Ducks Gameday—Still waiting for scorers to score

Anaheim Ducks (1-5-0, 15th in west) at Toronto Maple Leafs (1-2-2, t-11th in east)
When's the last time you looked longingly at Toronto's record?
(I wasn't asking you, Kings fans.)

Yeah, sometimes I'm lazy enough for a good google image search, so sue me (note to Disney: please don't sue me).

Not too much from me today, as I didn't even get to watch the Carolina outing, but I did want to revisit a post I wrote way back in June that explored the notion of Brian Burke taking a Maple Leafs GM job next summer. I really made two points: (1) Brian Burke has gotten lucky at times, in particular with his acquisitions of Niedermayer, Pronger, and Selanne, and (2) I was fine with Burke leaving, as there is a fairly open roster next year for a replacement GM to work with.

Of course, that latter point isn't looking so strong these days, as the three biggest contracts Burke has locked the Ducks into are:

R. Getzlaf, 6 gp, 0-1-1, -5 — 5 years, $26.625 million
C. Perry, 6 gp, 0-1-1, -4, — 5 years, $26.625 million
C. Kunitz, 6 gp, 0-0-0, -5 — 4 years, $14.9 million

So, using some ridiculous pro-rating math, thus far it's looking like the Ducks will pay some $68.15 million for this trio of forwards to score a combined 0 goals and 137 assists in 1,148 games played. That's just under $500,000 per assist, and I don't even want to mention the combined -888.

Of course, that's all pretty silly math, but the reality remains: the forwards on the Ducks with one or less points on the season are Getzlaf, Perry, Kunitz, Selanne, Morrison, and Parros. And the only thing that separates Parros from this group is (a) he's been on the ice for more goals-for (3) than the other five, (b) he has yet to be on the ice for a goal-against, and (c) he's had less than half the ice time of any of them.

I'll mention again the bizarre scoring structure: the top two lines have scored 1 goal, the bottom two lines have scored 8, and the defense has scored 4. When exactly is Carlyle going to shuffle things up?

Prediction: Technically, somebody's getting a second "W" tonight. Ducks 4, Leafs 1. Goals by Kunitz, Scotty, Pahlsson, and Parros. Ron Wilson catches Teemu with another illegal stickblade. Make sure to check out Pension Plan Puppets, Battle of Ontario, and Down Goes Brown for your Toronto perspectives.

[9 am edit -- Our good buddy Michael Dell, who hosts the LCS Radio Show where both Chen and I recently made guest appearances, was so inspired by our 80s TV devotion that he made a list of the NHL's A-Team. A pretty good list, but I still prefer my casting.]

Positivity! Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday—And now, your Minnesota iLLLLLLLd

(that’s “Wild” spelled with zero Ws and seven Ls, by the way, a tribute to their all-time postseason record against Anaheim.)

Game Four: (2) Anaheim Ducks at (7) Minnesota Wild
(ANA leads series 3-0, JavaGeek ‘odds’: ANA 95%)

Aww, doesn't this picture take you back to the ol' Disney days?

Are the Ducks really going to pull off another sweep, their fourth since 2003? To put that in perspective, the rest of the NHL over that timespan has had only two sweeps (TB 1, NJ 1).

It's by no means an automatic, given the Wild's lofty home record and how closely each game of the series has been. Let’s not forget that Minnesota has a history of resilience—back in 2003 Minnesota fought back twice from a 3-games-to-1 deficit before hitting the J.S. Giguere wall in the 3rd round. All-time, the Wild are 6-1 in games that they can be eliminated; Anaheim is 6-2 in games that they can eliminate an opponent.

Should the Wild win G4, they can also take comfort in the fact that Anaheim has never in its history won a G5, though it has a 3-2 record in series that have gone at least five games.

The main problem that Minnesota has with Anaheim when it comes to postseason play is that it never gets to show off the best part of its game—relentlessly protecting a lead. How's this for a fun fact? In four-plus games in the 2003 series, the Wild had a lead for only 3 minutes and 53 seconds. In the first three games in this year's series, the Wild have led for only 3 minutes and 51 seconds. It certainly can be frustrating trying to come back against Minnesota (I'm told), but there just hasn't been any opportunity to demonstrate that.

The Ducks played a pretty awesome G3, holding both Demitra and Gaborik shotless, and at the same time allowing Rob Niedermayer to unleash his top-secret weapon (Backstrom: "HE CAN SHOOT?"). Even though MIN had the last change, Pahlsson and RNieds still managed to get on the ice for 60% of Gaborik's even-strength ice time, and both Pronger and Scotty were awesome as well. Turned out to be probably Breezy's easiest game of the series.

Bryzgalov quote of the day (talking about his performance in last year's playoffs):

The witty Bryzgalov tried to convince reporters in his limited English on Monday that he couldn't quite recall his success. "I forget about a year ago," he said. "I have really, really short memory. Sometimes if you ask me what date today [is] I can't tell you. ... I know it's a Monday, but what number?"

Prediction: I did well last game predicting according to the '03 Detroit series scores, so sticking with that trend, it'll be Ducks 3, Wild 2. Ducks, by the way, have won their last seven G4s. Goals by Kunitz, Pahlsson, and the scoreless Niedermayer.

[UPDATE: From the Anaheim Ducks' official site: "Francois Beauchemin will not play in tonight's Game 4 after taking a puck to the face in Game 3 on Sunday night. His status for the rest of the postseason is uncertain."]

Go Ducks.

Stanley's nightmare is over

On June 21st, 2006, one of my NHL dreams will officially be dead. The Stanley Cup will not be tainted.

On June 21st, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim will officially die, and the Anaheim Ducks, complete with a new logo and color scheme, will begin. The Arrowhead Pond will simultaneously have its contract expire at the end of September that will probably remove both 'Arrowhead' and 'Pond' from its moniker.

These moves further distance us from Disney and its silly trilogy, and cements us as a 'respectable' member of the NHL (well, I'll believe that when I see it).

5 reason's I'm against changing the name/logo/colors:

1. The new colors, supposedly, will involve orange and black. Orange kinda makes sense because of Orange County, but it is quite a clash with the ol' teal and purple. If we want an 'orange-out' or something it will look pretty awkward with a lot of people in the old gear, and I'll probably be one of them. It could be the perfect color scheme to alienate 'old' from 'new', and I'm not confident that's going to be a smashing success.
2. The Mighty Ducks teams have played some great hockey of late to give Anaheim fans the right to wear the jersey proudly. The logo means something way different now, especially with recent success, so who cares what the non-fans think? Judging a hockey team by their jersey is not 'hockey purism', it's 'hockey racism'. Whatever fans we are losing with the old name, quite frankly, I don't want them.
3. If Disney disrespect is such a concern, then why take this middle ground? Will people forget that this "Ducks" name came from a movie called The Mighty Ducks? Are we hoping for the generation of kids someday who will assume that Anaheim was once ridden with ducks, sort of a local symbol? There are some ducks in OC, but not enough to warrant a franchise. I don't really see how this distances us very far.
4. Umm, money? Yeah, reinventing the team and slaying the Disney dragon is cool, I guess, but let's not pretend some Robin Hood came in and did it just in the name of corporate justice. Tell me the story any way you want to, but this is a fast way to generate revenue. Like in the case of gasoline, profitability doesn't always work out for everyone, no matter how we're spinning it these days.
5. It's sort of a bad precedent for sport, particularly one like the NHL. To pull this on a fanbase might work a couple times in a couple of markets, and might do things like artificially inflate revenues and thus salaries. But this could be another case of expansion fees, where once-and-done income sources allow the league to inflate expenses to a tough-to-sustain level. That wouldn't be so troubling, except we have also now put a precedent in place that the league can take a year off to solve its stupidity, and its fans (myself dutifully included) will storm the gates upon its return.

So, I'll take it, I guess. But forgive my pessimism. I worry when the new colors don't really impress, will we do it again in another decade? Or will it dawn on us that it is the waffly fanbase of Southern Californians that might really be the object of ridicule?

And probably the more important lesson--a LOT of business has been put around this sport of hockey. Let's not lose sight of what the real product is.

Ducks avoid sweep in G4

A fitting picture, I think.

(Author's note: I will be at G5 tomorrow, drinking as usual. No beer shortages in Anaheim, thank god. The stress would kill me.)

"Avian Flu" Indeed...

So this is what the backstage of a blog looks like, eh?

As the Anaheim correspondent to this newly formed Battle of California, I’m here to sell all of you purists on this plucky Mighty Ducks squad that is threatening to sacrilege your precious cup with (gasp) a frickin’ Disney movie name.

Now I should say in all fairness that I am in agreement with the vast majority of you: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim is without a doubt the stupidest team name in professional sports history. However, where most of you would take that fact as a point of shame, I certainly take this as a point of pride.

So hate the name, belittle the name, mock the name, make a Duck photoshop project if you want, we’ve seen it all before. Just remember, the more you knock the Mighty Ducks, the more this is going to hurt later:

“You’ve just been eliminated by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.”

Ouch.

(More to come if our San Jose sister ever decides to de-lubricate itself. And anybody seen the Kings lately?)