Hockey is here!

And the hockey world rejoiced as pucks were dropped on a number of season openers... Hockey season is finally here!

Our hometown heroes will have their own season opener in less than 24 hours. Only two other previous times in NHL history has there been so much hockey on one day. This Saturday will mark the third---all 30 franchises will be playing. Where will you be? At a game? Watching Center Ice? Watching Game Center? Listening to a radio feed? Yours truly will be at the Ponda hoping to see our Ducks start off on a winning webbed foot.

Until then, there are a few moments I'd like to share. Even though they aren't Duck moments, I think we, as hockey fans, can still enjoy the emotions that only our wonderful game can evoke.

First, Denver Avalanche's Joe Sakic's retirement ceremony and the raising of his number 19 to the rafters of the Pepsi Center...



The man is truly one of hockey's greatest. It makes me misty-eyed to think that we will see a similar tribute for Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer soon.

Second, the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup ceremony at the Mellon (in two parts)





The Penguins went on to win their opener 3-2 against the New York Rangers tonight, as their interstate rivals, the Philly Flyers, trounced the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0. As much as I miss Chris Pronger, I was happy to see that he seems to be making himself right at home with the Flyers.

Let's hope the Ducks can deliver a similar trouncing, sans Prongs, at the Ponda. Go Ducks!!

Meet the Team 2009

One of the most anticipated Duck gatherings at the beginning of each season is the annual Meet the Team event. This year's soiree was held at [seven-degrees] in beautiful Laguna Beach.


Picture by John Maioriello



Guests in attendance spent an intimate evening mingling with Ducks staff, coaches, and players which, as was announced earlier in the morning, would not include Brendan Mikkleson and Logan MacMillan.

Those two were the last of the cuts made to the 2009-10 Ducks roster. Not wanting to ruin the mood with too much analysis, I will just say that I believe the coaches were right in sending these boys down for more game time and learning in the minors. I am also glad that Luca Sbisa will be kept with the team and, most importantly, given the chance to learn from future Hall-of-Famer Scott Niedermayer.

[seven-degrees] was elegantly appropriate for such an event, allowing a cozy environment for guests to talk, take pictures, and enjoy wine and hors d'oeuvres.


Picture by John Maioriello


Picture by John Maioriello

The festivities were complete with speeches from a few honoraries including Captain Scott Niedermayer and GM Bob Murray and a celebratory champagne toast to open the 2009-10 season.


Bobby will drink to that!


Jonas Hiller doesn't know who will be starting in between the pipes for Saturday's home opener against the Sharks, but he says he feels good about the season


Joffrey Lupul assured us that his back is feeling much better. He is expected to play this Saturday.


Evgeny Artyukhin, Ryan Whitney, Steve Eminger, and Luca Sbisa


My boy Bobby Ryan might have a little surprise for readers in the not too distant future...


Saku Koivu says he's loving the weather here in Southern California and that his family is adjusting nicely.

To check out more of John Maioriello's photos from the event, visit 944's site at: http://www.944.com/nightsites/gallery/meet-the-anaheim-ducks/.

Also, you can visit the Anaheim Ducks photo gallery page at: http://ducks.nhl.com

Get ready, Anaheim's first game to kick off the season is this Saturday at the Ponda. Hockey season is finally here! GO DUCKS!!

Anaheim Ducks in a Roll

What's one of my favorite things... besides Ducks hockey? Sushi! So when my Ducks Twitter pal Emily invited me as her guest to the Ducks first annual "Get Your Anaheim Ducks in a Roll" event, I was giddy with anticipation for days.

The event itself turned out to be better than either of us could have imagined. Of course, I brought Baby Rebel (pictures at all allowed events are a must) and also, for the fun of it, I brought my "Bobbyhead" (credit goes to Adam Brady) for coining the name.

Note: the lighting inside RA Sushi was elegantly beautiful to the eye, harshly cruel to the camera.


RA Sushi at Tustin's District

Not knowing anything beforehand about this event, the guests were brought up to speed by none other than John Ahlers.



Ducks James Wisniewski, Scott Niedermayer, Saku Koivu, and Mike Brown were on hand to roll their own sushi creations, with help from the RA Sushi chefs, of course. Samples of each Duck roll could be tasted, along with sake testers. If you wanted to purchase a roll or sake drink, you could and a portion of the money would be donated to the Anaheim Ducks Foundation charity. Also, each roll purchase would count as a "vote" for that particular roll.

There were also judges on hand to rate our boys' creations on various measures such as presentation, best name, creativity, taste, etc. At the end of the night, the votes would be tallied and the winning roll announced. That roll will be part of the menu at RA Sushi until November 6th, with a portion of the proceeds still going to the Ducks charity.

What a unique idea! Let's see some pictures...


Bobby would enjoy a "Zamboni" sake drink too, if he was tall enough...


Duck sushi rolls: "The Big Wisniewski" roll, "When You're Finnish, You'll Want More SAKU!" roll, "Great Scott" roll, and "Lucky #13" roll


Mike Brown, watching and learning




Saku Koivu: "This is so much fun! But you know, it's a lot harder than it looks."


Scott Niedermayer, calm and focused as always


Me: "So this is what you guys are doing during the offseason, eh?"
Wiz: "Oh heck yeah!"


Saku: "What is that stuff?"
Wiz: "Beats me, but it tastes awesome so I'm putting it in my roll!" (improvised by the blogger)




Wiz and Scotty proudly showing off their culinary creations


Mikey putting the finishing touches on his roll: "Pine nuts! That's where it's at!"


Me: "Saku! Will you and Scotty be in a picture for me?" He so wonderfully obliged... and I got the sushi chef too


Bobby gave all the rolls two thumbs, and a hockey stick, up


Why is Saku holding a spoon and a bottle of Sriracha?



All of the rolls were excellent, however I did end up voting for Scotty's "Great Scott" roll. Saku's roll was a close second for me, while Mikey's was a little too unique for my taste buds. After all of the votes were tallied, Wiz's "The Great Wisniewski" roll won and will be featured at RA Sushi for the next month.


Scotty, Bobby, and Emily

To top off an already amazing night, yours truly won the raffle for the team-signed Ducks jersey.



If you get a chance to attend this incredible event next year, I highly recommend you go!

Ducks 2009 exhibition

Our hometown heroes went out on a high note with their last preseason game. This one, played at the Ponda against the LA Kings, saw what will most likely resemble our offensive lines and defensive pairings when the puck drops for this Saturday's season opener against the San Jose Sharks.

Ducks managed to keep an edge above the Kings to win it 5-4, the majority of our goals coming from the infamous Legion of Doom line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Bobby Ryan. My boy Bobby netted two of those goals and earned the assist on another. The other goal undoubtedly had the Duck suits voicing an emphatic, "Yup, that's why we did that," as it came off a beautiful pass from Teemu Selanne speeding up the right wing, to Saku Koivu in the center who quickly tapped it to Joffrey Lupul on the left wing for a hammered home goal top-shelf.

The Ducks roster is just a few men from being complete. Yours truly has a few remarks on how things are shaping up:

Matthew Beleskey, Matt McCue, Dan Sexton, Brett Festerling, Mark Mitera, and Timo Pielmeier were all sent down to the minors. Yours truly is no hockey coach, nor do I claim to know anything about what would earn a player a spot on the roster, but I thought these boys put on an impressive show in training camp and exhibition games. Whether the issue is usability (if the Ducks actually need a player right now who possesses some of the skills these boys displayed), or just not thinking a player is ready for the NHL, I'm hoping to see them get a shot later in the season. Especially Pielmeier who, in my opinion, impressed more than Justin Pogge (our supposed #3 netminder).

The #1 goaltender has yet to be determined. J.S. Giguere and Jonas Hiller appear to be equally effective so far. While Hiller pulls a few moves that continue to make me VERY nervous (he tends to leave the crease and fall horribly out of position trying to get back in), he is still holding his own. I'm proud of Jiggy for what looks to be a much improved performance over last season, but I think many more games need to be played before we have a winner.

Despite retaining Scott Niedermayer on our blue line, the Ducks defense can use some work. Scotty can only do so much on his own, this I realize. To their credit, Ryan Whitney and James Wisniewski have stepped up their game quite a bit, but I can still feel some huge holes where Chris Pronger and Frankie Beauchemin once were. Here's hoping more gelling goes on between all of the new defensive faces and our older ones. And by "older," we're only really speaking about guys who've been with the team since the last trade deadline, 'cept Scotty, of course.

The Ducks have continued their love of the sin bin. One thing is true: our penalty killing is going to have to get a whole lot better because penalties still seem to be our Ducks' middle name. I do like the Big Man, Evgeny Artyukhin, and I cheer for him every time I see him out on the ice. Heck, he's hard to miss. But Arty draws a lot of penalties. He's going to have to work on that. There's a fine line between a large, effective player and a blundering oaf who becomes a liability.

This time around, size does matter. There's a huge difference having little Andrew Ebbett on that second line with Koivu and Selanne versus Lupul. Yes, Ebbett did a remarkable job centering Selanne last season. But now that Lupes is an option, and a very viable one at that, I'm not sure where that will leave Ebbett. Unfortunately, with him on that second line, there just isn't enough size and physicality. Neither Koivu nor Selanne are big, physical players. With Ebbett as the third forward, a match up with the opponent's larger players completely shuts down that line. But with Lupes, there's at least a little equaling out of the size difference. And since we're seeing Lupes gel with his Finnish teammates, I couldn't blame coach Carlyle for favoring him over Ebbett in that role. As for other line possibilities for Ebbett, he doesn't fit in the top six, but he seems too small for the bottom six. While I would hate to see Ebbett go, he plays with such heart that you can't help but love him, he would probably make excellent trade bait for a team that would appreciate and make use of his abilities.

Either way, the fans and the players are ready and anxious for the season to start. I've got a good feeling about our Ducks this time around, hopefully it turns out to be more than a feeling.

I should be able to update and finalize the side bar pictures shortly. Shooting pictures at numerous events throughout the preseason, I believe I'll be able to replace a majority of those pictures with ones that I've taken myself. As for the blog entries, I'm debating whether I should retain the format from last season, where the game entries are mostly play-by-plays? A more time-efficient approach would be simply to provide a performance review with impressions and such. For the games I actually attend, of course, I will have pictures to supplement what would be a standard review. Any reader suggestions/comments are encouraged and welcomed!

Next up, the annual Meet the Team event this Wednesday...

Ducks vs Phoenix Coyotes (preseason debut)

You could have just called this game, "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby!" and I'm not just saying that because he's my Bobby Ryan. But Bobby, with the help of rookie Dan Sexton, led our Ducks to a 3-2 win at the Ponda against the Phoenix Coyotes for their debut preseason game last night. Bobby scored all three goals, Sexton drew assists on the first two, and the third was done in the shootout. Joffrey Lupul, back at the Ponda for the first time in a Ducks sweater since being traded for Chris Pronger three years ago, would get another puck past Yotes' netminder Jason LaBarbera.


Can I get some more Bobby Ryan?


Ducks at the home bench


Coyotes at the visitor's bench

A win was a great way to mark the end of a long off-season for Duck fans. Considering how many of these fans had shown up for rookie camp and training camp, the above average attendance for a preseason game was no surprise. It isn't just the players who've been itching to get back into hockey mode.

Yours truly had never before been to a preseason game, so I'm going by word of mouth, but there were enough fans in the stands to get rousing cheers of "Let's go Ducks!" and "Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!" circulating at various times during the game.

I was more than ready to see my Bobby back out on Ponda ice. But I also wanted to get a glimpse of Timo Pielmeier, who had looked awesome between the pipes in training camp. Timo didn't disappoint. He let in only one goal for his 1.5 periods between the pipes, and kept both Coyotes' shootout attempts from scoring.


"Timo" sounds a lot like "Teemu", and "Pielmeier" is just too long to yell at games. I'll have to find an alternate nickname for him.

And of course, no slight to Jonas Hiller, who I was also excited to see back in the Ponda crease. Hiller had last been there during the incredible game six of the Ducks vs. Red Wings playoff series, and he'd done everything except stand on his head to push his team to a game seven back at The Joe.


Hillsy, Sheldon Brookbank, and Phoenix Coyotes' Daniel Winnik

A few more observations of interest:
- Steve Eminger, who had looked good in training camp, also showed his stuff against the Yotes.
- Evgeny Artyukhin is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I love watching the big man out on the ice. You'd be surprised how fast he actually is. He even found himself on a two-man breakaway, but wasn't able to complete the pass and shoot on the net.
- Peter Holland, the Ducks first round draft pick earlier in the year, looked very promising.
- A hint to coach Randy Carlyle: How about putting Danny [Sexton] and Bobby on a line for tertiary scoring?
- Mike Brown came back with a vengeance. He delivered hit after delicious hit, garnering cheers from the crowd every time.
- Troy Bodie dropped gloves for the first of two fights for the night (the other engaged Sheldon Brookbank), and did very well holding his own.
- Luca Sbisa continues to impress. He has the grit of a true Duck with awesome puck-moving capabilities. And to think, he's only 19 and destined to get even better.


Ducks celebrate their first preseason win with Timo Pielmeier

Our Ducks are looking good! I'm hoping Teemu, Saku, and Scotty and the boys can put us 2 for 2 tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. Let's go Ducks!!