Listening to the game, posting the news for Thursday

So, I did not get to go to the game, but thankfully I can listen to it on AM830.  I can also follow it on Yahoo Sports.  One nice thing  is that the goal song has not changed.  According to the Brent Severyn the glass hass been changed.  Well, here is the news for the day.

A nice article on Bobby Ryan via the LA Times

The date Sept. 18, 2006, doesn't register in the annals of the Ducks but Bobby Ryan vividly remembers that night.
"We got slaughtered," Ryan recalled Wednesday. "It was a bad showing by everybody on the ice."
The Ducks' 7-1 exhibition loss to the Kings is long forgotten by most. But it was a low light in training camp for Ryan, the prized prospect who spent most of the night being knocked off his feet.
Underwhelming to say the least for the guy chosen immediately after Sidney Crosby in the 2005 draft. Ryan hopes for atonement in tonight's exhibition opener against the Kings at the Honda Center.
"I felt like I played it very casual and didn't do the things I needed to do," Ryan said. "I got away from what they're looking for in trying to make that big play all the time."
Things are changing for the 20-year-old power forward.
Ryan finished his fourth and final season of junior hockey at Owen Sound of the Ontario Hockey League, where he again put up big numbers -- 43 goals and 59 assists in 63 games.
His next stop likely will be at the Ducks' American Hockey League affiliate in Portland, Maine, unless he wins one of the Ducks' roster spots up for grabs, what with Teemu Selanne still thinking retirement and Dustin Penner now in Edmonton.
"You know that there's a pretty good number of guys that are set on this roster," Ryan said. "But there's a couple of spots and I want to be one of the guys they look to fill that void."

Read the rest here - Link

Individual tickets are going to go on sale Saturday

The Anaheim Ducks announced today that individual game tickets for the 2007-08 regular season (40 home games) will go on sale Saturday, Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. Tickets may be purchased online at AnaheimDucks.com or by phone with Ticketmaster at (714) 703-2545.  Tickets may also be purchased in person at the Honda Center box office.   

A random number wristband system will be in place for fans who wish to purchase in person at the Honda Center box office.  Wristbands will be distributed between 7-9:30 a.m., with a random number chosen as the starting point at 9:45 a.m.  Fans arriving after 9:30 a.m. will file into line after those who received wristbands.  There is a six-ticket limit per game for all regular season home games.

Ticket prices for all home games start at $18.50 and are subject to an arena facility fee, beginning at $1.50.  The Ducks will also be offering a special “Pepsi Family Four Pack” starting at $66, which includes four tickets, four Wienerschnitzel hot dogs and four Pepsis (available for select Wednesday home games).  All Ducks home games are played at Honda Center, with the exception of their Sept. 30 contest vs. Los Angeles to be played in London, England as part of the NHL Premiere.  The club will open the 2007-08 regular season schedule at Honda Center on Wednesday, Oct. 10 vs. Boston at 7:05 p.m.  All fans in attendance will receive a mini Stanley Cup championship banner as part of opening night festivities. 

Read the rest here - Link

Preview of Tonight's Game via the Ducks web site - Link

7:05 p.m. at Honda Center
TV: None     Radio: AM 830   
LISTEN LIVE

The defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks open their 2007-08 preseason against an old rival, the Los Angeles Kings, tonight at Honda Center. It's the first of many meetings between the two teams, as they play again Saturday at Staples Center, then open the season against each other in London for the NHL Premiere with two games on Sept. 29 and 30.
While the Ducks had a record-breaking season that culminated in their first Stanley Cup title, the Kings struggled with a 27-41-14 record. They finished fourth in the Pacific Division and 14th in the Western Conference.

Michael Cammalleri led the Kings in assist (46) and points (80), while Alexander Frolov was the top goal-scorer with 35. Both of those players are back, as is last year's standout rookie Anze Kopitar, who had 20 goals last year. The Kings made several moves in the offseason to give them scoring help, acquiring Michal Handzus (played in Chicago last season) , Ladislav Nagy (Phoenix and Dallas) and Kyle Calder (Philadelphia and Detroit).
On the blueline, the Kings brought in Brad Stuart (Calgary) and Tom Preissing (Ottawa) to join 37-year-old Rob Blake 31-year-old Lubomir Visnovsky. Jack Johnson , the 20-year-old who made his debut late last season, is a prized prospect on the defensive end as well.

The OC Register has a look at the new uniforms.

Just one season after the logo redesign that distanced the franchise from its Disney heritage, the Ducks skate into the Honda Center for tonight's preseason opener in even newer uniforms.

No, this isn't the typical Toronto Maple Leafs-style money grab in which a team does a makeover every few years to shake more cash out of its loyal fans.

The Ducks' new threads are part of an unprecedented North American pro league-wide wardrobe change, with every NHL team this season wearing the new Rbk EDGE Uniform System.

You'll have to do more than look from the stands to notice the change because the appearance — the bold black and the county's orange accent the webbed-foot "D" and golden "ucks" unveiled with Whitesnake concert frivolity last season — remains the same.

You'll have to feel this uniform. Touch it, pet it, spend $200 on it, wear it in a sauna, sweat in it and play Twister in it to notice the difference in its more tailored cut and its four fabrics tested in Massachusetts Institute of Technology wind tunnels and Central Michigan University laboratory heat chambers.

"It's definitely lighter, no question about it," said Ducks center Andy McDonald, who, with Teemu Selanne, wore Rbk EDGE uniforms for last season's All-Star Game. "It allowed me to breathe easier, that's for sure."

Read the rest here - Link

A look at the London games via Canada.com

London won't be a sellout

How do you make an NHL preseason game matter even less than it does in the first place? Set one up in a market that has little to no knowledge or interest in the sport whatsoever.

On top of that, charge ticket prices that would make Sir Richard Branson flinch.

Well, maybe not Branson, but you'd think twice about rushing out to get in line.

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The NHL debuts in London at the O2 Arena on Sept. 29 and 30 with two games between the L.A. Kings and the Anaheim Ducks

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Starting at £99 (general admission) and going up to £330 for lower tier seating, that's a whopping $200 to $600 US.

Those prices are pretty hefty for a single game, and show that the whole thing is an even more elaborate cash grab than the recent Super Series.

I know from a future brother in law from the U.K. that salaries are higher in Britain than over here, but take this for comparison: general admission to the 2008 British GP is £165 or $330 US.

I'm not sure what that includes, but it would at least let you into the race area and give you a paddock pass where you can pick up some autographs with the drivers and buy some merchandise.

I don't know who came up with the ticket prices, but I think that if you're trying to help the NHL break in with a new audience, you could at least scale back the prices to the match the same standard in North America.

The article was originally posted here - Link

Wednesday News

Well, season tickets are officially capped at 15,000.  WOW!  So in other news the Anaheim Ducks renewed their affiliation withe Augusta Lynx, more Niedermayer retirement talk and another link to Scott & Rob's Stanley Cup day.

Ducks Season Tickets Capped at 15,000

The Ducks have announced that they have capped season ticket sales at 15,000 and started a waiting list for all future orders. The club is capping such sales in order to provide fans the opportunity to purchase single-game seats on Saturday, Sept. 15 for the 2007-08 home schedule.

Click here to get on the season seat waiting list

“Our community has enthusiastically responded to our success over the last two years, and we thank them for their tremendous support,” said Anaheim Ducks Executive VP/COO and Anaheim Arena Management President/CEO Tim Ryan. “As we’ve stated for the last two seasons, one of our primary objectives is to continue expanding the growth of hockey in Southern California. With that in mind, we have decided to cap season seat sales in order to be able to continue to give fans the opportunity to watch our sport in person.”

See the rest of the Ducks announcement here - Link

Augusta Lynx renew their affiliation with the Ducks.

“I couldn’t be happier to once again share this affiliation,” said Lynx general manager Dan Troutman. “The quality and skill level of the players we have received in the past from both Anaheim and Portland has been phenomenal, and they have made a direct and immediate impact for our team. Plus, who wouldn’t want to be affiliated with the Stanley Cup Champions? It is a great opportunity for this organization moving forward into our 10th Anniversary.”

See the short article here - Link

Scott Niedermayer retirement watch

"He's getting cold feet," joked his wife, Lisa, as the two stood in a parking lot in Cranbrook, Canada, where they grew up.
Asked about the Ducks' opening series of the upcoming regular season -- consecutive games against the Kings in London on Sept. 29-30 -- Niedermayer was more certain. He made it clear that the trip was too far and that he does not plan to go. "Let's put it this way," said the four-time Stanley Cup winner, "there's a bigger chance that I will play this season than go to London."

Read the rest here - Link

Earl Sleek has his own unique look at the Niedermayer situation with an interesting statistic

At any rate, word on the web is that Scotty is considering coming back for another season, though for whatever reason, he doesn’t want to go to England. Severe anglophobia aside, this would be a tremendous development for the Ducks’ hopes of repeating.

Read the rest here  - Link

One more Scott and Rob with the cup article

The long wait started on June 6 when Scott and Rob Niedermayer first hoisted the Stanley Cup after their Anaheim Ducks had won the final game against the Ottawa Senators. It finally came to an end on Monday, when people got a chance to get a good look at Lord Stanley’s cup at the Cranbrook RecPlex. East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett and Cranbrook Mayor Ross Priest had issued the invitation and hundreds of people came out to celebrate.

Everybody got on their feet, giving the Niedermayer brothers and enthusiastic welcome when they were brought into the arena to the sound of “Ladies and Gentlemen”, the song the Ducks played before every single Stanley Cup game. The cup perched on the cab, Scott and Rob Niedermayer got a ride in the box of a truck before joining their hosts in the middle at centre ice to answer some questions about their careers and Stanley Cup success.

Read the rest here - Link

Wednesday News

So preseason tickets are going on sell August 25.  Will you be going?  Earl at BOC has a sneak peek at the next Ducks logo (very funny) and some pics of Tim Clarks's Stanley Cup party.

Preseason tickets will be available soon.

Individual tickets for the Ducks' four preseason home games will go on sale this Saturday, August 25 at 10 a.m.

Tickets may be purchased online at AnaheimDucks.com. They may also be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (714) 703-2545, or in person at the Honda Center box office on a first come, first served basis.  There is no ticket limit for preseason games per transaction.

The Ducks will host three Pacific Division rivals in preseason competition.  The Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes and San Jose Sharks will visit Honda Center in the month of September.  In addition, the Vancouver Canucks will make a stop in Anaheim, closing out the Ducks preseason schedule before the club heads to London for the two-game NHL Premiere versus the Kings.

Ticket prices for all home games will start at $18.50.  All tickets are subject to an arena facility fee, beginning at $1.50.  Individual tickets for all Ducks regular season games will go on sale in mid-September.  For further information on season seat, mini-plan, group or other ticket information, contact the Ducks ticket sales office at 1-877-WILDWING.

View the game schedule here - Link

Earl at BOC has an idea of what he thinks the new Ducks logo should be:

I must admit, I was pretty inspired by Pfizer's mother-of-all-Canucks-logos (happy birthday, Alanah!); it really got me to thinking--shouldn't the Ducks get back to the logo game? If you recall, last summer the Ducks introduced their new look uniforms, featuring a webbed-foot text which was at least successful in reminding absolutely nobody of Disney, but still it lacked a true logo. Instead of a picture of an actual duck, we instead were treated with forensic evidence that suggests that duck-like creatures may have once inhabited the earth.

Anyway, now that the team has divorced itself from the Disney movie, I can't really say what association the team or the city of Anaheim has with actual ducks. But with the right logo, maybe we could re-associate the team name with the actual identity of the team--we could stop pretending that “Duck” refers to some animal, and instead acknowledge that it better reflects an appropriate action to take when May, Bertuzzi, or Pronger is skating up to you.

See it here - Link

Tim Clark Stanley Cup party via Roon Laohu at Flickr

See the rest here - Link

Saturday News

Well not too much to report tonight.  I have analysis of the Ducks ticket situation and a report on Coach Carlyle's day with the cup.

Ducks ticket situation from MVN

The Anaheim Ducks started out as a franchise in 1993 and were the hot ticket in town for several seasons until the novelty wore off. Season ticket sales were down. Some years the team did not perform well. Instead of having consecutive sell-outs, you could have your pick of seats. On game day, you could still walk up to the ticket window and purchase tickets for the whole family to sit together. Announced crowds were clearly below the number, reflecting the difference between tickets sold and actual people in the building. On rare occasions, there were fewer people in attendance for the Ducks games than there were for Anaheim’s old indoor roller hockey team, the Bullfrogs. Quieter, too.

Read the rest here - Link

Coach get his gets day with the cup.  Unfortunately no pictures of him with the cup, but here is a nice little article from the Sudbury Star.

Randy Carlyle was good to his word after arriving at the Azilda arena with the Stanley Cup on Friday. He made sure every person possible got at least a quick look at hockey's legendary prize, a promise he made when he first announced he would bring the cup to his childhood arena.

There was a definite lack of pageantry for the Greater Sudbury stop on the 2007 cup tour, as Carlyle wished. He stepped through a gate onto the cement floor where the ice will be in just a few weeks and carried the NHL championship trophy, as well as a big grin, to centre ice. A crowd of around 250 inside the arena cheered with vigour as he raised the Cup over his head and walked it to a table in a small, understated roped-off area for pictures.

Meanwhile, a long line streamed down the far boards, wove through the arena's seats, ran through the Dr. Edgar Leclair Community Centre foyer and shot out the entrance into the parking lot.

Read the rest here - Link