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

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Monday, October 09, 2006

BoC Notes, Oct. 9

1. Sleek’s dream comes true—Sammy “God” Pahlsson signs a 2-year extension.

You might have to be an Anaheim commenter at HF Boards to fully appreciate this, but the Swedish shadow Sammy Pahlsson (my favorite Duck) signed an extension that will reportedly increase his 2006-07 $650k to a much more appropriate $1.4 M in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

I’ve always had a man-crush on Sammy, who’s an unbelievably hard worker and a smart defensive forward. But at HF Boards (where I stole that image), he’s a god. This offseason, Pahlsson finished 2nd behind Selanne in popularity in an HF poll, including my vote.

Brian Burke on Pahlsson: “The foundation for any successful team is that they keep the puck out of their own net. You’ve got to watch the game very closely to appreciate what he does. The casual fan will not walk about the building saying, ‘Boy, Sammy had a great game.’ We say it with regularity.”

2. Ducks beat Phoenix…again.
Thursday will mark the 3-year anniversary of the last time Phoenix and Anaheim played a game without Anaheim gaining any points in the standings. That’s 14 straight regular season matchups.

But hey, Gretzky’s only been head coach for the last 9.

3. Niedermayer and Pronger anchor league’s worst defense, and other early season oddities.
The Ducks right now are the worst team in the league at preventing shots against (39.5 per game).

Then again, the league’s best offense belongs to Chicago (6 gf/gm), the league’s best defense belongs to Atlanta and Pittsburgh (1 ga/gm), the 5 best power plays belong to teams that didn’t qualify for the last playoffs (Minnesota, Chicago, Florida, Columbus, and Vancouver), and the 5 teams yet to score a power play goal are surprisingly Pittsburgh, Dallas, NY Rangers, Detroit, and Calgary.

4. Selachophobia (n) - the scientific name for an abnormal and persistent fear of sharks.

I saw this on the opening Sharks telecast and had to reprint it, with a little extra:

Mark Bell—6’4”, 220 lbs, 26 yrs. old, drafted 8th overall 1998
Joe Thornton—6’4”, 235 lbs, 27 yrs. old, drafted 1st overall 1997
Jonathan Cheechoo—6’1”, 200 lbs, 26 yrs. old, drafted 29th overall 1998
Milan Michalek—6’2”, 225 lbs, 21 yrs. old, drafted 6th overall 2003
Patrick Marleau—6’2”, 220 lbs, 27 yrs. old, drafted 2nd overall 1997
Steve Bernier—6’2”, 235 lbs, 21 yrs. old, drafted 16th overall 2003

Avg height (entire team): 6’1.7” (T-4th tallest)
Avg weight (entire team): 214.8 lbs (1st heaviest)
Avg age (entire team): 26.4 yrs. old (1st youngest)

Yikes.

5. AHN-jay KOH-pi-tar. Learn to say it.

This kid Anze Kopitar the Kings got is young (19 years old), big (6'4", 220 lbs.), and explosive (5 points in his first 2 NHL games). Plus he’s from Slovenia, which in NHL terms means he was raised by wolves. When interviewed, however, I was impressed at how solid his English was, and he seemed to have a really good attitude.

Depending on how much he is played this year, he could force Malkin to join Crosby as Calder also-rans. In fact, each BoC team probably has a legitimate candidate to outbid hype machine Malkin in Calder voting (L.A.’s Kopitar, S.J.’s Matt Carle, and Ana’s Dustin Penner). Keep an eye out.

Marc Crawford on Kopitar: “He’s a big-time talent, no doubt about it. The big thing is, he is very teachable. You tell him once and he goes out and does it. He’s a coach’s son and he has that type of upbringing.”

6. Pacific starting well…too well.

The Ducks get their first-ever 2-0 start to the season, and it gets them nowhere.

1. San Jose, 2-0, 7 GF, 4 GA
1. Dallas, 2-0, 6 GF, 3 GA
1. Anaheim, 2-0, 6 GF, 4 GA
2. Los Angeles, 1-1, 7 GF, 5 GA
2. Phoenix, 1-1, 7 GF, 5 GA
Sure it’s early, but thus far Pacific's 6-0 against non-division foes, and all five teams in the division are outscoring their opponents.

Tough league.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. Quite the notations! I doubt that I could have made any of those connections. Gotta say, you kinda burst my bubble with the 2-0 start when you mention the standings. Oh well, we'll see... Tonight is 3/82... I'd like to see the Ducks match and/or beat the 10-0 start of Detroit, or the 8-0 start of the Preds last year...

Sean Zandberg said...

The Hawks have the highest goals per game......geeziz. Now why didn't i take Havlat in the pool again?

Anonymous said...

I thought Kopitar was excellent against the Ducks, watching him go by Pronger was funny, you know he suprised the hell out of him. Love to see Pahlsson get a much needed raise and that Burke said what he said. He can do what you ask of him, he proved in the Olympics that he can score, he is beyond dependable in every situation.

Jordi said...

4) Minus Michalek and you get the formula for some mighty fine Sharks.

... Sorry.

mike said...

Is there any chance of Shark, Duck, and King line combos being posted?

Earl Sleek said...

Hmm, I can only answer what I know, which are the Ducks:

Kunitz - McDonald - Selanne
Fedoruk - Getzlaf - Perry
Penner - Marchant - Shannon
Moen - Pahlsson - Niedermayer

Niedermayer - Beauchemin
Pronger - O'Donnell
DiPenta - O'Brien

Giguere
Bryzgalov

As to the other teams, well the SJ top 2 lines are shown (though Mark Bell has a new injury, it seems), and I have very little idea what Marc Crawford is doing.

mike said...

Thanks Earl. I can't wait until Penner is back with Perry and Getzlaf. That is the line from the end of last season, right?

PJ, Chen, O'Brien?

Earl Sleek said...

Thanks Earl. I can't wait until Penner is back with Perry and Getzlaf. That is the line from the end of last season, right?

Actually, no, the PPG line (Penner-Perry-Getzlaf) has hardly ever shown its head. Fedoruk for the most part has been babysitting Corey and Ryan (this year and last).

End of last year saw Penner with Marchant and Lupul, hardly with Getzlaf and Perry.

mike said...

Lupul..right, right.

Thanks again.