Ducks Gameday—Phoenix Underdogs
Phoenix Coyotes (27-35-3, 14th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (39-17-11, 3rd in west)
I am drunk, tired, stupid, and out of town (not in that order, though; ‘tired’ should be first), so this will be a quick one.
Since the lockout, the Phoenix Coyotes have played the somewhat-Mighty Ducks 14 times. Once they managed to beat Anaheim in regulation, once they managed to beat Anaheim in overtime, once they managed to lose to Anaheim in overtime, and eleven times they have been beaten in regulation. 5 measly points in 14 games.
Who in the west has less points against the Ducks in their matchups since the lockout? Two teams—Vancouver only has picked up 4 points in 7 regular season matchups, and Chicago has only picked up 4 points in 6 regular season matchups, so should either team lose the next 7 or 8 Duck games in regulation, they will be sub-Phoenixian (but we won’t be able to declare this for at least two years).
Without a lot of fanfare, though, the Ducks secretly have gone 6-1-3 in their last 10. Two fun facts, since it appears all-but-certain that Anaheim will have a postseason:
- This (so far) is the first time in Anaheim history that the Ducks have qualified for the postseason in consecutive seasons.
- Randy Carlyle (so far) is the first head coach in Anaheim history to stay with the team long enough to have a second playoff run with the team.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Coyotes 3. Goals by Getzlaf, Perry, Pahlsson, Beauchemin, and Thornton.
p.s. Lone dog blogger One Fan’s Perspective has an excellent Behind-The-Blog post at BTJ.
[Edit from the airport: first off, Pronger seems to have hurt his toe in the two-week variety, so Beauchemin's spleen and Giguere's groin are now on high alert. Secondly, MOTHERFUCKER!!! Remember the days when a 2 1/2 hour flight didn't take ALL FUCKING DAY?!!!!]
3 comments:
Looks like they'll have to do it without pronger. Toe break. yeeeowch.
I've got to say the bottom three (Dipenta, Huskins, Jackman) does not inspire a lot of confidence in me.
Actually, I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of play from Kent Huskins. He's no show-stopper, but he's got an adequate skillset for a bottom pairing.
As for Dipenta and Jackman, they somewhat work as well, but have more obvious deficiencies (Dipenta: offense and footspeed; Jackman: defensive common sense).
Just to expound on that last point, here is how my day has gone today:
8:30 meet with client
10:00 get dropped off at Portland Airport (way too early for my 1:20 flight, but my travel buddy had to drive back to Seattle for his own flight.
12:50 flight does not board, some nonsense about how the intercom on the plane isn't working.
3:30 after regular "updates" (mostly consisting of "another update will be coming in 45 minutes"), we are assured that boarding will begin at 4:00.
4:10 after ten suspicious minutes of more non-boarding, they announce that the problem is not fixed, so they decide to cancel the flight.
5:00 after standing in line with a planeload of upset folks, I get put on a 9 pm flight instead.
So yeah, it sucks. Worst part is, I can't find another damn flight in the entire flightboard that doesn't carry the tagline "ON TIME".
I can't believe I haven't killed anyone yet (though I have about another three hours to consider and execute). The NHL may be run by monkeys, but it's important at times to remember that it has NOTHING on the day-to-day moronicity of airlines.
As I said before, if I ever have a daughter, her name will be "Teemu". If I ever have a son, his name will be "Fuck you Alaskan Airlines".
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