Friday, November 13, 2009

Link Surfing In The Pacific Division



ARTHUR:
This is Arthur from Anaheim Calling. I never cleared a day or schedule with Gray from Couch Tarts (now at Bloguin), so you may be getting a double dose of the Pac today.

San Jose
First, I refer you to the Couch Tarts post on last night's game with the Stars. The letdown is emblematic of the Sharks season so far. The team is definitely on top of a competitive division, but they look far more mortal than the squad that came roaring out of the gates last year. (Also, I take credit for this win, as I benched Turco on my fantasy team, thus thoroughly jinxing San Jose's sticks for the final stanzas of the game).

Los Angeles
The Royal Half muses on a guaranteed win for the Kings, though there seem to be a lot more of those this season.

Dallas
Scott Glennie talked to Brandon of Defending Big D this week. He's the future of pure scoring in the Pacific Division.

Phoenix
I'm not ashamed to say that I don't know what's happening with the Coyotes, despite the fact that the Desert Dogs were the Ducks' opponents on each of the last two Saturdays, and despite the fact that James Wisniewski controversially Manny-Pacquiao'd Shane Doan in that first meeting. I know this is two weeks old, but I have no links, just this:


Every time I see the video above, I swear I hear Marv Albert saying Boom-shakalaka. I enjoy it only because I remember this video:



Anaheim
The Ducks are on fire sale watch right now, beset by rumors of players headed out the door for little more than a change of locker room scenery. And much of this week's smoke damage came from Giguere, who threw a few heavy quotes to diligent and diligently under-appreciated beat writer J.P. Hoornstra of the LA Daily News. Giguere clarified everything later, but damage has certainly been done.

Anaheim fans are doing a bit of trainspotting these days, but instead of cars, we're watching passengers. Who's coming? Chris Higgins? Vesa Toskala? Who's going? Jiggy? Hiller? Niedermayer? Coach Carlyle? And now that Ducks owner Henry Samueli is back, what are the chances he fires Bob Murray, the only guy who insists nobody's going anywhere?

7 comments:

CLS said...

Which awesome N64 snowboarding game is that? I'm guessing 1080? I was a big fan of SSX3 on the PS2. Screw realism.

CLS said...

Also, I had a feeling losing Chris Pronger would be a problem for the Ducks but now I wonder if he was the whole damn foundation of that team. Is that my own oversimplification combined with my silly glorification of Elbows?

Anaheim Calling said...

ARTHUR:
Damn it, James. That's Twilight Princess. I've got to get a bigger picture of Link snowboarding in that game. The pun on the title was totally lost in the screenshot size.

It's not so much that Pronger was the foundation as it is the fact that we made no real effort to replace him at all. I've always thought Murray had a successful career as a scout, but since coming to Anaheim, he's been wrong about everyone but Beauchemin. He has no eye for talent, and if it weren't for guys like Rick Paterson, David McNab and Carlyle (who wanted Eminger), we would be even farther up s**t creek. Hopefully Samueli fires him and gives him some backdated stock and a signed 8x10 glossy of Wendel Clark as a severance package.

Anaheim Calling said...

ARTHUR:
Alright. I give up. Can't find a better screenshot. You're the picture master, James. See what you can find and hook me up.

CLS said...

Jeez, that doesn't speak well for the Wii if I thought it was a N64 game ;)

I'd fix the photo but the blog is moving to Bloguin this weekend so fuck it :)

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