Let me begin by begging your forgiveness for that awful pun, but let’s face facts: it was only a matter of time before that word got put to good use on this blog.  The answer to that question in the context of the word “quacked” meaning “screwed” is not quite so simple.

Perhaps it’s too presumptuous and untoward to write off the Ducks’ season with a month remaining on the schedule.  The numbers don’t paint the prettiest picture, but the simple fact is that the team is but a stone’s throw away from the playoffs – with just enough time to make up lost ground.

To be blunt, even counting the improved play of the team since January, the Ducks are still facing an uphill battle to qualify for the postseason.  The principal obstacle in that battle remains the glut of teams vying for a dearth of playoff positions.  The Ducks sit near the bottom of the conference, but are only five points away from the eighth-seeded Detroit Red Wings.  Just eight points separate the Ducks from the Nashville Predators in the seventh slot, and it appears the grasp on those bottom two seeds – no matter who is holding them on any given day – is tenuous at best, especially in the fiercely competitive Western Conference.

The chasm at the top of the conference is much more apparent.  After the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, there is a 10 point tumble to the third place (based on points) Phoenix Coyotes.  Disregarding the fact that neither the Ducks nor any other team has a legitimate chance to catch the top two, Anaheim has in its way the other three teams in its division: Phoenix, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Dallas Stars.  Leapfrogging at least Dallas seems inevitable if the Ducks have aspirations of playing hockey into the latter stages of April and beyond, and the race to catch the Coyotes and Kings is not yet lost.

Luckily, this is not entirely unfamiliar territory for the team.  The Ducks got off to a similarly sluggish start in 2005-06 and rebounded well enough to make a charge to the Western Conference finals.  The key then was consistency and the ability to ride momentum long enough to maintain a level of play where the team was competitive on a nightly basis, no matter the opponent.  The similarities continue when examining the makeup of that team: one reliant more on its offensive game, moving the puck fast and effectively.  The problem that dogged the team early this season was a persistent denial of its makeup as an iconoclast of Brian Burke’s former rugged, defense-first teams – a problem because the personnel required to employ such a style was not present (Chris Pronger having left the biggest void).

There also exists a certain parallelism to last year’s team that general manager Bob Murray re-tooled at the trade deadline.  Murray has once again banked on some last minute acquisitions (notably Lubomir Visnovsky) to provide a spark and hopefully propel the team into the playoffs.  Credit must be given to coach Randy Carlyle for that unexpected success, as he was able to successfully integrate the new players into a system that had the entire team firing on all cylinders.

Unfortunately for the Ducks and Carlyle, that was last year, and some of the criticism for this year’s lackluster start should fall on him.  His steadfast refusal to make any major changes in his game plan and his unfaltering loyalty to underperforming players makes the team an easy target too frequently.  There is little doubt that the team’s early struggles brought the goaltending situation to a head that culminated in the departure of the longest-tenured Ducks player, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

The silver lining for the team now showing through is the markedly improved play of its new number one goaltender, Jonas Hiller.  In the absence of Giguere (and the long shadow cast by the whole situation), he has returned to the level of play that carried the team to within a game of the third round last season.  His strong showing at the Olympics for Switzerland vindicated Murray’s decision and undoubtedly opened a few eyes around the league.

But familiar territory or not, with a half-dozen other teams in contention, memories of past glory are not enough.  The Red Wings are finally getting healthy, and the Flames (currently in ninth) are perhaps the only team to have shifted more personnel than the Ducks.  In Nashville, the Predators continue to win, and with Olympians Shea Weber and Ryan Suter on defense, they will not likely fall by the wayside.

And so it falls on Anaheim to make its own luck.  Chief in that quest will be getting the most out of all players on a consistent basis.  The offense – with Teemu Selanne finally regaining his health and plenty of Olympic gold, silver and bronze to go around – should not have a hard time putting pucks in the net as long as Carlyle does not get impatient and butcher any chemistry he finds.  In net, Hiller’s task will be crucial but unextraordinary: maintain the level of play he has shown since January, and do it consistently.  It is on defense where the biggest challenge lies.  Given the recent restructuring, it is certainly understandable if things do not mesh immediately.  If the team hopes to go anywhere, however, the new players will have to achieve a level of stability and dependability that is characteristic of playoff teams.

It seems that the imperative is clear: mesh now or pay later.

Yesterday, I spoke about some great memories of the Ducks’ 2003 second round triumph over the Dallas Stars.  True, these moments aren’t great for all involved, but irrespective of their emotional impact they are the stuff of which the hockey annals are made.  It was after watching the clips that I began to wax nostalgic about the Ducks’ Disney days, and the realization of the holiday season dawned on me (the holidays are nothing if not a time to share stories).

Accordingly, I have decided to share my brief and extemporaneous recollection of that magical Stanley Cup spring, beginning today with the series — specifically game one — win over the Stars.

It had been an extraordinary playoff season, and in this case the definition of the word had been bifurcated into decidedly opposite extremes of the emotional spectrum.  Extraordinary that the Ducks (nee Mighty Ducks, as they still were at the time) had swept the Red Wings, defending Cup champions.  More extraordinary still that in doing so, Jean-Sebastien Giguere — my favorite Duck dating back to his major junior days in Halifax — had shut down a high-octane offense by stopping pucks at a record pace.

Extraordinarily upsetting, too, that the Colorado Avalanche had managed to forfeit a 3-1 series lead against the Minnesota Wild and find themselves eliminated early in (what would prove to be) Patrick Roy’s final season — Roy being my all-time favorite goaltender.  It is a nearly inexplicable phenomenon to those who aren’t fans of sport to hope that one of your two favorite teams is eliminated ahead of schedule, making the choice of allegiance one beyond control.  Thankfully, due to whatever mixture of complacency, arrogance and fatigue that had finished the Avalanche, the decision to throw my full support behind the Ducks had been made for me.  [Note: The Ducks and Avs did meet in the 2006 playoffs, and it was Anaheim that did me the favor by swiftly and mercilessly destroying Colorado.]

And so it was, the second round began and I was certain that the Ducks had been the fortuitous recipients of beginner’s luck (insofar as Giguere could carry them), and that Dallas would quickly dash any delirious dreams of third round play.  At the time, I was away from home on a school trip.  Through some stroke of good fortune, the hotel room had a television and my friends were willing to put aside their allegiances and watch the Ducks game with me.  Having tuned in well before midnight, we had no idea how many consecutive hours of hockey we were settling in to watch.

Fast forward to 3AM, a wakeup call looming in less than four hours (you didn’t think school trips were for sleeping in, did you?).  The room of four, only three of us hockey fans, were beginning to wonder aloud if the game would ever end; being in the Atlantic timezone certainly wasn’t helping our perception of the game’s astronomical duration.  It was then, after the fourth overtime period had ended, that common sense won over my friend and he called it quits.  Ironically, this friend was as much a hockey fan as I, but he was seemingly giving in to the sensibilities of sleep.  By this point, my sports-allergic friend had made a point of outlasting the game as a means of masochistic endurance.  To the best of my recollective ability, I quote him: “Right now I just want to stay up and see how long this thing goes.”  Point taken.

On the television screen, the remaining crowd in Dallas was doing its best to maintain what can only be called the sorriest wave I’ve ever seen at a sporting event.  It was, however, difficult to fault the audience for its lack of energy at that point, because the play on the ice had grown sloppy and fatigued as well.

I can’t remember the exact time — every time I tell the story, I seem to settle on 3:30AM as the acceptable marking point — but it finally happened.  It happened so quickly I almost missed it.  Petr Sykora coasted into the slot, took a pass and fired a quick shot past Marty Turco into the Dallas goal.  The event seemed to catch everybody (awake) by surprise, no one more than Turco.  His expression looked crestfallen, to say the least.  In the hotel room I raised my arms triumphantly, exhausted.

In total, I think I got about three hours of restless sleep that night.  Breakfast was an unholy mixture of donuts and coffee, foods I am not wont to eat the other 364 mornings of the year.  The rest of the series now plays out as a slideshow of scattered moments in my head — Giguere stopping Mike Modano with his skate blade, and Modano’s ensuing bewilderment; the cathartic celebration after the final seconds ticked off the clock in game six, the Ducks’ players looking as though they had been waiting the whole time to exhale — and it is wonderful, but nowhere near as affecting on my fan psyche as that first game.

Rarely do I find it fitting to use the word I am about to write.  Truthfully, I rarely find it remotely appropriate as someone who endeavors to make a career of writing to think of using this word.  But asked to sum up the entire experience of that playoff run, with the quintuple-overtime victory standing tall as the most vivid in the collection of those memories, I can think of only one word to use.

Epic.

What would a great team be without its rivals as a measuring stick of success? Our friend Cole over at the other 6 seconds (warning: it’s a Stars blog) has paid tribute to perhaps the single greatest moment in Ducks franchise history that doesn’t involve any shiny silver trophies — Petr Sykora’s 5OT winner in Dallas during the 2003 playoffs.  Coincidentally, it is Cole’s least favorite Stars-related moment, and he explains why:

To add insult to injury, the most melancholy I’ve ever felt as a Stars fan was during that post-series handshake. It was bad enough being eliminated by a low seeded division rival. It was also the final game that Derian Hatcher ever played in a Stars sweater.

Fittingly, Cole had listed the same moments when I asked him this summer to name his least favorite Ducks-Stars memory.  Unfortunately for the Ducks, Dallas got a measure of revenge in the 2008 playoffs by eliminating (and thus dethroning) them swiftly in the opening round.

Hit the break to see clips of Sykora’s monumental goal and the final few minutes of the series.  The videos are clad appropriately in eggplant and jade to celebrate the occasion.  When you’re done, I suggest taking a peek at Cole’s blog to find the answers to life’s great questions (seriously, he has a page for that).  While you’re there, don’t miss his insightful look at The 5 Biggest Myths in Hockey.  Damn, he has one hell of a blog.

Now it’s time for some Disney Ducks delight.  Enjoy!

Dear Santa,

Is it too late for a trade-in – even if only for a store credit – at the favorite hockey team shop?  Sure, it’s been a good decade or so with my Ducks (you even brought me that silver cup I asked for two years ago), but now I want the latest and greatest.  And Santa, to be honest, my old team just isn’t cutting it anymore.

When I first got my new team, you were probably surprised I liked it.  My boys in burgundy – the Colorado Avalanche – were perennial winners, so what did I want with an eggplant-clad bunch of outcasts and misfits who had a hard enough time just making the playoffs?  I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with Wildwing Flashblade – the coolest, most badass mascot in hockey (incidentally, Santa, you never did bring me the Wildwing mask I asked you for).  In spite of the undeniable awe an anthropomorphic cartoon mallard commands, none of my friends wanted to share my team.

None of that mattered in 2003 though, because the team was too busy winning to care what people thought of them.  I stopped caring what people thought, too, but I still wasn’t brave enough to flash my gang colors around town (I’m sure the eggplant would have been fine, but the jade was a little sketchy).  I didn’t get my silver cup that year, but I never really asked for it, so it was a decidedly good time for my team nonetheless.

When I started complaining to you about my Ducks after the lockout, you listened.  You brought me lots of wins for Christmas, and a snazzy new outfit the very next year.  Even that impossible silver dream, complete with visions of ticker tape parades, wasn’t too much and you brought it all to me, Santa.

The last few years have been tougher, though.  I had to part ways with a few of my favorite things – the hardest part was giving up my Chris Pronger with its two gigantic actuating elbows.  I have not dared to ask for another silver cup, preferring instead to keep my hopes low and not be disappointed.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore because my team isn’t even meeting my new expectations.  It looks like there will be no Christmas in Anaheim this year, and what is a diehard fan to do?

So please, Santa, reach into that big bag of gifts you have and see if there’s something in there for me.  A few wins, a glimmer of hope, or some medicated band-aids for my friend Teemu.  Right now, my team needs all the help it can get.

Wait a minute; did I just say my team?

I guess it still is my team.  Forget what I said before about wanting a new one, Santa.  It may not be the biggest or toughest team around, and it may not be the fastest or highest-scoring – but it has brought me more than my deserved share of happy moments and bragging rights.

That’s all I want, Santa.  More happy moments, less tears, and maybe world peace while you’re at it.

Love,
Patrick

P.S. Jonas says he doesn’t believe in you, but I decided to ask for him anyway.  Santa, could you please bring him some super glue for his goalie pads?  Oh, and Giggy said something about wanting a bigger chest protector, but I’m not sure how much room you have.

The true beauty of blogging is not found in garnering the recognition and rewards that conventional journalism offers, but in being easily forgotten.  It sounds contradictory to the mandate of good business (and website) ownership to wish your project an inconsequential existence, but in this case I think it’s entirely appropriate.

As of this posting, it has been slightly over five weeks since the last post on Quacked — but no need to fret, the season hasn’t kicked off yet and the games are not for keeps.  Though it is true that the off-season brings with it very little of the excitement of the regular season and playoffs, to suggest that the last month has been uneventful would be patently absurd.  The upshot for Ducks fans is that their team has been relatively unaffected by the maelstrom of recent activity.  For better or for worse, Bob Murray took care of business early and things have remained relatively status quo ever since.

What is news for Anaheim fans, aside from that which concerns the Ducks, is that the San Jose Sharks organization has added the “missing piece” to its Stanley Cup puzzle… again.  Dany Heatley is the newest Shark, and should subsequently become a new target of derision at the Honda Center.  It remains to be seen how long it will take him to develop chemistry on one of the most offensively gifted top lines in hockey alongside Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi, but it is safe to say that goal scoring should not be a problem in San Jose this season.

I’m going to fire off the rest of this post in point form due in part to the fact that none of it is new news, and has been covered ad nauseam by the mainstream media already:

• The results of the Ducks nascent preseason have been mixed thus far, churning out a 3-2 shootout win over the Coyotes, followed by a listless 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Canucks, and last night another overtime win against Phoenix, this time being outshot 46-21 and  coming from 3-0 down to take it 4-3.  The past week has seen the Ducks debut of Justin Pogge, Saku Koivu and Mark Bell (here on a tryout basis).
• Quick props to Bobby Ryan for his two goal (plus shootout) effort in the inaugural preseason tilt with Phoenix, and to Joffrey Lupul for potting two last night against the same Phoenix squad.
• Captain Hook, aka Rob Niedermayer, is on the verge of signing with a KHL if he doesn’t get a knockout offer from an NHL team this week.  Another victim of the league-wide  salary cap crunch?
• Speaking of financial debacles, how about the ongoing saga concerning the struggle for ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes?  The case has much intrigue, but has gone on for so long now that many people must just be praying for it to be over.  With RIM (via Jim Balsillie) potentially laying claim to an NHL franchise, how long will it take for Steve Jobs to want in on the action?  The Seattle Snow Leopards has a certain ring to it…
• Continuing in the vein of the new NHL economics, the Phil Kessel circus came to an end today with Boston shipping the unsigned forward to Toronto, where Brian Burke promptly signed him to a new, long-term contract.  Once again, Burke saw a piece he wanted on his team and paid the price to get it.  It remains to be seen whether his rebuild in Toronto turns out the same success as the one in Anaheim.
• Theo Fleury is on the comeback trail, and wouldn’t you know it, he scored a shootout winner in his first game back.  Talk about a blast from the past: the last time Fleury suited up for an NHL team was before the shootout had been implemented.  Now that Theo is back, he’ll have to take the “other Fleury” billing as Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre is unquestionably the more celebrated of the two, having just backstopped the Pens to a Stanley Cup.
• Finally, no synopsis of the past month’s goings on in the NHL would be complete without a major thumbs down to the NHLPA for another executive director disaster.  Following the Ted Saskin debacle, you would think both sides had learned a valuable lesson in choosing the right person for the job.  Guess not.

Cheers for now.  Hopefully the next update won’t be five weeks in the making.  With the start of real hockey just around the corner, that shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

Next to the start of free agency in July, perhaps no single event during the off-season is as important to a hockey fan as the release of the upcoming NHL schedule.  As such, it is incumbent upon the sites covering the NHL teams to analyze this schedule to death in the name of journalism.  So without further delay, here are the highlights of the 2009-10 season for the Anaheim Ducks:

First Game: Saturday, October 3, 2009 – vs. San Jose Sharks
Final Game: Sunday, April 11, 2009 – vs. Edmonton Oilers

Olympic Break: Monday, February 15, 2010 – Sunday, February 28, 2010

Longest Homestand (7, twice):

• Thursday, November 19, 2009 – Tuesday, December 1, 2009
  (vs. Lightning, Sharks, Flames, Hurricanes, Blackhawks, Coyotes, Kings)
• Sunday, March 7, 2010 – Sunday, March 21, 2009
  (vs. Canadiens, Blue Jackets, Predators, Sharks, Blackhawks, Islanders, Avalanche)

Longest Roadtrip (6):

• Thursday, January 21, 2010 – Monday, February 1, 2010
  (at Sharks, Blues, Thrashers, Capitals, Lightning, Panthers)

Mark your calendars!

The following games are firsts or one-time-only deals for the Ducks on the 2009-10 schedule:

First game…

• at home: Saturday, October3, 2009 – vs. San Jose Sharks
• on the road: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 – at Minnesota Wild
• in the Shark Tank: Thursday, December 17, 2009
• against the Kings: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 (at Honda Center)
• against the Wings: Saturday, November 14, 2009 (at Joe Louis Arena)
• against the champs: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
  (at Honda Center… the Ducks visit the Penguins November 16 for a rematch)
• against Paul Kariya and the Blues: Saturday, October 17, 2009 (at Honda Center)

Only game…

• against Chris Pronger’s Flyers: Saturday, October 10, 2009 (at Wachovia Center)
• against Brian Burke’s Maple Leafs: Monday, October 26, 2009 (at Honda Center)
• to see Alexander Ovechkin up close: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (at Verizon Center)
• in Hell: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (at New Jersey/Prudential Center)
• on Broadway: Sunday, October 11, 2009 (at Madison Square Garden)
• against a team from a French province: Sunday, March 7, 2010 (vs. Canadiens/Honda Center)
• to serve as a Stanley Cup Final grudge match: Sunday, December 6, 2009 (vs. Senators/Honda Center)

Other notes:

• Because of the Olympic break, there will be no All-Star Game/Skills Competition this season
• Back-to-backs potentially presenting an opportunity to have both goalies see action:
  • October 10/11 (at Flyers/at Rangers)
  • October 30/31 (vs. Canucks/at Coyotes)
  • November 13/14 (at Blue Jackets/at Red Wings)
  • December 3/4 (at Stars/at Wild)
  • December 11/12 (at Red Wings/at Blue Jackets)
  • December 16/17 (at Canucks/at Sharks)
  • December 22/23 (at Avalanche/at Coyotes)
  • January 2/3 (at Predators/at Blackhawks)
  • January 9/10 (at Predators/at Blackhawks)
  • January 13/14 (vs. Bruins/at Kings)
  • January 26/27 (at Thrashers/at Capitals)
  • February 3/4 (vs. Red Wings/at Kings)
  • February 13/14 (at Flames/at Oilers)
  • March 6/7 (at Coyotes/vs. Canadiens)
  • March 23/24 (at Flames/at Canucks)
  • April 2/3 (vs. Canucks/at Kings)
  • April 8/9 (at Stars/at Blues)

  (With the Olympic year taking its toll on the NHL schedule in the form of compressing it into a smaller space of time, it’s easy to see the effect it will have on teams when looking at such a long list of back-to-back game nights.)

All that and we’ve just barely scratched the surface of schedule analysis (insofar as it could potentially be analyzed).  In spite of the hefty share of weekend doubleheaders thrown at the team, there lie two great opportunities to gather points in the form of two lengthy homestands.

The Ducks neither face the Kings nor make their first visit to San Jose (where the Sharks will no doubt be hungry for a shot at the Ducks after the disappointment of the 2009 playoffs) until December, but there are lots of interesting matchups to keep Ducks fans on the edges of their seats in the meantime.  Very early on, the team will get a good look at Chris Pronger in his new orange trappings in Philadelphia on October 10.  The fans will also have a chance to boo Paul Kariya when the Blues make a visit a week later.  It will also be interesting to see how Bob Murray’s Ducks fare when facing Brian Burke’s proto-Ducks squad- the Maple Leafs- on October 26.

Plenty of intrigue, plenty of games, plenty of hope.  Only 58 days to go!

LINKS

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NHL.com correspondent Eric Stephens checks in with two articles about the Ducks as part of the site’s 30 Teams in 30 Days feature.  The first takes a look at the Ducks’ recent history (on and off the ice) and evaluates some top prospects:

The fact is the savvy GM saw no reason to tear things down when his team was sitting outside the playoff picture at the trade deadline last March. And with Niedermayer and Selanne back for perhaps a final season – something that’s now closer to reality – Murray is again willing to go for the Cup while also building for the future.

The second feature is an overview of Bobby Ryan’s career, from the weight of his status of number two overall pick to his Calder Trophy caliber 2008-09 season:

No longer is Ryan just “The Guy Picked After Sidney Crosby” or “The Guy Who Really Isn’t Bobby Ryan.” A 31-goal, 57-point rookie season and being a Calder Trophy finalist helps move people past those signposts of his path of life.

Given that the pace of the off-season has slowed, these two articles give fans something to be excited about for the upcoming year of Ducks hockey.  The piece on Ryan is especially interesting as it includes a few quotes about wanting to establish his own identity in pro hockey.

LINKS

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