Happy Christmas!!!

I know it's been ages since I've posted anything. Shame on me.

But don't worry! I will post something very soon. Just with the whole Holiday bit and with work, I have been rather busy. But fear not, I have been watching the games and have been please (except with loses to the Sharks and from last nights match with the Coyotes) with the results thus far.

For now, I wish all my fellow Duck fans a Happy Christmas! And to all my close friends and family back home in SoCal: I dearly miss you all.

Go Ducks!

The comeback.

0 - 6?

It looked like the hole would get deeper. It looked like it was going to be a 6-game losing streak even when Lupul got the late goal in the 2nd period. However, that was the beginning of those who support the team. We started to wake from our sleep.

Last night, it appeared as if the Ducks would be going 0 - 3 in their 6-game season series with the Dallas Stars, the team that I really hate but, you all know that. It would be the Stars who, through the 1st and late in the 2nd, would be ahead by 3 goals to nil. It looked as if Turco would be getting a shutout. Not until late that 2nd period did Anaheim finally put one up on the board when Lupul, who had just served a minor penalty, came out of the box and got a breakaway from a beautiful pass by Ryan Getzlaf. He was all alone to face Turkey. I thought he Stars netminder got the better of the shot to save it but, his momentum moving back, and the fact that Loops tried in desperation to stuff the puck, Turkey ended up sliding behind the goal line taking the puck with him giving Loops the goal.

To be honest, it was nice but I thought that the Ducks would still end up losing the game. That's how it has been for the past few games. Expectations were still low but, I agreed when Ducks Radio Colour Analyst, Dan Wood, stated that if the Ducks can get a 2nd goal within the first 5 mins of the 3rd, we would have ourselves a hockey game...

It took just 6 mins.

Rookie Dan Sexton, who was called up after Selanne went on IR for 4 - 6 weeks with a fractured bone in his knuckle, would get the Ducks within one goal after scoring his 1st NHL goal. I knew that it was only a matter of time because in last nights game, he showed heart and fought to get anything going. He had many chances and it finally paid off. The Pond, although it was somewhat empty, were back in it as well. Anaheim started to claw back with a lot of offensive pressure by throwing many pucks at the net. Though, they were still down by one goal. As the minutes got closer to a full 60, I started to wonder when Jiggy, who was in net despise losing the shootout on Sunday night against Ottawa, would be headed to the bench for the extra attacker. I was also hoping that RC wouldn't be pulling him too soon. Right after Jiggy headed to the bench and at 18:58, Dan Sexton tied the game up on a wicked sharp angle wrist-shot going through Turkey's 5-hole and into the back of the net. We definitely were back in it.

Anaheim had forced the OT. And they were in control even though Dallas had some good chances, Jiggy would stand tall. It seemed as though the game would be headed for a shootout but, with 46.5 secs left of the overtime, Koivu would win the game after leading a 3 on 1 rush when Dallas were caught in the trap. Koivu, who was charging along with Whitney and Scotty, took one shot that Turkey saved but also giving up a juicy rebound, and it was that 2nd shot from Saku that would find the back of the net.


It was the biggest deficit comeback in a long time for the Ducks, since February 17, 2007. It felt good then, and it continues to feel good now.

The Ducks will take their momentum to Detroit when they face the Red Wings on Friday night at the Joe. Let's hope they can do it again because they need to make up a lot of ground when it comes to the WC standings. Currently they are 7 pts within the 8th spot and playoff contention.

So I'll ask again, "Is this the turning point?" Dear God, I hope so.

Go Ducks!

PS. Well done, Sexy and congratulations!

My letter to my club.

Dear Ducks Organization,

I don't know what to say. I guess the words that I can use that come to mind would be:

"Frustration" "Speechless" "Upsetting" "Disconcerting"

"Disappointing"

Before the beginning of the season, I was excited along with many of my fellow supporters for what was in store in the upcoming NHL year. Sure, trading Prongs and Beauch was a tragedy to the blueline but I had faith and understood why it was done. On paper, it looked to be a season of epic proportions, and I had a feeling as I thought to myself "This is the year." And now looking back, I feel that I've totally been fooled because as of tonight, I can't help but think:

"5-game losing streak"

Two back to back games lost in the S/O. What is the matter here? Why is this happening? The Anaheim Ducks are a better team then this and yet they're playing as if they're a team with one good player. Please, I am not the only one who seeks answers. I am not the only fan asking "Why?" I'm starting to feel let down as well as having no expectations for a win as of late. I also feel cheated because there have been times where instead of doing things with friends and/or with my girlfriend and her family, I stay home to watch the games. I mean hell, I pay $20 a month for NHL Game Center Live to watch my team, The Ducks, play because I can no longer see these games in person. For the past 6 months, I've been living in Olympia, WA., and for the past 6 months, the biggest thing that I've missed and am sad about is the fact that I left my team behind. Thoughts of moving back to be next to my team have gone through my head and now when I think that, I immediately think "Why? The team are 15th in the Western Conference and 28th in the entire NHL. Whats the use?"

The fact that nothing's been done to answer for what is happening is a shame. And this goes out to the owners, Henry and Susan, why haven't you stepped in? Are you happy with the way things are going? Are you happy with the many empty seats inside the Pond? Are you pleased with the coaching decisions done by Carlyle? Better yet, are you happy that GM Bob Murray will not do what needs to be done? Let me throw some numbers out there for you.

Let's start with the S/O:
Perry 0 - 7 and Getzy 1 - 6. Why RC keeps on putting these two in the S/O? I have no idea.
10-13-6 with 26 pts so far this season. W% of 0.448

Do you know how horrible it is to feel that even with a two-goal lead, you know that the team will end up losing the game? This has got to end because even though I am in no way an SSH, I stand by my fellow fans who are when they vent their frustrations for having season tickets in a season that is quickly becoming a joke. I mean did we do anything? Have we been unfaithful as fans? Was it me personally? Did you somehow find out that I moved from Anaheim to Olympia and are punishing me? All these questions that we have for you and no answers. I will leave you with one more:

"Is this a test for all of the Ducks faithful?"

No matter how I feel, no matter how frustrated, speechless, upset, disconcerted... disappointed.
No matter which one falls in place, I will continue to support the team. I will continue to follow through thick and thin. Through good and bad. I hope you know that many of us will. So until then, I along with those who are faithful await to see what changes you will be making because I think you know what you need to do. Now is the time to do it.

Always and forever, a Duck supporter:

-gcducksfan

"I'm a Duck until I die.
I'm a Duck until I die.
I know I am, I'm sure I am...
I'm a Duck until I die."

P.S. If you trade Selanne or Neidermayer, I will throw my show at you. That's not a threat, that's a prediction.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes + other tidbits.

Surprised to see the news when I woke up this morning:

After last nights disappointing loss to the Kings, Bob Murray has made a few changes and the "big-one", if you want to call it that, came in two parts:

1. New York Rangers have claimed Ducks Center, Erik Christensen, off of waivers.

2. Ducks have penned Montreal Habs Center, Kyle Chipchura, and give them their 2011 4th Round Draft Pick. Please don't mistake his name with that yummy Mexican delicacy where you deep-fry a burrito and/or the infamous yet mythical goat blood sucker.

Chipchura is known to play a very grinding type of game. He is a two-way player. Something that is needed. I'm sure BM is crossing his fingers whilst quietly mumbling to himself "Please-Please-Please-Please work!"

Along with moving EC and adding KC, ha, the Ducks have sent Brendan Mikkelson down to the AHL and have called up Defenseman, Brett Festerling, from the Toronto Marlies of the same league.

The vet players had the day off today from practice at Anaheim Ice but during that same practice, Winger, Joffrey Lupul participated in his first full-on hard skating practice since playing on Nov 19th and had to be scratched due to them pesky back spasms.

“It was nice to be back out there with the guys,” Lupul said. “A week ago, there was no chance I could be out on the ice. A lot of will depend on how I feel tomorrow. I have to see how my body reacts. I have my fingers crossed. I really want to be back as soon as possible. This is a critical time of the year for us.”

Speedy recovery, Loopes

As far as what I think about these "changes"? I don't know. I personally believe that we need something completely new, something big, not just shift around players who haven't done much for the team. This is not what I call "rattling the cages".

The Ducks left today for Dallas. They take on the Stars tomorrow night. Puck drops @17:30 and can been watched on the NHL Network!

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In other news from around the league:

Yesterday it was announced that Washington Capitals Forward/Superstar/NHL Golden Child, Alexander Ovechkin, was suspended for 2 games after going knee-to-knee with a Carolina Hurricanes player on Monday night. Now a lot of us know how dangerous of a player Ovie can be. He's not shy to leave his feet from the ice when hitting or going knee-to-knee and frankly, the suspension is about time. Too long have the NHL averted their eyes whenever he made dangerous/questionable hits such as this. The league are ones to be very inconsistent suspending other players for hits less than his and letting Ovie off with a slap on the wrist. He ended up hurting himself on that dirty hit and is now DTD. Some think that 2 days was too harsh, I think it's right. I would like to see it at 3 days but being that he's out hurt because of it, I get where the league are going with it in this situation. You also have some people saying that he didn't lead with his right leg. This shows that he totally did:

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Now everyone has already heard and/or witnessed what went down the other night in Atlanta when the Florida Panthers were in town to take on the Thrashers. Everyone knows that Panther D-man, Keith Ballard took his frustration out but had bad aim and whacked Panther goalie, Tomas Vokoun, right in the melon instead of the iron in attempt to do what many of us have witnessed frustrated players to do after getting scored on, breaking sticks on the posts. Now I've heard discussion on whether or not the NHL should've suspended Ballard. Ok, I think if the NHL had done such action, it would be the dumbest thing to do although it was pretty dumb, not to have a go in breaking his stick, but to blindly turn whilst swinging the stick in a baseball like fashion. Another dumb thing after whacking the goalie and cutting his ear was the fact that Ballard probably thought:

"Hmmmm, I just totally hit my team mate... ummmm... ummmmm... I'm gonna try again, get my aim right, break my stick, and ummmm.. skate off the ice! Ok!! Here goes!!! Stick broken... RUNAWAY!!"



His goalie was down in the crease when he had the second try! I mean c'mon! How did he NOT know that he missed the post completely? Oh well, Vokoun is alright with just the cut. Expect many a fruit basket and flowers delivered to the goal tender with the cards signed by Ballard after writing, "My bad."

One more...

Last night, Toronto Maple Leafs netminder, Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson was taken to a Montreal hospital last night just after playing the full 1st period and stopping 8 shots. Apparently he told Leafs coach, Ron Wilson, that his heart beat was accelerated. He didn't have to stay over night and returned to Toronto before being looked at by specialists. He has had heart problems and surgery in the past. I think this will affect his trade value...


Go Ducks!

7-Games end on a sour note

I don’t know what to say or what to do anymore. All I know is what I would like to see happen and all I know is that I’m not the only one who feels this way...

Last night, the Ducks played hosts to their cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, a game that all on the Ducks side were hoping to win and to beat the surprise team of the season. Although it was the first game of the “Freeway Face-Off Series”, I was hoping that the Ducks would come out on top and set the tone. The rivalry with the Kings is a heated one. A lot of that heat though doesn’t spring from the ice but from the stands as King and Duck supporters are known to just down right hate each other. Although LA fans tend to talk and yapp all they want, we as Duck fans just have one thing to say:

"Stanely Cup"

And though this season, they have been the better team in the NHL, they still don’t have what our team has. I’ve read Kings fans post things like “Winning the Cup was a fluke” which is one of the dumbest things I have ever read because if anyone knows anything, winning the Stanley Cup is probably one of the hardest things to do in all of sports. ‘Nuff said.

The game last night was also the last one in the 7-game homestand and after losing to the Coyotes in OT on Sunday night, it was a must win in regulation game. Coming into that game against PHX, Jiggy, along with the rest of the team was riding a 3-game winning streak, the first one this season. Jiggy was one of the big reasons for that, getting an amazing shut-out against a very, very good Chicago Black Hawks team on Black Friday. He ended up losing the game on Sunday night, but still gained a point. An OT loss tends to be better than regulation loss with the 3-point game we have now. A lot of us expected J.S. to get the start for last night’s game. And we were all surprised that hear that it would be Hiller in net. As much as I love Hiller and think he is the future netminder for the team, his game, like the entire teams this season, hasn’t be doing too well. He’s made some amazing stops and has won some including a shut-out, it just looked like the team was playing beter with Jiggy. Both netminders have been left hanging out to dry by a weak defense and last night, we would see that happen again.

The Kings would answer first and second with two unanswered goals in the 1st period with the second being on the PP when R2 would be sitting in the box on his 2nd penalty in just that beginning period alone. Going down 0 – 2 was unacceptable. Late in that period, hope would come as Perry tipped the puck behind LA goalie, Jonathan Quick at 14:41. After that goal, the Ducks started to put the proper offensive pressure on LA. The 2nd period would start out with the Ducks on the one-man advantage that was carried over seconds before the previous period ended. The Ducks PP would be a shameful one getting nothing out of it. At 6:40 in the 2nd, the Kings, along with their idiotic fans, would be celebrating after Randy Jones would shoot one from just below the point taking advantage of the slight screen by Ducks D-man, Eminger, on Hiller. Most of the 2nd was just a horrible period for the Ducks, with adding to more possession turnover, poor puck handling, and defensive breakdown. It wouldn’t be towards the end of the period where hope would be rekindled.

Ducks had a PP and weren’t able to create anything with it but with .16s left to go on said PP, the one-man advantage would turn into a 5 on 3 for Anaheim. Just after the two-men ended, Ryan Whitney would slap the puck on a one-timer bringing the Ducks back within one. The rest of that period, the Ducks would not see many other chances but hey, they were within one going into the 3rdand that gave me something to cheer and be stressed about. At 5:39 in the 3rd, the Pond would get loud when Marchant would get a crazy bouncing puck after it rebounded off of Quick from a shot taken by Matt Beleskey, and he would put it low in the net.

Ducks had clawed back to tie it up and the intense level for the 3rd was shot up as well. Although it was tied, it seemed like at times that Anaheim was content on sending the game into OT, they stopped moving their feet, R2 would complete the Box-Trip on a 2 min penalty for tripping that was called not by the ref that was standing right next to the play but by the one out on the blueline (see: Ref You Suck!) and was then immediately taken off the 2nd line and replaced by Marchant (looks like the R2 experiment has come to an end). Chances would be made by both teams, Hiller would stand strong but it was poor defense that would help the Kings get their Game-Winning-Goal after the Ducks failed to clear the puck out of the zone, Jack Johnson (Ha! Not the singer, silly!), would shoot a wicked puck up from the top of the RW circle and would luckily tip off the stick of LA Kings player, Brad Richardson, and all of Anaheim would go silent. The only cheers would be from the annoying LA fans. Ducks 3 – 4 Kings.

With the game almost over, it looked like there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel when J. Johnson would be skating towards the box after getting knicked for cross-checking. The time had come. It would be the Ducks for the rest of the game and they would supply all the offensive pressure and have the Kings with their back to the wall. So many chances would come out from Niedermayer, Kouivu, Selanne, Perry, Ryan, Getzy-pretty much for all who hit the ice for the Ducks. Things were intense but in the end, the reason why the Kings would win would be because of Quick who came out big and made some amazing saves. And that was that. The Ducks would end their 7-games at home on a rather sour note.

All in support of Anaheim are in one word: upset. Actually I would say a few: upset, angry, and frustrated. At least, I am. Although my team came back, it wasn’t a great game. Ducks were out played in almost every aspect. It’s been that way for mostly all season so far. I’m just done with it. Of course I love my team and will have their back no matter what, but I feel that all the time I’ve put to in back them is being done in vain. All the writing, all the Twitter posts being done with nothing much to show for. And it’s even harder being that I am now living thousands of miles from any fan that I can sit down and talk with face to face. The Ducks are in a rare position: dead last in the pacific and 13th in the Western Conference. It’s looking bleak at the moment and what’s sad is that it’s lowering my expectations now for every game here on out. I think RCs decision to put Hiller in net was a bad one. His whole “You win-You Play, You lose-You sit” mantra is completely useless. Along with frustration between the two goalies, it’s cause a bit of a division in the fan base. Jiggy V Hiller. Homers are springing left and right posting silly-stupid threads all over about how Hiller or Jiggy sucks. As fans, we need to stand behind the team as whole and not just behind one member. If you want to just support one player, go jump on the Caps bandwagon or something. But clearly there’s frustration throughout Anaheim’s base.

I know I am pretty upset right now. We need something to change, something to rattle the cages, something to start a fire. It looked pretty optimistic in this recent home-stand, it looked like things were turning around, but last night, it was like the start of this season. This doesn’t feel and/or look good. So the Ducks go on the road for a couple of games. Tomorrow it will be in Dallas against the stupid Stars then the following night, they will be back in Minnesota to take on the Wild. They will be back on Sunday to take on the Sens. I have hope, I have faith but like I said, expectations now are low. Here’s a quick run-down continuing from my last post when the Ducks won against the Tampa Bay Lightning:

[Ducks V Sharks]
Lose by one goal. 2-3
Goals by Wiz, Whitney. Perry with an Assist. Both goals in the 1st period. Thorton with GWG. Strong shutdown by SJ in the 3rd. Hiller in net.

[Ducks V Flames]
Win by one goal. 3-2
Bobby Ryan and Getzy with goals in the 1st. Perry receives an Assist. Flames scored first. Iginla gets the late tying goal in the 3^rd sending it to OT and then the S/O. Selanne scores and Jiggy saves to win who started in net.

[Ducks V Hurricanes]
Win by one goal. 3-2
Canes score first in the 1st period. Scott Niedermayer goal in the 2nd and goals from Petteri Nokelainen and Selanne in the 3rd. Late goal by the Canes in the 3rd but Ducks hold on to win.Jiggy in net. Perry Assist

[Ducks V Black Hawks]
Shut out win. 3 - 0
2 goals from Selanne, one in the 1st and 2nd periods. Boynton goal in the 2. Perry with an Assist and Jiggy in net who gets his first shut out of the season.

[Ducks V Coyotes]
Lose in OT by one goal. 2 - 3
Getzy goal in the 2nd period. Yotes back to back goals in the 3rd to tie and take the lead. Bobby Ryan goal late in the 3rd to tie it back up. Perry gets an Assist. Yotes win it in OT. Jiggy in net. NOT TELEVISED WHATSOEVER! BOOOOOO!

One quick note, a good one, Perry’s streak lives on and is the longest in the NHL at 19-games since Sid the Kid, two years ago! Go Perry!

As always: Go Ducks, even when I’m upset with you.