It's Not the Fall That'll Kill You, It's the Landing

The Kings reportedly offered a contract to Sandis Ozolinsh and he turned them down. If that's not bottom I don't know what is. That's it, right? Is Marek Malik going to come to my house and kick me in the nuts while screaming, "Anze Kopitar is inferior to Jonathan Toews?" I'm not sure I can take any more indignities. You may have noticed that I haven't actually written a whole lot about the Kings since training camp started, but what can I say? They still haven't signed a veteran defenseman, they're still below the salary floor, and Patrick O'Sullivan is still out of camp. The Kings had to kill a 5-on-3 this weekend and used Drew Doughty and Thomas Hickey to kill it. The scary part? They were the best options available because Greene and Johnson had just been out there. The Kings' defense is Bill Paxton in Aliens bad and there's not a person out there that's going to fix it. Bret Hedican or Adrian Aucoin or Andreas Lilja isn't going to prevent this team from sucking.


I'm coming around to the idea that the Kings are going to be very, very bad this season. Could someone hit me with their car and put me in a coma for a year so I can avoid this season? I'm not kidding.


Update: Whatever.

Anaheim's All-Time Team: the 5th and 6th Defensemen

Well, I was happy enough with the variety of responses I got from my search for a #1 center for the all-time Anaheim Sometimes-Mighty Ducks of Anaheim that I think I'll continue this "ask the audience" theme before publishing my own roster (note: feel free to continue voting on centermen). Today's theme: third-pairing defensemen.

I won't spend much time justifying my picks for the top-four blueliners just yet (that will come with the unveiling), but just know that Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Fredrik Olausson, and Oleg Tverdovsky have all been pre-qualified, leaving just two slots to fill. I've narrowed the field down to eleven candidates, whom I'll list chronologically, but if you feel I've slighted anyone feel free to write in your own answer (c'mon, Trnka and Huskins fans). Which two players deserve a spot on Anaheim All-Time Team's blueline? Here we go!

Bobby Dollas (1993-94 to 1997-98)
305 gp, 28-61-89, +31

I'll have to admit; I was a fledgling fan back in Bobby Dollas' heyday, and my memory is sort of shoddy to the point where I only remember a blend of Dollas and Karpa. But hey, actual remembering isn't a requirement for the All-Time team, and Dollas was an original mainstay. I was shocked at his +31 career plus-minus for Anaheim, which is best on this list, as the old-school Mighty Duck teams weren't much to brag about.

Dave Karpa (1994-95 to 1997-98)
245 gp, 7-43-50, +5

See above. I believe Karpa played hockey in much more a tripod-fashion than did Dollas, but I can't even say that with 100% certainty. Still, you should give some credit to the old-school guard; they didn't have nearly the quality of linemates as recent Ducks players have enjoyed. If anyone wants to do justice to the memories of Dollas and Karpa, feel free.

Dmitri Mironov (1996-97 to 1997-98)
128 gp, 18-64-82, +13

Mironov was a short-term Duck, but he was productive (his .641 points-per-game is tops on this list). Not only a quality regular-season performer, but Dmitri also posted a point-per-game in Anaheim's first playoffs in 1997 (1-10-11 in 11 games). Strangely, I was never that enamored with Mironov's game -- he never seemed that dominant and I definitely don't recall being upset when he left the team. Again, though, this was the early days of Sleek the hockey fan.

Ruslan Salei (1996-97 to 2005-06)
594 gp, 26-79-105, -3

Ah, now we're getting more into my memory's wheelhouse. "Salei of Game" or "Cirque du Salei" was a mainstay for a decade on the Anaheim blueline, and his 594 regular season games is tops of all Anaheim defensemen. He was tough, dirty, and at times had above-average hockey sense, though there was always the sense he had the tools to be even better. Still, when the Ducks were down 3 games to 2 to Calgary in the 1st round of the 2006 playoffs, I thought that Salei more than anyone really elevated his play to help the team advance. Plus he's from Belarus.

Niclas Havelid (1999-00 to 2003-04)
310 gp, 24-61-85, -42

Ah, Havelid, the Swedish component of the 2003 miracle blueline. Havelid has pretty strong counting numbers (85 ANA points is third-best on this list), but man that minus-42 rating really stands out, doesn't it? At least the guy got an even rating in the 2003 playoff run. I'm not sure that Havelid ultimately belongs on this list, but in case there are any Swedish die-hards he's in the running.

Vitaly Vishnevski (1999-00 to 2005-06)
416 gp, 11-37-48, -11

Vish-dog in da house! I'm way too enamored with Vishnevski to give an unbiased description here, but despite his inability to score (by far the worst scoring rate on the list), Vish-dog is still second-all-time in games played by an Anaheim defenseman. His real skill isn't so much about scoring anyway, but more about creating opportunities to murder people on the ice. Sure his out-of-position wandering backfires, and sure he departed under suspect circumstances (traded right after arbitration), but he is by definition a third-pairing kind of guy, and unlike anyone else on this list, I do own a Vishnevski jersey.

Keith Carney (2001-02 to 2005-06)
271 gp, 13-48-61, +30

Damn, "Carney Asada" was an awesome defenseman for the Ducks -- a steady Eddie who was as vital to the 2003 cup run as anybody not named Giguere. He came to the team as a veteran, and seemingly was always one bad turn away from never standing up again, but he was a tough battler and a smart blueliner. Carney's offensive talents were average at best, but I'll never forget the pass he made to Rucchin to cement the 2003 Wings sweep -- the only time ever I've seen Carney behind an opponent's net.

Sandis Ozolinsh (2002-03 to 2005-06)
84 gp, 13-27-40, -1

Ozos is another short-timer, but probably represents Anaheim's best ever mid-season pickup on the blueline. While Sandis is well-known for his offensive skills and defensive shortcomings, I actually found him to be respectable on both ends of the rink, at least during his 2003 season. Consider: he was a team-best plus-8 in the 2003 playoffs, and was on the ice for all four of Anaheim's game-winning goals in the 2003 series against Dallas (all of which came after the 58-minute mark of the game). That's pretty damn clutch, and Ozos was pretty special to watch. Counting against Ozos? Everything after the 2003 cup finals.

Francois Beauchemin (2005-06 to current)
214 gp, 17-66-83, +6

I'm not sure how well to rate Beauchemin in this exercise, as Frenchie has yet to show much in the category of "playing without Scott Niedermayer". Still, the guy was a gem in 2006 and has been a steady enough player the last two seasons, and his early playoff heroics (punching out Iginla in Calgary and shouldering Brunette in G1 of the COL series) are legendary. I don't know where Ducks fans sit on Frenchie -- I've met fans who absolutely love him and fans who can't stand him (honestly, I don't really understand either side). Still, his 66 Anaheim assists ranks second on this list.

Sean O'Donnell (2005-06 to current)
182 gp, 5-24-29, +21

Another sheer wall of steadiness who also has spent some time piggybacking on a former Norris trophy winner, O'Donnell has been a great shut-down minute-eater for the Ducks, especially once paired with Pronger in 2006. O'Donnell is second-worst to Vishnevski in terms of offense, but that's not his game. In fact, I've never seen a defenseman throw so many pucks intentionally wide of the net to avoid opposing shot-blockers. But that's O'Donnell: safe and solid, and that is a huge contribution when facing the opponents' best. I'm not considering salary on this all-time team, but I was super-impressed when UFA O'Donnell, right after winning the Stanley Cup, re-signed with the Ducks for a discount. That's a team player, right there.

Mathieu Schneider (2007-08)
65 gp, 12-27-39, +22

Look, just because we're in the process of kicking Schneider's salary off the team, that doesn't mean the guy isn't eligible for all-time consideration. I mean, he did have a quality season playing easy minutes, and even picked up a few Norris votes. In terms of skillset, Schneider might be the best on this list, especially if we're talking about shooting. However, he most likely won't have been on the Ducks for very long, and he did have a rather invisible playoff series against Dallas (his only point of the series was a meaningless goal in the last 8 seconds of G4), but will that cost him a spot on the all-time squad?

-----------------------------------
So there's my eleven candidates with only two slots to fill.

Who gets your votes? Are you in favor of short-term production (Mironov, Ozolinsh, Schneider), steady stay-at-homes (Carney, O'Donnell), long-serving serviceable d-men (Salei, Vishnevski), old-school types (Dollas, Karpa), unheralded gems (Havelid, Beauchemin), or a mix of the above? There's no wrong answers; I'm just looking for preference, really.

I don't think I've done this list as much justice as I did with the centermen, but this is just Anaheim All-Time Decision #2 (I've still got two more coming). As before, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments: which two defensemen deserve the all-time third pairing? If you want, you can also share who was a close runner-up. You don't even have to be a Ducks fan to chime in -- all are welcome.

Go Ducks.

Save Sandis Ozolinsh, save the world

Normally after a 2-1 shootout loss to the Ducks you would have to point to the exceptional play of Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray or Anaheim forward Sammy Pahlsson, big game performances by goaltenders Evgeni Nabokov or Jean-Sebastien Giguere, or the shootout goal by public enemy #1 Corey Perry, but without a doubt the highlight of the game came on the above goalline sequence from Sandis Ozolinsh.

With the game tied at 1-1 in the third, Ozolinsh sees that the trajectory and the momentum of the puck will carry it over the line. He makes a diving stab with the blade of his stick with about an inch to spare. The puck barely trickled wide right of the far post. The Sharks pressure Anaheim for the remainder of the third period, and a scoreless OT preceeds a shootout loss to the Ducks. Without this play, the Sharks would have had a monumental task evening up the score given how tight Anaheim was playing in its own zone.

Losing to Anaheim is about as painful as listening to slam poetry on ESPN Sportscenter, but salvaging a point in the standings could play a factor in the final days of the Pacific Division playoff race. More notes and photos from the game will be posted here shortly.

Above photos are a little blurry because I took a photo of kids with a Pronger sign seconds before this play. Every time Pronger touched the puck, the crowd joined together to boo as loud as possible. A couple of times when a player fainted a pass to Pronger, the crowd boo'd prematurely. With the retirement of Theo Fluery, with Ed Belfour plying his trade in Sweden, Chris Pronger may be the most hated opponent ever to play at HP Pavilion. The displeasure has traveled with Pronger as he moved from St Louis, to Edmonton, to Anaheim, but after the game Sharks fans lined up 3 deep to ask him for an autograph on his way off of the ice. In San Jose, the Sharks are marketing games with the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings as California Cup games.

Turning point?

Let's put all of the "Jeremy Roenick's 500th goal" stuff aside for just a moment; from a pure hockey perspective, last night's win against the Phoenix Coyotes had all the makings of The Big Turning point in the season. Doesn't mean that Jonathan Cheechoo or Patrick Marleau put in three-point nights, but I think there are a few things that stood out that showed that this Sharks team is finally getting on the right track.

-The power play: Having Sandis Ozolinsh out there definitely makes a difference. Ozo's still got his maverick instincts and great shot, but it's tempered by a certain level of responsibility that wasn't there during his first Sharks tenure. With Ozo on the power play, it's definitely less static, and even though that hasn't turned into a ton of conversions yet, it's starting to look a lot better than the old "Give it to Joe and stand still" tactic.

-Patrick Marleau: Despite killing countless fantasy teams across the world, Marleau's shown smarter, more dedicated play over the past few games. While Devin Setoguchi's goal was notable due to the crisp passing, a big, big difference over previous games was the fact that Marleau was battling and screening in front of Alex Auld. That shows two things -- 1) a team realization that peppering 40 shots on goal produces more goals when someone's screening the goalie and 2) Marleau's breaking out of his "I'll fail at deking past everyone" mold and willing to do more to help his team out.

-Secondary scoring: Goals from Roenick and Torrey Mitchell, a goal from the defense -- if your big guns (Marleau, Cheechoo, Milan Michalek) are shooting blanks, someone's gotta pick up the slack to win.

-Karma: If you've watched the Sharks this season, you'll know that they've hardly had any bounces go their way so far. Roenick's goal was one of those really fluky things that could only happen once a season; maybe, all of those posts, crossbars, and close calls will finally start going the Sharks way.

Monday night seems to be a reasonable to actually start Dmitri Patzold, but who knows what's going through Ron Wilson's head at this point. Having Joe Pavelski center Patrick Marleau and Jonathan Cheechoo produced an interesting side effect -- during overlap periods, Joe Thornton was out there with Marleau and Cheechoo.

Still, the jury remains out on whether or not this will produce the consistency that's so desperately missing. There've been several "Is this the turning point?" games so far this season, and they've all been followed up by a clunker. Even if the Sharks put in three or four games in a row, there's still the possibility of a dropoff and a lengthy lull after that. It's not just about getting Marleau, Cheechoo, and Michalek rolling, it's about getting the whole damn team playing like a team. If they can do that instead of being just a handful of freelancers out there, then things will start to fall into place. Still, Saturday night was a good first step.

Sandis Ozolinsh makes his debut in 5-2 loss to Los Angeles at home

Sandis Ozolinsh kicked off his return engagement with the Sharks last night against Battle of California rival Los Angeles. Ozolinsh logged 20:17 minutes of ice time, behind only Rivet (22:07) and Vlasic (21:10) on the San Jose blueline, and finished without earning a point or registering a shot on goal. There were a few lost edges and scrambling to get back into position in the first period, but after 20 minutes Sandis started to move the puck up ice with authority.

"I felt good. In the first, I got caught on a long shift and got out of rhythm. If felt good physically. It took me until the second period. That's when the shackles came off and I got going. The second half of the game, I felt a lot more comfortable." Ozolinsh told reporters after the game.

Patrick Marleau put the Sharks on the board in the first period, and the Sharks outshot Los Angeles 21-10. The opening minute of the second was more of the same. The Sharks pressured Jean-Sebastien Aubin, swarming in front of the crease. After Michael Cammalleri's goal at 1:43, assisted by Tom Preissing and Alexander Frolov, the wheels came off the San Jose attack. Every time they tried to build momentum, a Los Angeles player would make a play with the puck, or a mistake would lead to an odd man rush in the opposite direction. The Kings capitalized on their chances, the Sharks did not.

In the post-game media interview, Ron Wilson described his team as "fragile", and it is an idenity they are going to have to work themselves out of because right now it fits. Patrick Marleau mentioned a month of division-heavy games, and said that the Sharks could not afford to give any away even at this early point in the season.

The Sharks finished 0-5 on the power play, with several tremendous point blank saves by Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Aubin (2-1-0, .906SV%, 3.28GAA) finished with 45 saves on 47 shots, earning his second win of the season. Evgeni Nabokov (6-6-1, .899SV%, 2.46GAA, 1SO) also made several clutch saves in the first period, but the Sharks could not build on his stellar performance and the mistakes were costly. Nabokov finished with 25 saves on 29 shots.

Lukas Kaspar finished his second NHL game -1, with 12:46 minutes of ice time, but he was one of the bright spots down the stretch for San Jose. He has explosive speed, and he began to use his size more effectively than he has earlier in his career. Bernier also split the defense late in the game, and lifted a puck over the crossbar with one hand while holding off a defenseman with the other. Lubomir Visnovsky, as always, was a rock for the Los Angeles blueline. Kings left wing Matt Moulson out of Cornell University, scored a highlight reel goal in his first NHL game.

"Remember when Los Angeles had bad goaltending?" Earl Sleek offered via a text message after the game. LaBarbera is solid, he just needed to survive the initial "burn him at the stake" period from impatient Kings fans, and he has already reeled off 4 straight wins. Lubo, Preissing, Stuart and even Blake may be able to offset some of the mistakes Jack "JMFJ" Johnson is going to make early, but his talent is undeniable. Jean-Sebastien Aubin over Mathieu Garon might not be a call I would have made, but that is why they get paid the big dollars. Don't look now, but the Los Angeles Kings are in first place in the Pacific Division.

For more photos vist this photo gallery on Sharkspage. War Yutaka Fukufuji and Sean Burke!

Kings Gameday: BoC News Special Report

Los Angeles Kings (1-5, 29th in NHL) vs. Minnesota Wild (5-0, 1st in World)

7:30 PST, FSN West


CALIFORNIA NHL TEAMS BAFFLED TO FIND THAT SEASON HAS ALREADY STARTED

Experts blame nice weather, idiocy for mental lapse

By Megalodon, Special to BoC News

The three NHL teams in California were surprised to learn today that the pre-season is over, and the new season has already begun. The three teams, whose combined record is 7-11-2, were left scrambling.

"No way, really?" asked a bewildered Joe Thornton, star player for the San Jose
Sharks. "Well that sucks. I've just been messing around for all the games so far. Last game I played right-handed just to mix it up. And Cheech has been high on Mescaline for the past three days! Hey, Cheech! Did you hear about this?"

Upon hearing the news, San Jose coach Ron Wilson called a team meeting in which he offered a 500 dollar bonus to whoever could get Sandis Ozolinsh out of the vents of the Sharks' arena, where he has apparently been living for several weeks. "He kept asking me when we were going to sign him, and I kept telling him that we would when the season started," said Wilson. "[Ozolinsh] kept giving me this weird look, but I figured all Latvians did that."

Marc Crawford, coach of the Los Angeles Kings, was also unaware that the season had officially started. He was reached for comment at the North Los Angeles Clinic for the Mentally Disturbed, his residence between games. "Seriously? But I was playing that little kid in net for the past week! When did the season start? It's like 75 degrees, you don't play hockey 'til frozen outside! That thing in London didn't count, right? The rink wasn't even regulation size!"

Crawford, hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot, made his way over to a wall-sized white board, on which were drawn cryptic symbols, coded messages, and a King's goalie depth chart which begins with Jason LaBarbera and ends with the Speaker of the House. "Alright alright, everybody shut up! I can fix this! We'll just switch the lines up a little - yeah, that's the ticket! Lewis - put Zeiler, Jim Foxx, and my cat out there! And starting now, if the other team's top line is out, we pull the goalie! And line changes! Everywhere line changes! Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!"

The defending champion Anaheim Ducks have been particularly short-handed without Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne, who both "totally forgot" to let the Ducks know that they'd be back this year.

"Aw, hell. I knew I was supposed to do something this month," said Niedermayer, while hurriedly putting on his skates. "Honey, where's my stick? How many games have we played?"

There was apparently only one player who knew that the season had started. "Yeah, I knew," said Lubomir Visnovsky through a translator. "I kept trying to tell them, but they just patted me on the head and asked me to grant them a wish. Nobody ever listens to me. I swear one of these days I'm going to lose it and shoot up this place."

Visnovsky continued to rant until Kings defensman Rob Blake found his "blankey"
and put him to bed. [Ed Note: Awwww.]

Rudy Kelly contributed to the hilariousness of this report.



Prediction: I can't think of a worse team to play right now. Wild, 3-1. Goal by Cammy, because who else?


Update: Nagy scratched, Willsie in for tonight's game. I swear to God, if Kopitar sees one second of ice time with Brian Willsie, I will steal every dollop of hair gel in Southern California. Do you like your hair, Marc? DO YOU???

Video of Sharks friday practice

Here is a short video of the Sharks friday practice at Sharks Ice before the home opener tonight. Boston travels to San Jose after pasting the Kings 8-6 last night. There were a few conditioning and passing drills, but check the end of the clip for several segments with defensive 1-on-1 drills. Alexei Semenov and Sandis Ozolinsh are still practicing with the team, although late word is that Ozolinsh made spend some time in Worcester if he is offered a contract. Right Wing Devin Setoguchi was sent down to Worcester after missing time due to an injured ankle in preseason. Jeremy Roenick did not practice after tweaking his knee against Chicago.