The Ducks so far have played four scrimmages, each one of them against the Ducks.
NHL hockey newsThe Ducks so far have played four scrimmages, each one of them against the Ducks.
On Wednesday night, they face San Jose in their first NHL exhibition.
So here’s our question:
Why haven’t they won the Stanley Cup yet?
Come on, boys. Summer is over, the Angels’ regular season is nearly expired and the Raiders are all but mathematically eliminated.
Hello, we’re waiting. Where’s the parade? The rally? The Cup? Good Lord, Stanley, show us the Cup! Suddenly we’re Toronto, where civic hopes annually rest on the chests of the Maple Leafs like an idling Zamboni would. Never mind that the city hasn’t been visited by even the Stanley Cup Finals in more than four decades.
Who knew playing professional ice hockey in Mickey Mouse’s hometown could bring with it a cartoonish level of expectation?
Title winners or total wieners.
That’s the choice today sitting before our Ducks, who after four days of practice, quite frankly, haven’t achieved a whole lot. Why, they aren’t even in first place yet.
“That might be a little harsh,” defenseman Scott Niedermayer said of our microwaved analysis. “There are a lot of quality teams in the league. Winning the Cup isn’t an easy thing to do. But I will say we’d be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.”
No pressure or anything, especially still five weeks before Halloween, but if the Ducks are going to win another championship anytime soon this would be the season to do it.
By next summer, who knows what this roster – heck, this entire franchise – could look like?
General Manager Brian Burke evidently has a contract extension that he so far hasn’t signed.
Samuel Pahlsson also could be gone. Same with Teemu Selanne. Todd Marchant and Sean O’Donnell probably will be elsewhere.
The 2009-10 Ducks could be a Niedermayer-free club, both Scott and Rob impending free agents.
Now, even in the darkest scenario, the team shouldn’t have to sink to an overhaul. But there certainly is an open window through which the Ducks can pass or dramatically bend their bills while failing to do so.
“Personally, there aren’t a lot of see-you-next-years left in my career,” O’Donnell, 36, said. “For me, this could be the best chance to win I have left. This could be it.”
The great thing is the Ducks are fat with potential and everyone knows it. With Selanne and Scott Niedermayer here from the first hamstring stretch this season, this roster is as loaded as an Arizona State kegger.
These Ducks don’t need to believe in miracles to win their gold; they need to believe only in each other, which shouldn’t be too tough since so many of them have been NHL champs before.
“You’re lucky if you’re on a team like this once in your career,” O’Donnell said. “It’s not like, ‘Well, if they pick up a couple more guys’ or ‘If they get hot…’ If we play up to our potential, we should be in the middle of things. That’s a special feeling.”
Never has this franchise entered a season in which everything appeared as black-and-white as it does today. Or, this being hockey, should that be black-and-blue?
The Ducks are built for right now, if not a little sooner. The emergence of some offense looks like the only thing needed to make hockey in June a legitimate entertainment option locally.
They also have fire now, which is no small addition when attempting to ignite the rest of the league.
Selanne noticed a difference before the Ducks even opened camp, sensing a significant hunger during informal skating sessions with his teammates.
When he rejoined the defending Cup champions last January, he detected a brick rather than a flame inside the Ducks’ belly.
“It was like a lion that just ate the dinner,” Selanne said. “I really respect those guys. That was a long, long season, and they worked real hard. But the feeling was just different from the year before.”
It was different at the end, too, the Ducks going from Cup-lifters to ruin-sifters, pawing through the remains of a first-round playoff loss for answers. Over in six brief games, their road to repeating turned into a stop at an In-N-Out drive-through.
Little wonder then while, at the team’s season-ending dinner just a few days later, Selanne cornered
Scott Niedermayer and began selling him on the idea of coming back for one more year.
And by selling, we mean hard, as if he were working on commission. Selanne became a one-man infomercial for his team, the Ron Popeil of pucks.
“I was a little surprised by the timing of it,” Niedermayer said. “I didn’t think he would be ready to make his decision that quick. I know I needed more time. You have to remember, he had only played 15 games.”
It was a little more than that actually, but that’s all in the past.
These Ducks are about the present, the right now, and the opening of their exhibition schedule tonight. Which reminds us, shouldn’t they be getting their rings sized by this point?
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 8:35 pm and is filed under NHL hockey news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
