This post is dedicated to all non player moves. So if you are looking for info on the player moves today, look for part 2. It should be posted shortly.
Here is a link to the official Anaheim DucksTV highlights of last nights game - Link
AnaheimDuckFan has posted her thoughts on last night's game.
Now this is the team I remember. The Ducks came out strong and fast against the Vancouver Canucks in the Ducks final preseason game. A game which gave Ducks’ fans hope for the upcoming, a game in which the Ducks slaughtered the Canucks 5-0.
Francois Beauchemin was back out on the ice tonight after missing a couple of games due to a groin injury. Apparently all he needed was a couple of days rest.
Bobby Ryan again amazed us with his talent. He had four assists, the only goal he didn’t assist on was Corey Perry’s. This game was full of fighting and penalties. At one point in the third period, the Canucks penalty box had five guys in it. The Canucks had a total of 19 penalties, while the Ducks only racked up 10. Of the 10, 4 were fighting majors, so technically it wasn’t that bad.
Good news for all of you Ducks fans, announcer Phil Hulett is back. Thankfully!!!Read the rest here - Link
A look at the Ducks chance of repeating
Not the one in which people with rifles shoot at flying fowl, but the one that will have 29 NHL teams trying to knock off the defending Stanley Cup champions from Anaheim.
And Ducks players know they are in everyone's sights.
"We have a target on our back," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "Each night, it's going to be, 'Try to knock off the Stanley Cup champion.' We've got to be prepared for that and make sure we are even more focused and determined each and every night."
The Norris Trophy finalist's thoughts were echoed by center Ryan Getzlaf and blue-liner Sean O'Donnell.
"We're going to have to play hard every single night we step on the ice," Getzlaf said. "We have a target on our back from the way we played last year, and we earned it. Now we have to earn it again."
"We're the Stanley Cup champions, and everyone is going to be ready for us," O'Donnell added. "It's a long season, and teams get up for certain games for different reasons - division rivalries, playing against the defending champions. Everyone is going to get fired up when it's time to play against us."
Read the rest here - Link
Mark Whicker from the OC Register has a look at the Ducks start of the season
They left Monday. Too late to call it off. The Ducks are in England on perhaps the least-advised transcontinental exercise since the Dixie Chicks informed a London crowd they were ashamed President Bush was from Texas.
There was no evidence that any Londoner has asked for the input of either a Duck or a Chick.
The two situations have little in common — although Chris Pronger isn't ready to make nice either — but they do share two minor shortcomings.
Time and place.
It's not that the Ducks and Kings shouldn't play twice in Europe, but not two regular-season games. And not in England. If you've ever been there, you know how little use they have for ice.
Two exhibitions in Sweden or the Czech Republic or even Russia would have been perfect. The NHL has very little to gain in the U.K. besides the odd jersey sale.
If the league wanted to make any splash in Britain, it should have recruited the Phoenix Coyotes, coached by Wayne Gretzky, whose name might ring a faint bell with someone.
That would have satisfied the need for a Western team to suffer approximately the same hardship the Kings will. Certainly the fact that the Kings' owners also own the arena in London was not enough reason for the Ducks to sign up.
They agreed to do this before they won the Stanley Cup in a run that didn't end until June 6. Nevertheless, they had a pretty good idea they were going deep and should have begged off. The Ducks' first day of training camp was Sept. 11, and even Randy Carlyle, a supporter of the trip in principle, admitted it felt "absurd" to be back at work so soon.
Read the rest here - Link
Dan Wood from the OC register has a look at Bertuzzi
Newly acquired Ducks winger Todd Bertuzzi arrived in Anaheim three weeks before the club reported to training camp Sept. 10. His reputation showed up sooner than that.
Fairly or not, the gifted 6-foot-3, 230-pound Bertuzzi is dogged by questions, almost certainly more than any other NHL player. The Hockey News asked the following in a series of Top 10 questions in its Sept. 18 cover story:
"Will Todd Bertuzzi sink the Ducks?"
People who notice hockey only when an ugly or unfortunate event takes place know Bertuzzi from the 2004 incident when he drew a lengthy, NHL-imposed suspension and later pleaded guilty to an assault charge for punching then-Colorado center Steve Moore in the head from behind during a game. Those closer to the game raise other issues.
Bertuzzi, 32, is coming off Nov. 2 surgery for a herniated disk in his back that limited him to a combined 15 regular-season games with Florida and Detroit in 2006-07. Even in the new NHL, where punishment in front of the net is a far cry from what it used to be, there is concern as to whether Bertuzzi can withstand the physical demands necessary to play the type of game that made him an elite power forward with Vancouver the first half of this decade.
Less evident but potentially more damning are whispers about the complex elements Bertuzzi might bring to a locker room. The elusive commodity known as team chemistry, which the Ducks rode to a Stanley Cup championship last season, is critical to hockey success.
Read the rest here - Link
The NHL has posted it's calendar for the year
Sept. 29-30 -- Anaheim Ducks vs. Los Angeles Kings season-opening series at London.
Oct. 3 -- General regular-season opening night.
Nov. 10 -- Hockey Hall of Fame Game -- New York Rangers at Toronto Maple Leafs.
Nov. 12 -- Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Toronto.
Dec. 1 -- Signing deadline for Group 2 free agents.
Dec. 19-27 -- Holiday Roster Freeze. No waivers, trades or loans. ^2008=
Jan. 1 -- Outdoor game: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Buffalo, N.Y.
Jan. 25-28 -- All-Star break.
Jan. 26 -- CHL-NHL Top Prospects Game at Edmonton, Alberta; Super Skills Competition at Atlanta.
Jan. 27 -- All-Star Game at Atlanta.
Feb. 26 -- Trade deadline at 3 p.m. EST.
See the rest of the schedule here - Link
Mike V has updated his blog
Well, here we are just days away from the puck officially dropping on another season of NHL Anaheim Ducks Hockey. It seems like the summer has flown by and in a sense the season never ended for us Ducks fans. I don’t know about you, but I spent a good portion of my summer following the Cup as it made the rounds from player to player and keeping updated on NHL news and transactions especially concerning the Ducks.
Of course the big news of the summer that everyone was following was what were Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer going to decide to do; were they going to continue to play or retire? And now here we are a few days away from the season starting and neither player has made a decision, and it doesn’t seem like one is coming from either guy anytime soon. There’s been a lot of talk about how Brian Burke has given these players as much room and time as they need to make their decisions out of respect for who they are and what they’ve made of their careers. Definitely a class move by Burke for two class players, but still, we fans want to know.
There are so many factors involved in these guys making their decisions and I can respect all of it. And I wish them the best in whatever they decide. But I would love to see one or both of them return to the Ducks for one more run.
Read the rest here - Link
The OC Register continues its analysis of concussions and hockey.
More than two years after concussions forced him into retirement in 1999, former National Hockey League defenseman Jeff Beukeboom still suffered from the effects of his head injuries.
He couldn't remember things. He forgot what he was talking about in the middle of conversations. Light bothered him. So did the slightest noise. He slipped into depression, was frequently irritable and always exhausted.
"That was my life on a daily basis," the 14-year NHL veteran said. "Waking up every day and hoping you would feel better and you didn't. Every day I woke up and my head felt like an over-inflated basketball. It was 2½ years of feeling like (garbage). I felt like (garbage) every day."
Stories like Beukeboom's will become increasingly common among NHL veterans in the coming years, medical experts predict.
An average of 64 players in each of the last six seasons have suffered concussions or related symptoms, an Orange County Register study of NHL injuries since 1996 found. Concussions have kept players out of more than 5,500 NHL games in the past decade.
Read the rest here - Link
