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

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Friday, December 08, 2006

Ducks Gameday—Washington Salary Caps

Anaheim Ducks (21-3-6, 1st in west) at Washington Capitals (12-9-6, t-9th in east)

The Capitals come in on an impressive 4 game win streak, made all the more impressive given the opposition—at Tampa Bay, then hosting Dallas, Buffalo, and Ottawa. The Caps outscored that fearsome foursome 22-11, despite being outshot 108-155.

Last year, my brother and I went to the once-in-three-year visit of the Caps at the Pond, where Alexander Ovechkin potted his first NHL hat trick, including the OT winner. That kid worked us over that night, so probably Pronger will get the AOssignment tonight.

Two months ago, Japer’s Rink randomly took a shot at ‘Christie Prongley’ and I never quite understood why. A Caps fan jumping in on this bash-Pronger movement? Well, JP, here’s some Pronger news for ya:

Pronger is second in the western conference in overall scoring, only trailing teammate Selanne. He’s got 31 points, same as Omunchkin, and has gone without a point only three times in the last twenty games. Pronger leads the Ducks in even-strength ice time, power-play ice time, and penalty-kill ice time, and has been on the ice for 62 goals-for, 26 goals-against.

Plus Pronger can throw a baseball without making a Skeletor face.

No wonder that kid fired his agent.

CapsChick has a nice game preview, including nicknames for all the Ducks. Check out her linky bar for lots more Cap bloggers, all desperately trying to be adopted by Ted Leon$i$.

Prediction: Ducks 4, Capitals 1. Goals by Selanne, each Niedermayer, and “Screech” Pahlsson.

17 comments:

mike w said...

Ah, Chris Pronger looks so damn loveable in that photo, doesn't he?

VeryProudofYa said...

Boy do I remember the Ducks/Caps game last year.

Especially the part where Ovechkin morphed into a train and killed Vishnevski.

There's a clip of it on youtube. Which is strange enough, considering what was the only clip with Vishnevski for the longest time was one of HIM getting demolished, rather than the other way around.

Earl Sleek said...

Especially the part where Ovechkin morphed into a train and killed Vishnevski.

Yeah, that was precious.

I forgot to mention that Ovechkin was not suspended for his unnecessary hit-into-the-bench-door two games ago against Briere; had the NHL had any guts, we would probably be playing a AO-less squad tonight.

Anonymous said...

Had he been suspended, it would probably not have been for more than one game, so you were pretty much screwed either way. :) I wouldn't worry too much, though - just wait for his stick to break and the Ducks should be fine.

Seriously, though, both teams have really improved since their last meeting and I'm looking forward to my first (and last) glimpse of the all-powerful Ducks!

Earl Sleek said...

Oops, one error in my Pronger-bragging. Sammy Pahlsson has more shorthanded time-on-ice than Pronger, but Pronger does lead the team in the other two categories (PP TOI and EV TOI), and does lead all Ducks defensemen in SH TOI.

Doogie2K said...

Not that I should be adding to the Pronger love-train, but I should point out that 31 pts in the West > 31 pts in the East.

Earl Sleek said...

not to mention that 31 pts from the blueline > 31 pts from a cherry-picking forward

Charity said...

just wait for his stick to break and the Ducks should be fine.

Oh god, I forgot about that spontaneous stick-bursting thing... ahhaha, maybe they swapped out those sticks finally.

Anonymous said...

hey sleek - ducks recalled Shawn Thornton. Looks like Parros may not even be in tonight's line-up in favor of the AHL capt. When he was up for his 7-game stint, he had 2 assists and was a +5.

Earl Sleek said...

Yeah, I saw that, but I'm not sure who's going to sit (it might not be Parros, given the Caps' tough guy lineup).

Shawn Thornton's 5.25 ESGD/hr (even-strength goal-differential per hour) is by far the best mark on the team, while Moustache still has yet to be on the ice for an Anaheim goal.

Getzlaf has managed to sneak in some goals in his non-Parros ice time (5 in the last 6 games, in fact), but Perry has not scored since Parros was acquired.

Charity said...

apparently, I'm wrong. Shannon's out (ironic, considering Randy Carlyle just talked about how he isn't worried about Shanny's lack of numbers in the OC Register)... and Parros will dance with Brashear... *shrug* Well, I tried to predict it.

VeryProudofYa said...

dropping Shannon for a game like this makes sense.

i doubt he'd have fought Erskine, let alone actually scoring a goal. :o

Oh, and Duck announcers are saying the Ducks have the league's best power-play. The Shark game I watched yesterday had the announcers saying the same thing about the Sharks. Did the Sharks only go one for six+ attempts to drop their percentage, or is Hazy toking up in the broadcast booth?

Anonymous said...

Anaheim's #1 by .1 over the Sharks according to ESPN.

Shannon may have trouble getting back in. It looks like the Ducks found ANOTHER line that's clicking.

VeryProudofYa said...

tough luck for teemu, he got tagged rather unexpectedly by big ol donald.

Good game for the Ducks, the penalty killing was, for the most part, brutally efficient. The even strength play was excellent, and the powerplay had some good chances.

For a few minutes I thought it might have been slipping towards a bench clearing brawl.
Boy, Hanlon doesn't take losing well.

Earl Sleek said...

Oh, and Duck announcers are saying the Ducks have the league's best power-play. The Shark game I watched yesterday had the announcers saying the same thing about the Sharks. Did the Sharks only go one for six+ attempts to drop their percentage, or is Hazy toking up in the broadcast booth?

Actually, that did happen yesterday; I noticed it this morning. Today Anaheim was the top PP pct. team in the league; tomorrow it will be San Jose once again (Ducks were 0-for-3).

Regardless, almost all of this game looked like men vs. boys; I think it was our most dominant game of the year.

Shawn Thornton, wow!

Even George Parros was a plus (though his contribution was to stay one zone away from the puck).

Anonymous said...

I do believe that Pronger is showing the crowd the same grip his wife has own his own balls.

Anonymous said...

I saw Pronger's cursing face... and Ryan Getzlaf's when he got whistled for a second obstruction call in the first. Heh. Never did see Ryan so upset.

I, too, wonder what it means for the little guy Shanny since Shawn-T came in with commanding presence. And you're right, it makes sense for Shanny to ride the pine pony for a game or two. They needed the tough guy and not necessarily the speedster. For some reason, it just didn't cross my mind to seat Shannon - I wasn't taking into account the tough guy line-up on the Caps roster.

I say much of the same will remain in tact for the Thrashers game... and I don't see why Randy would change the line-up for tonight either... though I wonder if Wall gets the nod in net.