Ducks Gameday—Ironman Streaks on both sides of the puck
Vancouver Canucks (16-11-3, 4th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (15-13-4, t-5th in west)
Sorry if I got your hopes up, but word is there will be only one Niedermayer playing tonight, and his name is Rob. Also, nobody's been moved yet to create tag space for Scott (Varius has done the math here), so there's still a trade a-coming, and I'll add an update if anything happens today.
At any rate, the bigger stories are probably on the other end of the ice, as both Roberto Luongo and Brendan Morrison are unavailable tonight. Luongo shut out the Ducks in Vancouver two weeks ago, and a rib injury will keep him day-to-day. As for Morrison, he snaps what was the reigning NHL ironman streak at 542 consecutive games.Somewhat ironically, tonight diminutive center Andy McDonald will take sole possession of the Anaheim franchise ironman streak. Currently he is tied with the 275-consecutive-game streak that Sammy Pahlsson had set before missing the first five games this year (hernia surgery).
I don't really want to knock BevMo or Andy Mac, but really, if these are the guys who are going to be setting the consecutive game records these days, we should probably stop calling it an "ironman" streak. More realistically, it's a "won't go into the corners" man streak. Still, congrats to both of them for their achievements; it is nice to know that little guys can survive and thrive in a big-bodied sport.
As for the game, you might think that I'd be excited that Luongo's unavailable, and I guess I am. Still, the Ducks have seemingly always had trouble with 2nd-string goalies, whereas they've had pretty good success against Bobby Lou of late; I don't this game's going to be easy, even with the dropoff in netminding. Still, we might get to see a rarity: the Ducks might get to score first, something they haven't done in ten straight games.
Prediction: Let's say Ducks 3, Canucks 2. Goals by Getzlaf, Pahlsson, and a (farewell?) goal by Schneidermayer.
p.s. I have been remiss on my congratulations to James Mirtle, Tom Benjamin, Tyler Dellow, and others for their mentions in the HNIC feature on hockey bloggers a few weeks ago (follow that last link to see the video). It was awesome to see Ron MacLean paging through the blog-link sidebar at Canucks Corner, talking up some of the blogs he reads, and skipping right past BoC. Way to keep it on the level, Ron; we're not legitimizing anybody in the blog business.
Oh yeah, and Go Ducks.
10 comments:
yeah... wasn't expecting much in terms of the return of Scott tonight. Seriously... yesterday/today was to have been his first contact practice and since there has been no trades as of yet (though there was a hint of one possibly happening yesterday) we might see Scott on Friday. Maybe...
What... no goals by Perry?
And now... to find some sort of soundtrack to mute out the rest of the world for the next eight or nine hours...
What... no goals by Perry?
He'll probably score Pahlsson's goal (with his SH penalty shot, I figure Pahlsson's done scoring for December--that doesn't mean he's out of the predictions, though!).
Ducks have had success lately against Luongo? I guess we're ignoring the shutout the last time the teams played. ;)
Well, I was thinking a little more long-term than just two weeks ago.
Last year (regular season and playoffs), Luongo was able to beat the Ducks once in 8 tries, and that took two overtimes to do.
Really, only this last outing was Luongo able to stifle the Ducks' offense; if you want that to be the one game that defines the trend, so be it.
Oh, and while I'm all linky today, I should probably give a shout-out to Mike Chen's reaction to the HNIC piece, where he wished that Ron would have sought out and found the ol' State Rape cartoon.
I was just keying on the word "recently" and being a little snarky. ;) Maybe you should have said "previously." hehe
Those Row R, Sec 227 tix are still available as of 1pm.
i didnt watch the game thank gawd...i turned it on 3-1...and thinking why the fuck are down 3-1 late?...then I see the ducks keeping the puck in the nucks zone forever put not doing shit with it..and say...Oh ok...thats why were down 3-1....cant wait for the trade..this team needs a shake-up...garbage losing to an undermanned team in front of there fans....
I'm a little disappointed to see that superhero does not have a massive, amazing playoff beard in the mold of Mr. Scott Niedermayer.
why the fuck are down 3-1 late?...then I see the ducks keeping the puck in the nucks zone forever put not doing shit with it..and say...Oh ok...thats why were down 3-1....
Well, that third period the team looked a lot better than it did in the first. For some reason, even though I bring it up every GDP, the Ducks have zero game when the score is 0-0. They need to fall down 1-0 (or sometimes 3-0) before they decide the game is worth playing.
Fuck it, Ducks. Go into a game and *pretend* it's 1-0 already. No need to keep digging actual holes, especially when the same starting result happens for now 11 straight games.
im going to pin this loss on not having the stache dressed....at least that hows its going into the memory bank
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