kyle*

Stamkos isn't a bust yet. He is way too young and undersized for the NHL. The ridiculous hype that surrounded him forced him onto the ice in Tampa Bay. Even though Melrose is a egotistical mental case, he had the right idea with Stamkos by giving him fourth line minutes because Tampa Bay HAD to have him on the roster for some reason. Wait... What? OHL? Bob Murray did a fantastic job with the Ducks over the trade deadline. We shed a lot of cap room, players who weren't going to resign here, and are younger and faster now. And by keeping Pronger, we at least have a small chance at the playoffs this year. Even though we would not be favoured as cup contenders, it would give a lot of experience to our younger players. Tomorrow's game with the Stars is going to rock. Tons of new faces in Anaheim. Bobby Ryan will be wearing the #9. An important number that most fans here spit at because of a certain someone and their betrayal of Anaheim. Hopefully Ryan creates a better history wearing it. Can't wait.

Ott has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL. http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=269338&lid...os=secStory_nhl Turns out he eye-gouged Moen in the fight. Nice. Here is a video of the fight and what led up to it. Notice the cross-checks to Niedermayer, even as the buzzer goes. You guys don't know how awesome this is to me. It's like surprise birthday cake. Stars fans are looking like absolute idiots right now. Even their golden boy Modano admitted Ott had it coming.

Nashville 8 : 0 Detroit Oh today was pretty hilarious. Edit: Ott did get suspended. :lol: What an idiot. If you can't fight, don't start something. He gets beat down and suspended. Oh this is so awesome.

Ha, I just popped on to say Whitney is looking really good as a Duck. The thing that the trade really hinges on is what Tangradi ends up being. If he ends up an All-Star, and Whitney doesn't become an elite defenseman, I'll say we got the bad side of the deal. It sucks to see Kunitz leave, he was here for five or so years and was really popular in the stands, but I think Whitney might be a good return. Beat the Stars today not only in terms of goals but fights, too. Ott was cross-checking the hell out of Scotty at the end and then had the life pounded out of him by Moen. Ott had a broken hand or something like that, but if he can't fight, he shouldn't be doing stupid things like that. To make it doubly delicious, he received a penalty for "intent to injure," which will likely result in a one-game suspension and a fine. And he had a bloody face. He's been a pest to Anaheim for a couple of seasons now, but Brown and Brookbank handled him very well today. Big win. Keeps Anaheim in the playoff hunt.

Boston 6 : 0 Anaheim Woo... Also, Zanetti: Pens definitely got the better out of the Whitney/Kunitz trade. Kunitz is a great hitter, will always work his ass off, and could eclipse 60 points on a top line in Pittsburgh. Throw on top of that the 3rd highest rated prospect per TSN, and I have no idea why this trade was made. But with Whitney now on the roster, and recent team performance, I'd imagine Pronger is next to go. Oh, and for those looking for streams... http://watchlivenhl.blogspot.com/2008/11/l...hl-matches.html Just get sopcast if you're running Windows.

I'll be at the next game. No matter how many times I swear I won't go.

Ugh. Nothing stings like losing to those c***s. Super stereo-typical Kings fans in attendance tonight. Spike hair or long hair, goatee, LOVES METALLICA, spouts shite about how we're a Disney team, etc etc. But this sums up the entire season. No effort from the majority of the players, veterans making rookie mistakes, no determination, and the same damn game-plan that doesn't work. We need a new coach. Desperately.

^^ Saw that game last night. I thought he fanned on it because I couldn't imagine him getting to it on time. 0:23 on the video... Why is it it's always the awkward fans that get on camera? There's a guy that looks JUST LIKE Rod Stewart in Anaheim and they always put him on the "kiss cam" thing and he basically tongue rapes his wife or girlfriend or love slave or whatever. Always. It's absolutely traumatic. What? Famine in Africa? I'm telling you, you have to see it. It was a pretty good game. Would have been better if I were neutral, because it makes me sick seeing LA tie a game with seconds to go. Yeah, he's on 10 now. Good thing he got voted in as a rookie AllStar while Bobby Ryan (~30 points in 30 games at the time) didn't! Go NHL! FREAKING DUCKS VS KINGS TONIGHT PEOPLE. This is the game of the season for me. My voice will be gone. My mood will drastically change. Dammit, Ducks this is it. If you can't clamp down and beat your rival then it's over. Game doesn't start for nine hours but I'm completely hyped up for it already. Beat LA. Oh my GOD beat LA.

I did, but was gutted when LA scored with 5 seconds to go. That's two games in a row I've sat at home hoping to see them lose and they squeeze in a point. If they go to the playoffs and Anaheim don't, I'm not talking to anyone for weeks. Kovalchuk is ridiculous, though. He lets off the most amazing one-timers. If he is set up well, he'll put it in the back of the net. And Stamkos' 3 goals is nearly half of his season total.

And there's goes Pittsburgh from the playoff race I'd imagine. Late season coaching changes rarely do any good. I can't imagine Anaheim making the playoffs at this point, either. It's looking really bleak. Atlanta put up 15 goals against the Southern Californian teams in back-to-back games.

We've got a bit of it, but occasionally tone is lost in translation to text. Why is it not as bad as I think it is? It's dangerous. He broke a players nose illegally and could have done much, much more because he did not have the discipline to keep himself from making an illegal hit. The sport is dangerous enough as it is, and illegal, dangerous play should be punished. Bias aside, Phaneuf put a player in serious danger illegally. There is no logical argument against that and I can guarantee that every hockey player in the world does not want to have a player get away with dirty play like this. All that being said, tonight was a proper nightmare. It was pretty blatant that it was going to be a long night with all the penalty trouble in the first. Ducks will be selling at the trade deadline I think. Murray will remain silent, Carlyle will remain incompetent.

Um, I don't know what you're getting to and if you're serious or not. I support ANY suspension if the player illegally put another player in danger. Regardless of the team they play for. Phaneuf raised his elbow, illegally hit another player and broke his nose. Luckily that was the only damage done because an Elbow to the head at that speed is VERY FREAKING DANGEROUS. That's why it's, you know, illegal. It's also why I supported Corey Perry's, a Ducks player, suspension for an elbow hit earlier this year. My bias in this case only comes in at the point where I want our GM to do something, and the league to stop their own player bias.

No action was taken concerning Phaneuf's blatant elbow to Ebbett. Ebbett had his head down, but Phaneuf clearly raises his elbow. It's illegal, and if a player like Pronger or Avery did it, it would have definitely been a suspension. Absolutely ridiculous that he gets away with this. I wish we had a GM that would call the league out on this shit. Calgary announcers were (surprisingly) defending the no call. The third replay really shows that Phaneuf raises his elbow to the face of Ebbett right before the hit instead of hitting him legally with the shoulder. Good on Ryan and Pronger for stepping in after that. Phaneuf heard boos all night after that one.

In my mind: Golden Goal > Draw > Shootout The shootout is such a gimmick. But it's such an American thing. Americans hate draws and low-scoring games. The changes in the NHL that have made the game go against those two things are business moves to attract fans here. It's exciting to see a shootout live if your team is involved, but it's also really annoying to drop a point as a result of the skills competition. But a winning goal in overtime is a million times as exciting as a winning shootout goal or save. I honestly can't stand most hockey boards. I get most of my news from the Ducks' blog, which is surprisingly good. Most Canadian blogs... Oh my GOD the senseless drivel.

It's also the population. LA has 3.8 million people, Orange County has ~3 milllion people, too. I mean, with amount of people, surely you can get 16,000 people to go to a hockey game. Even when the Ducks and Kings are poor, there is going to be at least 15,000 people there. Which is not outstanding, as isn't going to match the commitment of Canadian fans, but obviously other "sunshine" teams are doing a whole lot worse even with fairly competent performances. (Phoenix, Columbus) Edit: Also, our ticket prices are way below other teams. I pay $12/game. You can get ice level seats for just around $100 if you are lucky. And we have free programs! New Jersey's main problem is the location of their arena. It's in a very dodgy area apparently, and just isn't that attractive of a place to go see hockey. I think the talent pool is probably a bit diluted, but I don't think it's too bad. But I honestly don't think dropping two or three teams would even help. The only way the NHL is going to have a truly elite league is with 12-20 teams, but the NHL is a business and at this point it's not going to happen. For that reason, I think the league should pretty much stay as it is. I think that eventually we see two more Canadian teams. Phoenix, Atlanta, and Nashville are the three teams that have the shakiest future. I'm curious to what brought all this talk on recently, though. It seems an extremely hot issue right now, and every seems convinced that the Coyotes are on the move. I think the NHL has unfortunately evolved to a less physical game, but at the same time, it's pretty entertaining, and easily the most exciting professional sport in America. Traditional Canadian fans that are tired of today's game... Well, that happens with everything, doesn't it? No matter what you're talking about, there's always a committed group that will say "it's not what it used to be." And it's not at all impossible to fix, but at this point the NHL is going to stay for the most part the way it is. I really don't think I'm being cynical there. Edit: Yeah, so we've got 3 games over the next 12 days. Bloody bored.

There are better teams to move I think. Neither the Ducks or the Kings are in poor financial condition, and both fill their arenas to at least 90% capacity every night. If you remove one of them, you lose all of those fans, though. A true Ducks fan will never be a Kings fan and vice versa. There is a bit of distance between the two, though. 35 miles may not seem a lot, but it's the distance between LA and Orange County, two major areas of population. I drive 100 miles to get to the games, which takes about two hours. But the 35 extra miles when I have to go to LA for the game can add on another two hours. They really are two different cities despite their proximity. If you're going to scrap/move teams, I'd say go for: 1. Phoenix 2. Tampa Bay / Florida 3. Carolina 4. Nashville 5. New York Islanders But I honestly don't see Anaheim or LA being moved or scrapped anytime. LA has more of a history than us, but we have a solid franchise going, an arena just built in 1993, and... Uh... Yeah. We're still the only arena in the NHL with palm trees out front! I don't want to call Northern fans ignorant, but the recent criticism of all "sunshine" teams is. The teams out here aren't as terrible as they think. I've been to four arenas, and Anaheim lags behind none of them in terms of atmosphere, the arena, and the management. I just don't want my Ducks to ever move. I'd be gutted and never watch hockey again.

Blackhawks had 6 men on the ice twice last night. No calls. Also, a Blackhawks defender CLEARLY pushed the net off as a Selanne shot hit the post and might have bounced in. Nothing called; play wasn't even reviewed. And random: "I see too many kids going the wrong way. They don't have the respect or the know-how to treat the sport — even Sidney Crosby. You see him bitching, whining and crying. He's supposed to be the poster boy of our league and yet every time he gets hit, he's grimacing and complaining to the referees. Veterans teach the kids the right way to play." --Jeromy Roenick

Most Canadian teams could compete with Montreal if their arenas were big enough. Toronto in my mind has the most faithful following and could easily fill a 20,000+ seat arena every night regardless of their record. Also, those numbers are based on tickets sold, not people that go to the game. The year following Anaheim's cup win, every game was "sold out," but there were always a hundred or so seats visible. I'm not sure what it's like over there with tickets for you guys, but here people buy season tickets for big teams only to resell them. Capitalists.

Again, it's something that is sort of futile to talk about concerning American sports, because our crowds are nothing like crowds in Europe. I just don't like hearing so much crap about my team when we're not really a guilty party. For those curious, some NHL attendance numbers... 1. Chicago (22,560) *Attribute this to the Winter Classic; Montreal is always number one in attendance because of their arena size. 2. Montreal (21,273) 3. Detroit (19,274) ... 16. Pittsburgh (16,895) 17. Anaheim (16,886) ... 26. Phoenix (14,733) 27. Nashville (14,544) 28. Columbus (14,533) 29. Atlanta (14,417) (77% of arena) 30. New York Islanders (13,693) (84% of arena)

Not to have a go at Zanetti, but it wasn't the loss last night that made me mad, but the piss-poor atmosphere in Pittsburgh. Everyone always moans about Anaheim being a "Disney team" with no passionate fans, but that place was a morgue last night. I'm in DC right now, so I made the trip up. Good call. For the entire third period up until the Pittsburgh goal, which did not draw a ton of noise despite being the obvious clincher, the silence was only broken up by applause... Golf course stuff. It doesn't really bother me how loud other arenas are... But I get abuse all the time for being a Ducks fan because we "have no real fanbase" and such. But the Honda Center is so much louder and intense in comparison. And it's so much more affordable. (Last night cost me $70 for a ticket, where in Anaheim you pay about $10/game under season tickets in the equivalent seating section, or about $20 on game day.) It also helps when it isn't ten degrees outside. I miss the West coast! And in terms of the Ducks' performance... Oh well. I'm rather numbed out to piss-poor, undisciplined, and uninspired play. Hedican was good, though. Yep.

You're going to get me in trouble. Just checked. Both Kariya and Turco are indeed Canucks. So... Still... Canadians are hundreds of times more pleasant than Kings fans.

Bad quality, no sound, but... OH MY GOD WHAT A GOAL. Ryan's hat trick made the loss last night easier to handle. Always hate losing to the scum, but when only three of our players show up... 25 points in 24 games in his rookie year. Not even selected to the rookie all star squad. Oh well. There's going to be a new great wearing the #9 in Anaheim soon. We can erase the old, nasty one out of the books. Oh, and Turco was rocked out of the game against Detroit. =) Good. Dirty little...

Mayday traded to the Leafs. Damn you, Burke. Hopefully this is all he takes from us. Also, Ruutu bit someone. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Aqhj...p&type=lgns He bit someone. Like, with his teeth. And I'm not that surprised.

Oh don't get me started. (just kidding, just kidding! i'm on the verge of offensive... i only hate the overzealous Canadian media*) The Prince of Wales trophy is given to the Eastern Conference winning team... And Crosby made a point of not touching it because it wasn't the trophy he wanted to win. While the latter is true for all teams, it's insulting to your team ("this isn't an accomplishment, guys), is absolutely disrespectful to the person the Prince of Wales trophy was dedicated to (i'll assume a Welsh prince?), etc, etc. Oh well. He ended up not touching either trophy. *USA! USA! USA!

That "fight" was a joke. His gloves dropped and he just starting throwing... "puches" without the other guy even knowing Crosby wanted to go. That should have been a misconduct penalty. If he tries that crap with a team like Anaheim, New York (Rangers), Philly, etc., he'll really get it. First his diving issue, then this. Crosby is a little bitch. I think that was my first post here. The Prince of Wales trophy thing was absolutely atrocious in my opinion and so arrogant. Really wound me up. Anyway, series of two against the Queens this week. Always must-win games. Don't give their fans anything to talk about.