Sometimes you find things in unlikely places. Like the truth about Rogie Vachon. You could find it in my book, Living the Hockey Dream, or in another one I wrote, Facing Wayne Gretzky. Or you could talk to now-LA Kings’ goalie Peter Budaj, as I did Saturday after the...
The Kings are nothing if not streaky. Their record is of winning, or losing, in bunches this year so far. Three losses, four wins, three losses, three wins, four losses (one OT point) and, coming into Saturday, a win. Logically, then, they would get another one on the...
With Calgary in town Sunday evening, the Ducks had two injured players back, two-thirds of their first line: Nick Ritchie and Ryan Getzlaf. They started the game with Corey Perry as their right-winger, and things were going well. The team got its first goal when the...
That crunching sound you hear is the sound of Duck bills smacking their way through the Arizona Coyotes’ lunch. 21-4 was the shot total in period one of the Ducks-Dogs game Friday night. And this without the Anaheim squad featuring its captain. That’s right—Getzlaf...
The scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins is all at the bottom of the lineup—if you go numerically. Think about this: from 71 (Malkin) to 87 (you know who) the Pens had 36 points coming into Thursday night, when they faced the LA Kings. They would add three more on a...
The refrain was the same from the defenseman to the captain to the coach of the Ducks Friday night: We got off to a good start. We had a bad five minutes (actually four), and we never got it back on track. They ended up losing 4-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who got...
The Ducks finally, belatedly, started their home season on Sunday, a week and a half after they opened. Coming into the night, they had played five games already, so it’s not odd that their fans have waited, some impatiently, for the games (here) to begin. Too bad...
The Kings this year are pretty much what they were last, because salaries have largely locked them into using the lineup that last won them the Cup. The differences, if you looked at their home opening roster, were minimal compared to last year. Here are some new...
“It was fifty years ago today, Red Kelly taught the boys to play; they’ve been going in and out of style, but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.” With apologies to the Fab Four, this is the lyric for October 14th, 2016, which is forty-nine years to the day when the...
The Anaheim Ducks knew the stats. The ones that suggest that getting off to a slow start in game seven is certain death. They knew their own history, too. The last three years, they’ve blown series wins by losing in game seven. Each time, they got off to horrible...
The Ducks were looking to overcome a disadvantage on Saturday, but not the one you’d think. They were looking to overcome the boost that comes with being at home, which Coach Boudreau said late in the week sometimes amps them up too much. And silly me—I praised them...
It wasn’t just a slow start. It was practically no start at all that the LA Kings got off to on Friday night with their season on the line. The reasons? The non-conspiracy types might have said that it was the Kings’ lack of offense. No set-up in the Sharks’ zone. The...
The Anaheim Ducks’ coach, Bruce Boudreau, was angry with his team after their loss to Nashville on Sunday night, miffed at the number of undisciplined penalties they had taken. The numbers were telling: six minors versus two for Nashville. Boudreau immediately pointed...
Drew Doughty said a few weeks ago that the Kings know how to play a certain way and can do it consistently since they’ve been at it a long while. What was he talking about? The confident, defensively excellent style that has won them two recent Stanley Cups. Well,...
The stories going into the Nashville-Anaheim series: could the Ducks keep the two Nashville powerhouse D-men, Shea Weber and Roman Josi, off the board? Would their goalie, John Gibson, be better than Nashville’s Pekka Rinne? And would the Ducks’ league-topping PK and...
Most LA Kings fans probably would never believe they could say this, but Thursday night in LA seemed like no big deal, despite the playoffs’ beginning at 7:30pm versus San Jose. I mean, it’s not like the team is Montreal, with 24 Stanley Cup wins and who knows how...
Assessing a team’s performance is difficult based on a small sample. You might not be seeing their best on a given night. You might be uninformed about the larger picture regarding what they’re trying to do, seeing the team on days when that isn’t working. I get all...
The Kings were better than the Ducks in period one of their game Monday night at Staples Center. They outshot the Anaheim team 9-5 in the first, a reflection of the fact that they had the puck most of the time. They still exited the period down a goal, scored by...
Think about this: you play however you want, no defense, score your a$$ off all season long, then with about ten games to go, you switch up to a more defensive style and lock down your playoff fortunes, then go into the post-season with that same attitude. You’d be in...
Dallas is a bit of a scrappy team. They hack at the other side’s goalie. They aren’t afraid to get in his face, even knock him down. That was evident from early on in the Saturday afternoon tilt of the Stars and Kings. It started with a high stick, delivered by...
If I were heading to the NHL playoffs like the Anaheim Ducks are, I’d be using the last few games of the season to send some messages. What would they be? That we’re a tough team that won’t be pushed around. That we have a plan to counter whatever you throw at us....
WonderCon. It’s like ComicCon, but not held in San Diego. If that makes sense to you, you probably have a Wonder Woman or Batman costume in your closet. Leave it there. This is about hockey. So why mention it? Because it was going on next door to Staples Center on...
The Ducks roared out to a lead so quick that Phil Hulett didn’t get one goal call made when the crowd in Honda Center erupted in a cheer that drowned him out. It was about four minutes gone, and the Ducks were up 2-0. These teams don’t see each other often, and so you...
Don’t count out the New York Rangers. That’s the message that they sent without even having to say it on Thursday night versus LA. They had come off a night-prior 2-1 win in Anaheim, and thus ought to have been tired. No dice. They didn’t charge out of the gate, by...
The LA Kings should have been energized entering their Saturday evening game against New Jersey. The Devils aren’t playing all that well, sitting seventh in their conference and fifth in the East’s wildcard race and being losers of five of their last seven games and...
I am sure I’ve referenced the following scene before: Scut Farcas terrorizes his school. His crummy little toadie, Grover Dill, can be counted on to do the same. One day, they throw a snowball at “four-eyes” Ralphie Parker, and tease him verbally. He snaps, rushes...
The Habs actually held the Ducks close on Wednesday before losing in the shootout, and then they got in a bus, got on the 5, and landed in LA. There, they scratched a guy (Sven Andrighetto) and swapped a goalie (Condon out and Scrivens in) and proceeded to get in a...
Maybe it’s just me, but when I watch Montreal play hockey, I want the names on the sweaters to be the history-making ones. I want Lafleur, Robinson, Dryden. I know it can’t be that way, but come on: today’s Montreal roster is full of nobodies. Ever heard of any of...
It sure felt like the playoffs at Honda Center on Sunday evening with the LA Kings in town. For one thing, the place was full and raucous from the warm-up. Maybe it was the unfamiliar 6pm start (Anaheim games usually go at 5pm on Sundays) or the fact that the arena...
Stop paying attention for a couple of weeks and what happens? The team that looked to be on the brink of firing its coach and declaring its latest rebuild a bust ends up challenging for the Pacific Division lead. That’s right, friends. The Anaheim Ducks are back on...
