| Anaheim Ducks News | | | Dodger Stadium Winter Classic; 10 worst NHL fans; ‘While The Men Watch’ debate (Puck Headlines) (Puck Daddy)
Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.
• Viggo Mortensen is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan. What better way to remind the world of this fact than by wrapping Kirsten Dunst in a Habs flag at Cannes, continuing an odd red carpet tradition for Aragorn. [ OMG Yahoo! , via Martin Leroux]
• Marty Brodeur on the Mark Messier guarantee ghosts of 1994 haunting the New Jersey Devils in Game 6: "I know if you guys look at it, it looks the same, but it's different teams and a different way of playing the game and it's 18 years ago and that's a long time. I know I'm feeling a lot different. I'm feeling a lot more appreciative of what's going on." [ Fire & Ice ]
• Bruce Driver on 1994: "I ended up going to New York and played with Mark, a tremendous leader and one of the best captains of all time. In 1994 against us, Mark did what he did, backed it up and scored three goals. But from our standpoint, the way we looked at it, we blew the game." [ NYT ]
• Great piece on the friendship between Devils fans and Rangers fans, unnatural that it is. [ WNYC, via Michael Raphael]
• No structural damage in Michal Rozsival's knee after that Dustin Brown hit. [ Sportsnet ]
• Mirtle with poll on fighting that finds hardcore fans love it, non-fans loathe it. [Globe & Mail, and see graphic ]
• Earl Sleek sees a lot of the 2003 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Say, are those the Devils on the other side of the bracket? [ Battle of Cali ]
• Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten wants to pursue a Winter Classic at Dodger Stadium. Read this and other stories in our new book "[Expletive] No One Would Be Saying If The Kings Weren't In The Cup Final." [ LA Times ]
• Rich Hammond on the matter: "Gary Bettman has sneered (literally) at any suggestion that a Winter Classic could be played in a warm-weather environment. And while the Kings would love to host an outdoor game — Luc Robitaille is a particularly big proponent — AEG is also in the planning stages of a new downtown football stadium, which would probably be a more likely location in the event that Bettman stops sneering." [ LA Kings Insider ]
• The 10 most annoying hockey fans. Including you, Guy Trying To Get on TV. [ THW ]
In which Dustin Penner, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards edit their NHL narratives (Puck Daddy)
Why are the Los Angeles Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final?
Because the two drunk, locker room cancers helped set up a lazy fat-ass for the game-winning goal.
At least that's how it would have been framed about eight months ago, when the narratives about Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Dustin Penner had defined them as players. The first two were banished from the Philadelphia Flyers, ostensibly for cap relief in the pursuit of a No. 1 goaltender (or, failing that, Ilya Bryzgalov) but mostly for a culture change in the dressing room.
Penner, meanwhile, was (a) a waste of salary compared to production and (b) out of shape and (c) lazy to the point where his general manager suggested he might be better off playing for the El Cid Lounge in a men's softball league .
In overtime of Game 5 in the Western Conference Final on Tuesday night, Richards won the faceoff near the defensive zone. Slava Voynov moved it up the boards, and Penner kept the puck alive in the attacking zone on the forecheck, sending a nifty backhand pass to a streaking Carter. He fired the puck off of Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith with Richards causing chaos on front of the net, helping to clear the slot for Penner to fire home the rebound over Smith's glove. With that, the Kings were headed to the Cup Final.
This trio was maligned and decried for the better part of 2011-12. Yet it was this Dry Island of Misfit Toys that has the Kings four wins away from the first Stanley Cup.
Devils try to even series with Rangers; watch the ‘Sandley Cup’ get built (Playoff Puck Previews) (Puck Daddy)
Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.
• The silver medal-winning Slovakian hockey team celebrated at home today and Libor Hudacek wanted to show you his best " The Situation " impression. More dancing Slovaks here . Thanks to Patrik for passing that along
Eastern Conference Final Game 4 Preview : New York Rangers at New Jersey Devils, 8 p.m. ET.
The Devils have been shutout twice through three games against Henrik Lundqvist. If they're going to get back into the series, they'll need to figure out how to score goals again or go down 3-1 heading back to MSG. Jacob Joseson, who's been out since April 3 with an injured wrist, will replace Petr Sykora in the New Jersey lineup. Stu Bickel is expected to be the guy filling in for the suspended Brandon Prust, while Brandon Dubinsky said his ankle is getting better. He's been out of the lineup since the beginning of Round 2.
Evening Reading
• Listen to today's Marek Vs. Wyshynski here.
• Please do enjoy this terrific infographic via the LA Kings. [ Kings ]
• Bourne pumps the tires of Zach Parise. [ Backhand Shelf ]
• More on Russia's win at the World Championships. [ From Russia With Glove ]
• The Anaheim Ducks signed 29-year old Swedish goaltender Viktor Fasth to a one-year deal. Fasth was named Goaltender of the Year in the Swedish Elite League the past two seasons becoming the first netminder to do so since Henrik Lundqvist. [ Ducks ]
• Finally, here's a time-lapse video of the building of the "Sandley Cup" outside LA Live in Los Angeles:
Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: "JZarris" on LA's trouble with the Kings:
"At this point I'm beginning to think all the local news producers are purposefully trolling the Kings. What else could it be?"
Bad PR is still PR, right?
Bold prediction: Devils even things up with a double overtime victory. Dainius Zubrus is the hero.
What We Learned: Embarrassing LA sports media moments while covering Kings playoff run (Puck Daddy)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.
It's possibly the greatest bit of investigative journalism conducted since Woodward and Bernstein brought down Richard Nixon.
This exemplary, collective effort of sleuth work is currently ongoing in Los Angeles, Calif., where an entire media market has unearthed the NHL's shocking secret:
The city has a professional hockey team.
Over the past week or so here at Puck Daddy, we've tried to document every startling discovery made by the intrepid Los Angeles media, like how to properly pronounce Anze Kopitar's name (it's hard because he's from Bosnia or something), the real name of this Drew Doughty character ( it's actually Brad !) and that hockey is in fact not played with a ball, but rather a little piece of rubber known as a "puck." That last one makes me pretty uncomfortable because of the word it rhymes with. ("Duck" — sorry, I just don't trust 'em; they have weird beaks).
Just how villainous is this team, operating as a sort of sporting sleeper cell? They got all the way to the Western Conference Finals without one local noticing. That takes real criminal talent. And not only that, but, the NHL had the diabolical idea to hide it right under the Los Angelinos' noses, by having their home games played at the Staples Center. You know, where the Lakers play. Further, they named the team the Kings to intentionally confuse even the savviest media organization into thinking they are the NBA's Sacramento Kings.
Astonishingly devious stuff. More twists and turns than the Da Vinci Code, which I've read three times just to make sure I understood it all.
The best bit of this journalism on this pressing issue comes, of course, from the city's paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, winner of 44 Pulitzer Prizes since 1942, including three in 2012. It was for that towering beacon of journalistic excellence that columnist Chris Erskine successfully scruted several of the team and sport's most inscrutable mysteries .
For instance, that thing I said earlier about the puck (again, yuck… oh and that's another gross word it rhymes with), I learned it from Erskine. Apparently they even freeze the thing. And that's a huge point of concern, because, "The hardest shots can reach 110 mph and tear flesh, crush bone, even kill you if you're not careful." Yikes, you guys!
( Coming Up: Rick Nash to Boston?; Tororella defends Prust; Ryan Suter faces his future; Evegni Malkin is having a pretty good season; why Lundqvist is King; why the Capitals can't win with Ovechkin; the Islanders know how to party; Canucks might keep Luongo; Ryan Miller on the CBA; Flames and Oilers coaching news; and are the Kings in trouble?)
Ducks Sign Fasth to One-Year Contract
The Ducks have signed goaltender Viktor Fasth to a one-year contract through the 2012-13 NHL season. Per club policy, no financial terms of the deal were disclosed.
Fasth, 29 (8/8/82), has been named the Swedish Elite Leagueâs Goaltender of the... Top 25 Moments: 1-5
By Matt Vevoda
AnaheimDucks.com
The 2011-12 season was one the Ducks ultimately looked at with disappointment. Anaheim finished the season with a 34-36-12 record (80 points, 13th in the Western Conference) and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs f... Roster Report
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Teemu Selanne led the Ducks in scoring with 66 points at 41 years of age in his 19th year in the NHL]]> | | | | |
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