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

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ducks Gameday—A game without logos

Round One, Game Four: (4) Anaheim Ducks at (5) Dallas Stars
(DAL leads series 2-1, JavaGeek ‘odds’: DAL 72%)

I created this material for a Dallas gameday post earlier this year, and I apologize to hardcore readers for the recycling, but I've been a busy guy this week. I'll set the gag up by first showing the Stars' road and home jersey:

Notice what's missing from the Home jersey
Now the gag:

As for the game tonight, I think the easy thing to do would be to smile and declare “The Ducks are back! All our problems are over!”, but I’m far from convinced, really. I mean, it’s great that the Ducks scored the first (second, third, and fourth) goal of the game for a change, but it’s not like they showed me that they’ve fixed what’s went wrong in the first two games; I’m still very worried about what happens the next time Dallas takes a lead, or even what happens when Turco doesn’t allow four goals on the first eight shots. In terms of Ducks "character", I found the game not very revealing at all. Just a good result stemming from a blowout start.

The Ducks got outshot in game three 33-15 (14-3 in the third period), but I won’t complain about that like I did before; I fully expect a team up 4-0 early in the second period to “shut it down” a bit and rest its scorers for back-to-back games 4 & 5. Still, it is worth pointing out that in this series, shots are 100-60 for Dallas, which is a greater shot deficit than the Ducks had in their entire 2003 series against the #1 seeded Stars (208-176, outshot by 32 shots).

One thing I'm glad about, ironically, is that game three didn't end in a shutout. It's very critical that the Ducks take tonight's game just as serious as they took the last one, and a blowout dominant win can sometimes be the worst thing for a team in a seven-game series. (Last year, Detroit blew out the Ducks 5-0 in game three, then never won again.) The Ducks cannot afford to get overconfident in some "we're back, and things are OK" mentality, especially against the Stars. Hopefully Morrow's two PP goals will help send home the message to the Ducks: be ready and be careful.

Oh wait, what am I worried about? Spade has fixed the penalty kill.

Prediction: I don’t know if we should take very much comfort out of this fact, but Anaheim is 10-1 in its last 11 game fours (dating back to 2003). Still, three other western series are tied 2 games apiece; let's make it four. Ducks 3, Stars 1. Goals by May, Pahlsson, and Perry.

p.s. Found out yesterday that I'll be back in row B for G5. More on that tomorrow.

Go Ducks.

15 comments:

Spade-in-victorhell said...

im real uneasy about todays game...dallas looked real dangerous in the 3rd period...Im gonna cling to the fact that perry is coming back..and the ducks seem to do well when someone comes back..not that perry will make a difference but for some reason they elevate there game (remember when scott n. and teemu getz. came back this year..ducks went on runs)

and maybe seeing the predators tie the series might scare dallas a little also...hmmmm...im grasping for positives...

wine was the drink of choice for game 3 so I will grab a bottle on my way home...cant jinx our ducks by getting JD

folks whatever u were wearing or drinking on tuesday hit that shitte again..no matter if that shirt is unwashed ..underwear has streak marks..or the drink was vile...

GO DUCKS!!!

RudyKelly said...

I thought you didn't realize Perry was going to be back until I saw the prediction. Very, uh, sleek, Sleek.

Daniel said...

The one thing that changed for the Ducks in G3 was the intensity of the forecheck. The Ducks pressed two forwards for the most part and even Selanne was in on it, he wasn't physical but his stick was very aggressive. Does Norstrom shake off his horrible performance?

Give Brad May credit, he was a star on the forecheck. It was great to see everyone taking the body and taking it hard. Another bonus, Bertuzzi had about half the TOI he did in G1 and G2. I hear he is moving to the 4th line, awesome move.

Earl Sleek said...

Another bonus, Bertuzzi had about half the TOI he did in G1 and G2.

Heh, I didn't even realize this. That's why he took half the number of stupid penalties that he took in G1 and G2.

Mike in OC said...

That's why he took half the number of stupid penalties that he took in G1 and G2.

The numbers never lie.

brokeyard said...

Are the jersey pictures taken from NHL 08?

Earl Sleek said...

Totally. You can find the link to all the NHL 08 new uniforms (AHL and NHL) in this old post.

brokeyard said...

Me and my roommates are addicted to the game, we even keep track of our overall record against each other. Fun stuff.

Of course, 4 out of 5 of them are Sharks fans, so we don't speak to each other otherwise.

Earl Sleek said...

Curious update--Superblogger James Mirtle just forwarded me this note:

"The Anaheim Ducks announced today that the National Hockey League (NHL) club has recalled goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur from the Augusta Lynx, Anaheim's development affiliate in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL)."

Who knows what that means? Maybe it's just to let him ride along with the big club; maybe Giguere is dead.

Of course, I'm getting pretty used to the notion of being surprised by the starting netminder in Anaheim playoff games. If necessary, Heil Hiller.

Daniel said...

Like James' earlier post about the Habs bringing up their entire AHL team, the Pirates are actually still playing...tonight even.

Earl Sleek said...

I dunno, I suspect it's nothing, just a chance for a young goalie to hang out in a playoff atmosphere, but really, who knows?

Carlyle never tells us anything. We get to find out opening goalies pretty much the same time the Dallas Stars do.

WARNING: SPADE HAS OPENED HIS BOTTLE OF MERLOT..AND DOESNT WORK TOMMOROW...EXPECT DRUNK POSTS

Wait, you do sober posts? :)

Anonymous said...

Re: Levasseur
Per Wildcat on AD.com(he covers the Pirates in Maine and has had reliable info in the past in regards to the farm teams):
It's nothing to worry about, but with the Lynx losing their playoff series last night, the Ducks recalled him to Anaheim as to sending him to Portland where we'd have four goalies.

Earl Sleek said...

Thanks, Morbo!

I've forwarded the information back to Mirtle, so he can stop pretending to be worried.

Spade-in-victorhell said...

thanx for the 411 morbo...

Bryan said...

Good PK analysis Spade. Dallas has just been scoring too many PP goals. And very few of them are results of your typical shots from the point.

Perry is really gonna play? Just doesn't make sense to me. But then again, I thought Hiller should have played Game 3. So what do I know.

Need a win otherwise I think Ducks will finish out a solid 0 for 3 at home on Friday.