the move from ESPN to Versus, which naturally moves the sport out of the public consciousness.

Well check out how we got it in Southern California, which has two sports networks (Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket) to split among four winter teams (Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Ducks). For us Duck fans, that means that excess games get shifted to KDOC-TV, a local time-capsule station that serves us all a hot helping of TV nostalgia. Look at today’s schedule, for example:

9:00 am Little House on the Prairie
10:00 am Rockford Files
11:00 am Quincy, M.E.
12:00 pm Perry Mason
1:00 pm Matlock
2:00 pm Hawaii Five-O
3:00 pm Magnum, P.I.
4:00 pm The Nanny
4:30 pm Mad About You
5:00 pm Becker (twice)
6:00 pm Cheers (twice)
7:00 pm NHL Hockey
9:30 pm Cheers
10:00 pm The Twilight Zone
Did you miss it? No no, that’s not the 70s sitcom “NHL Hockey” at 7 pm, but rather tonight’s NHL contest. Hey, I for one am glad that KDOC picks up the local coverage baton, but really, who’s going to be accidentally watching tonight’s game? The guy who lost his Nick-at-Nite channel? (Note also that televised hockey is on the decline in Canada also; maybe it's not just us).

At any rate, three weeks ago today the Ducks won 6-0 in Vancouver, but that was a pretty deceptive score, as the Ducks scored on their 2nd, 4th, 9th, 17th, 22nd, and 23rd shots. That probably won’t be happening again tonight.

Still, the Canucks have scored 3 goals or more only twice in their last 14 games. The Ducks have scored 2 goals or less only twice in their last 16 games.

Prediction: Ducks 5, Canucks 0 (to keep with the post title). Goals by Kunitz, Pahlsson, Shannon, O'Donnell, and Moustache.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think Parros even needs a last name... the Moustache will do. Someone needs to give him a new jersey.

p.s. I was bummed Sammy P didn't get a goal/point in the EDM game to keep his streak running.

Kent W. said...

I fully expect the Ducks to beat up on the Canucks. Course, I said that prior to the Philly game as well...

Earl Sleek said...

Oh, and any of you who live outside Southern California (but still within the U.S.) can watch tonight's game live via Yahoo! streaming video.

Yeah, that's right. Both of you.

VeryProudofYa said...

I can only hope they don't expect to roll and can keep their focus, something that's been a killer for them against less that stellar teams.

Well, excluding the last tilt against the Canucks.

Sean Zandberg said...

5-0 huh??
I wouldn't bet against that.
I'll say: 4-1 Ducks. Goals by Selanne, Selanne, Perry, Kunitz. Naslund gets the Nucks goal.

Rick said...

The NHL is run by a retard--that's why interest is declining. (There's no delicate way to put it.)

Overexpansion has diluted the talent pool too much. Teams play where there is no organic street level support for the sport. Either the teams need to invest way more heavily in subsidizing local youth and adult leagues, or they need to pull out of such areas.

If they wanted to really get viewership up, they'd broadcast EVERY game over the internet, just to say they did it first.

Ducks 3 Canucks 2.

Anonymous said...

Well Green is in for Moustache, so that part of your prediction will not come true.

I would love the see O'D get another goal...that would put him at one more goal than he had all last season.

Anonymous said...

Ooops! The above post was written by me... at beaner's computer :)

Anonymous said...

In other news, that network appears to have a hard-on for Ted Danson.

2.5 hours of Danson-dominated programming a day? In prime time? Egads!

Ted must have pictures.