For five minutes Saturday night, it looked like the Anaheim Ducks had found the answer. This happened with the end of period two versus Minnesota in view. Josh Mahura, playing his first game of the year, fired a shot that was credited as a goal to him, though later...
Brian Kennedy
A Big Stop Sign
The Anaheim Ducks came into their Thursday game at home versus Minnesota having lost a game 3-2 after gaining a win in a 1-0 shutout. Their secret weapon—not so secret when the only reason the team wins is that he allows zero goals—John Gibson was back in net. And...
Not Soon Forgotten
The LA Kings have allowed the first goal in ten of their 12 games this season. One of those was Tuesday night, when with less than two minutes gone, they were down to the San Jose Sharks in LA. They would end the period down by two.
Ducks Find Equilibrium
Patrick Marleau tied Jaromir Jagr for games played, third overall, at 1733 on Saturday night. This happened when he took his first shift in the Ducks-San Jose game which kicked off at 7pm local time in an empty Honda Center. Other story lines? The Ducks were still...
Ruffling Some California Feathers
It’s not often the Anaheim Ducks score four goals. It is rather familiar that they can come from an early deficit, because they so often start as if the game can begin without them. So when they do both of those things, they should win. Not when playing the San...
Marginally Exciting
Lots of storylines existed around the Kings and Ducks, playing their first game against each other on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. The Kings had two Dmen out to injury. They also had a couple of guys sidelined by Covid protocol. The Kings had their purple and gold...
Almost Out of Ideas
“Every minute of the game is important. It doesn’t matter if it’s the last minute, the middle minute, the first minute. They’re all critical,” said Ducks’ coach Dallas Eakins Saturday night. “There were a number of minutes when we were certainly not our best,” he ...
Three Goals, Two Minutes
The Anaheim Ducks are not scoring goals. Sometimes, they win anyway, by the slimmest margin, 1-0. This has happened twice in nine games to start the season. But having played those nine coming into Saturday with St. Louis in town, they had just 14 tallies, against 17...
Great at 60!
The Great One turns 60 today, January 26th, 2021. That means that an entire generation has passed since Wayne Gretzky last played an NHL game. His records, of course, stand and will probably stand forever, most of them.
.500 Hundred Is Just Alright
This season is going to look like this: win one, lose one. All the talk of rivalries and series is going to come down to a lot of .500 hockey as teams split series with opponents, nullifying the supposed “four-point games”. Only minor proof is available thus far,...
Quick, Say Happy Birthday
Seven times prior to Thursday, Jonathan Quick had found himself playing in goal for the LA Kings on January 21st, his birthday. Four of those, he’d pulled off a win. Three times, he lost. As the Kings and Avalanche started out, it looked like he might go to 4-4. But...
Great Job. Sit Down.
You stand in goal and hold your team in the game. You look fantastic. Your team wins because of you. This happens twice in a row. The second time, you get a shutout and they win despite having provided the slimmest offensive output possible, 1-0. Your reward? You...
Late Spark Too Little
Like many teams, the LA Kings have some questions to answer as this season cranks up. Some have already hinted at being resolved. One of those is, “How will Andreas Athanasiou, late of Detroit and Edmonton, fit in? First two games, excellent. Third game, versus...
Very Little, Rather Late
The plan for the Ducks this year was simple: consolidate their lineup by seeing which youngsters were ready for the NHL, and keep working the Dallas Eakins way of playing hockey, which started, actually, off the ice with the personal touch of getting to know each...
Kings Deflated Once More
In the on-again, off-again world of Covid, the LA Kings got their third pairing defensemen back on Saturday night, along with their best back-up netminder. Interesting thing was, none of that mattered because the team is not relying on the backline for composure so...
Kings, Ducks, Kick Off Seasons
Hope gave way to disappointment for both SoCal hockey teams on Thursday night. The Kings, playing at home, lost to Minnesota 4-3 in OT after leading the game 3-1. The Ducks dropped a 5-2 contest to Vegas in Nevada after rallying from an early deficit to tie their...
Finally, Hockey Returns to California
Hockey abruptly stopped in March, and for Kings and Ducks fans, it never got going again, because neither team completed in the playoffs, even with the addition of teams for a qualifying round. Thus SoCal fans have been focused on other things, or on not much of...
Worthy Champions the Hope
We know a lot more about the NHL’s 2019-20 season than we did a day ago after Gary Bettman made a return to play announcement Tuesday afternoon. The basics of the plan are these: twelve teams from each conference will make the show, judged by points percentage. The...
The Game that Was, and Was Again
It was the game that was. And was again. February 11th, the St. Louis Blues visited Anaheim, but if you look up the Ducks/Blues stat sheets for that date, there will be nothing. Only there was something—a game that was suspended after 12:10 of play. Veteran...
Kings Flying?!
The LA Kings had the chance to continue their spoiler ways as the Colorado Avalanche came into town on Monday night for a 7:30 pm start. The clue that the Kings are being taken seriously: Pavel Francouz was in the Colorado net. He’s the Avs’ “good” goalie, and he has...
Ducks Battle, Lose in OT
The Ducks are currently missing Cam Fowler (nine games) and Hampus Lindholm (five games). Josh Manson was recently also hurt (two games) but is back. In the lineup was Jani Hakanpaa, who was playing his third game of the year and third of his career. He is Finnish,...
Outpouring of Scoring
Rookie mistakes are part of having a young squad. That was a bit of a theme Saturday afternoon when the Minnesota Wild visited Staples Center for a game against the Kings. First-period examples included Blake Lizotte taking a high-sticking penalty in the offensive...
Up and Over
The Kings have lots to play for, if spoiling other teams’ chances counts. This started a few nights ago as they began a team-high (tie) nine straight home games that stretch through March 20. With 58 points coming into Thursday night and sixteen games to go, a perfect...
Post-Trade Bump
Compared to the flurry of activity that the Ducks saw this trade deadline week, the Kings were quiet. In fact, the LA team had just one new player in the lineup, in the person of Trevor Moore. He wasn’t even that new, having come over from Toronto early in February in...
Giddy Energy
The Ducks had their busiest trade deadline day in club history this week. And the players they got featured the first game out—Tuesday at Honda Center with the Oilers in town. Five new faces adorned the lineup: Sonny Milano (Columbus), Danton Heinen (Boston), Andrew...
Vegas Travels Well
Let’s be real: the Ducks ain’t buying this week at the trade deadline. They’re selling. Ondrej Kase went away to Boston. Rumours have other players (Derek Grant) leaving by the time the lunch bell rings in Anaheim Monday. 12pm Pacific is the deadline for moving...
Not the 1990s
Continuing to play “who’s here and who’s gone” with the Kings, let’s take a moment to mourn the departure of Alec Martinez. Why? Fans loved him, if not quite as much as they adore Kopitar, Doughty, Brown, and Quick. But “Marty” was right up there, and the memories...
The Kase for Backes
So let’s play the same game with the Anaheim Ducks as we did with the LA Kings last night. It’s called “who is missing?” And the answers start with Ondrej Kase. And end with Ondrej Kase. He’s a Bruin. Only there are some oddities about it. He was injured and didn’t...
In with the New
Out with the old, in with the (kinda) new. That’s the phrase that’s guiding the LA Kings as this, their most disastrous season in decades, slowly sinks into the sea. They’re currently 21-34-5, and who’s gone? Their scrappy fourth-liner, Kyle Clifford. A fan favorite,...
Keep Hammering
If following a hockey team is kinda like being in on the gossip in a small town, then Ducks fans have a few things to whisper about with the Stars in town on Thursday evening. Guys coming, guys going, new hopes for injury recovery. The power play. Forget I said that...