SB Nation User Blog: Earl Sleek

Ducks Gameday -- Positivity Cont'd.

Earl Sleek — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:56:03 -0000

Anaheim Ducks (11-13-7, 15th in west) at Columbus Blue Jackets (14-11-6, t-10th in west), 4 pm
Alternate reading: Anaheim Calling for the Ducks, The Cannon for the Jackets.

Hooray for Positivity! Quietly, the Anaheim Ducks have earned standings points in eight of their last ten games. Sure, four of those came via OT/SO losses, but when you're 15th in the west, there's no such thing as shameful standings points -- they're all precious!

Regulation is for suckers.

And while the Ducks have blown plenty of leads over the past couple of weeks, I still think it's encouraging -- earlier in the season they weren't leading games much at all. Check out how they've done over the first forty minutes of their last ten games:

Anaheim Ducks Last Ten Games
Score After 40 Minutes

Game (Result)	Ducks	Opp.
Calgary (W - SO)	2	1
Carolina (W)	1	1
Chicago (W)	3	0
Phoenix (O - OT)	1	0
Los Angeles (L)	2	3
@ Dallas (L)	1	0
@ Minnesota (O - SO)	2	1
Ottawa (O - SO)	2	2
Dallas (W - OT)	1	3
@ Detroit (O - OT)	2	0
10-Gm "Through 2" Total	17	11

Not shabby at all -- sure, most of it's at home, but the Ducks have led after two in six of their last ten games, and only trailed after two periods twice. They'll need to start converting more of those 40-minute leads into regulation wins, but in the meantime replacing all those Ls with Os on the team's record is definitely a step in the right direction.

Prediction: Positivity! Ducks shock the Jackets and hold a two-period lead -- Ducks 3, Jackets 2. All five goals by Pahlsson.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- OK, Fine... Positivity!

Earl Sleek — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:28:25 -0000

Anaheim Ducks (11-13-6, 15th in west) at Detroit Red Wings (14-11-5, 11th in west), 4:30 pm
Anaheim Calling - Winging It In Motown - Abel To Yzerman - The Triple Deke -- choose your own adventure.

Aww, remember when this matchup was playoff-relevant?

Well, this is awkward -- two teams still sore at each other for last spring's second-round playoff series get another chance at G7 revenge -- except now with both teams sitting outside of playoff spots, it's also become two critical "catch-up" points for these once-playoff-mainstays.

I did have a good time watching the Ducks' last game at a bar with commenter/pal Gordon Bombay and another Ducks friend, and one thing that he impressed upon me was that I was being entirely too blog-despondent about the Ducks' 15th seed (and at that time, the 3-goal deficit) -- I needed to exhibit more Positivity!. "After all," he pointed out, "the season's only about one-third done, and the Ducks are only eight points out of a playoff spot." I had to look it up to verify, and was shocked to see that he was right -- I had just assumed that things were worse. And after the comeback win Tuesday night, the gap has now even closed to seven standings points.

So yeah, Coach Bombay is right -- I have been too melodramatic about the whole start of the season. It is high time I threw some Positivity! into these posts. Who cares that the Ducks haven't won a road game in two months?

Doin' the Positivity Shuffle!

In the meantime, I think it's time for a BoC nickname discussion, based on rookie Dan Sexton's first two NHL goals and club-rookie-record 9 SOG, playing second-line minutes alongside Saku Koivu and Bobby Ryan. I'm torn a bit on what to nickname the kid, because I do really like Spade's use of "Sex Monster", but I know plenty of people are already calling him "Big Sexy" (including his teammates), and that has plenty of appeal for me, too...

Side Sleek Story: When I'd come back home to SoCal during my college years, I had a deck of WCW / NWO-themed playing cards which some friends and I would use to play long-running games of late-night gin rummy. In rummy, the valuable cards are normally 10s, face cards, and aces, but when we played with this deck, the 9s developed into somewhat of a legend, mostly because of the intensity of Big Sexy's glamor poses:

Check out that nine of hearts glare.

Eventually, we got to the point where we'd surrender aces in the pile just to "protect a Sexy" in a hand, and when somebody got to lay down a set of Big Sexys, it was a real achievement. So yeah, that's lame and stupid, but there it is -- it's the legendary card that comes to my mind when I hear the nickname "Big Sexy"...

Of course, with my habit of bad puns and assigning players with horrible nicknames, I can't help combining these three aspects that I know about the kid:

His last name is Sexton.
He plays the position of offensive forward.
The Ducks are covered primarily by the Orange County Register.

Hence, here's my inappropriate suggestion; sorry if it sticks, kid. Drumroll.....

Proposed Nickname: Registered Sex Offender

Who's with me? Offer your suggestions in the comments.

Prediction: Ducks win 10-5. Positivity!

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- Happy Blogniversary!

Earl Sleek — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:42:48 -0000

Dallas Stars (13-8-8, t-7th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (10-13-6, 15th in west), 7 pm
Anaheim Calling and Defending Big D more game-relevant perspectives.

Well, with the Ducks still winless in December I figured today was a good opportunity to do something distractionary. Plus it's a big date on the blog calendar -- exactly one year ago today, us misfits at Battle of California packed up our bags and left the old blogspot home to relocate our silliness to SB Nation.

Thank goodness I didn't make this cartoon about regular season dominance.

It's been a pretty crazy 2009 for the ol' BoC, and while this isn't really the blog's true birthday (that's in May, mom), it's nice to do something besides bitch and moan about the Ducks' current failings. It certainly helps that the past year was highlighted by the first ever playoff meeting between BoC squads, of course, which was huge -- added plenty of fuel to the divisional fire and gave me a permanent Twitter background, too.

This past year has had plenty of drama from all sides, though -- fake intra-BoC trades (Pronger to the Kings, Marleau to the Kings), actual blockbuster trades (Heatley to the Sharks, Smyth to the Kings, Pronger to the Flyers), emerging young stars (Doughty, B. Ryan), a wealth of superstars (Kopitar, Getzlaf/Perry, Thornton), and even the ill-fated Presidents' Trophy, which is still quite an achievement. It's been a blogger madhouse, that's for sure -- there's been optimism, pessimism, prognostication, superstition, bets made, bets paid, and even squirrels!

Plus it's been a good year for State Rapes, too -- victims include Chicago, Columbus & St. Louis, Edmonton, St. Louis (again) & Boston, plus even the surreal California-on-California -- what a busy year for porno-cartography!

What's in store for Year Two? Already the BoC drama gods are stirring again -- the Sharks have annual questions that can't be answered before April but are killing the regular season, the Kings are learning to deal with the newness of on-ice success and overall relevance, and the Ducks are coming to terms with the comedy of repeated suckitude. Over the next year we've got Olympics coming, a stretch-run and playoffs for two of the teams, and then a Ducks-heavy entry draft conveniently hosted in L.A. Exciting times.

Overall, I have to say that I'm very pleased with the year at SB Nation -- BoC is still a square peg in a network of round holes, but that's fine by me -- I'm glad we've been able to keep up the nonsense and randomness in the new digs, even when aligned with much more "legitimate" blogs. Plenty of thanks to Rudy, Mike, the rest of the occasional writers, the tolerant SBN folk, and of course the awesome commenters and readers -- you guys are aces!

Here's to a great Year Two. Feel free to share your overall thoughts or favorite moments about BoC-at-SB-Nation in the comments. Then pour a drink later and join the game comments when the Stars ~~beat up~~ play the Ducks.

Prediction: Shockingly, all three BoC teams offer plenty of intriguing storylines over the next year as well. Stay tuned!

Go Ducks.

Poll

One year in, how do you feel about BoC moving to SB Nation?

Ducks Gameday -- Cup Finals Re-enactment.

Earl Sleek — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:53:51 -0000

Ottawa Senators (13-10-4, t-7th in east) at Anaheim Ducks (10-13-5, 15th in west), 5 pm
To reminisce about the Best Cup Finals Ever!, visit Anaheim Calling or Silver Seven.

Whoops, running really late today! I did draw a cartoon, though.

We should do this playoff matchup again some time -- probably not this year, though.

Since the lockout, the Ducks and Senators have faced each other eight times -- three regular season plus five Cup Finals games -- and the Ducks have won seven of the eight. Thanks again, Chris Phillips.

Prediction: Ducks actually win this one 4-1, goals by Perry, Nokelainen, Scotty, and Ryan. Unfortunately, the win is only worth two standings points, so the Ducks stay in fifteenth.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- Western Conference Basement Battle

Earl Sleek — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:27:38 -0000

Anaheim Ducks (10-13-4, 15th in west) at Minnesota Wild (11-12-3, 14th in west), 5 pm
Anaheim Calling and Hockey Wilderness -- already making reservations for next summer's entry draft.

Woo hoo! Basement Battle tonight, pitting the 14th-ranked Wild vs. the 15th-ranked Ducks! Which team's losing tendencies will outmatch the other's?

I am somewhat cheered up by this jovial Wild characterization. Not sure, but the Duck might be British today.

But hey, positivity! Uhhhh.... at least the Philadelphia Flyers are slumping. After a stretch where the Flyers won 7 of 8 games, they've since lost 6 of 7 in regulation and are currently outside of a playoff slot. They'll probably turn it around, of course, but if they don't, it may be that the Ducks end up with two excellent first-round draft picks for next summer's entry draft in L.A. C'mon, Pronger -- make it so.

Prediction: I'll be absent from game comments today also; watching this one late-night on Center Ice DVR delay (Hooray! No Hayward!). Still, I think I can guess what's going to happen -- just at the moment when you think the Ducks might win a valiant game in honor of Teemu's broken hand, they'll lose.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- First glance to the future.

Earl Sleek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:07:43 -0000

Anaheim Ducks (10-12-4, t-14th in west) at Dallas Stars (12-8-7, t-7th in west), 5:30 pm
Anaheim Calling or Defending Big D, somebody's bound to have something to say about the Stars.

Man, it's tough to get excited about tonight's game; here's some reasons why:

2: The number of road wins the Ducks have this season, the last one coming nearly two months ago, when the Ducks pulled a Finnish Flash miracle in the second half of the third period + shootout.

1: The number of wins the Ducks have against Pacific Division teams this season, the only one coming nearly a month ago, where the Ducks nearly blew a 4-goal third-period lead but held on.

0: The number of road victories the Ducks have this season against western conference opponents -- you know, the ones that sit in front of Anaheim on the ol' standings board. In fact, the last time the Ducks beat a western conference team in their own building was exactly seven months ago, and afterwards I drew this.

Plus, I'm not even going to be around to watch & comment -- you're on your own tonight. Play nice!

The Ducks needed a solid homestand over the past two weeks and showed improvement to some degree -- 4-2-1 certainly looks better than their prior record -- but really, they played seven critical games at home and won two in regulation and lost two in regulation. 5 western opponents came in to Honda Center, and 4 of them left with at least a standings point -- that's not good enough for a team trying to dig out of the basement.

So I suppose it's worth taking a glance towards next year -- courtesy of CapGeek, here's the one-way salary commitments the Ducks are currently carrying into next season. I've left out two-way contracts like Mikkelson (who's an RFA), and Sbisa, Festerling, Beleskey, and Sharp (all signed cheap), though looking at it now it probably makes sense to throw in Sbisa and Mikkelson at least. Anyways:

Anaheim Ducks 2010-11 Salary Cap Commitments: A First Look

Click image to enlarge.

There's plenty of holes to fill, notably on the blueline (Whitney and Eminger? God help us all) and in the top-six forwards, but there's money to spend, also. Definitely a healthy portion of that money figures to go to Bobby Ryan, deservedly so, but I'm not too worried about his ability to earn it.

I'm not going to delve much into it today, but here's my overall thought, having laid it out: I'm not sure that a lot needs to be done immediately to this core for next season. Sure, when the Ducks are officially out of the running I'm all for UFA firesales and future-reward trades, but there's no issues I see here that couldn't be dealt with late this season or this coming summer, especially if other teams are feeling cap-ceiling-pressured. I dunno -- it seems there's usually a ton of urgency for last place teams to "Sell Sell Sell", but in Anaheim's case, I'm not sure haste will accomplish much. It may not make sense to do much of anything until later in the season when there's more buyers in the market.

Feel free to discuss future-planning in the comments; I'll have some bulleted thoughts tomorrow.

Prediction: Remember when I used to talk about opponents in these gameday posts? That was back when it mattered who the Ducks played. These days, Anaheim can lose to anybody. But hey, tonight we get to see Corey Perry (he of the longest scoring streak since Crosby) try to perform his next "Douche Trick" -- a term coined by Morbo and illustrated below by our pal Spade.

Look out for Getzlaf piss, Turco! It'll turn you bald, too.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- A Christmas Cartoon

Earl Sleek — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:23:57 -0000

Phoenix Coyotes (14-11-1, 8th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (10-11-3, t-14th in west), 5 pm
Extra credit reading assignments: Anaheim Calling on the Ducks and Five For Howling on the Coyotes.

Well, on the one hand, despite some recent winning, the Ducks are still tied for last place in the western conference. On the other hand, they do sit only six standings points out of the eighth seed with a chance to close the gap tonight -- seems kind of hopeful. But yeah, screw it -- the Ducks have played better since I declared the season dead; I shouldn't try to mess that up with any optimism today.

We did have a great time at Friday's day game, though. It's the second straight year I've attended the Black(hawks) Friday game with my kid brother, and the second straight year the Ducks have won via shutout. I'll have to make that my top priority game next year, I think. Corey Perry did tie Selanne's franchise record 17-game scoring streak (on a Teemu goal, no less), and of course he has a chance to take the record outright -- and yup, the game isn't televised at all tonight. Good luck, Radio Perry (or if anyone has a link to make him into Internet-Video-Stream Perry, feel free to leave it in the comments).

* * *

In the meantime, I've been alerted that the NHL Arena boards are holding some sort of Ducks Blog-Off (Round 1), which pits Duck fansites against each other in a poll. I don't know, though -- Rudy's not on the Kings list; Chen's not on the Sharks list. So I'll say "whatever" -- go vote for Anaheim Calling. I will, however, be using these poll lists to update our dated Pacific Division blogroll. One of these days, I'm sure.

Also, my first submission for Chamber of Comics' cartoon marathon is posted -- it's pretty random and generally reflects my hunger at the time I was sketching. I was inspired by Mike W's (and pals') attempts at a 30-cartoons-in-30-days challenge -- I'm not truly participating, but I did mess around with a few things style-wise: drawing with ball-point pen instead of a Sharpie and working a bit more with multi-panel formats. I must say, multi-panel in particular has been a bit of a struggle -- I'm still not sure whether it's best to start writing from the first panel or from the last. Also, I have a tendency to put too much storyline in, as I did with my second submission (after the jump). It's a cute idea and even has a holiday theme, but my first draft had twice as many panels and 300% more explanation -- now I've slimmed it down to its basic essentials.

I call it "The Santa Claws(e)" -- enjoy!

Coyotes, werewolves, what's the difference?

Prediction: Shockingly, Kyle Calder's presence is missed. In all seriousness, he had a damn good game on Friday -- we were only partially joking about how hard Rudy would fight for Kyle's signed stick if he was third star of the game.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- I've got a bad feeling about this...

Earl Sleek — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:25:32 -0000

Chicago Blackhawks (16-5-2, 2nd in west) at Anaheim Ducks (9-11-3, 14th in west), 1 pm
In case you didn't eat enough bird yesterday, Second City Hockey -- Hawks and Anaheim Calling -- Ducks.

[Author's note: I'm still mostly on blog vacation this week with family in town, so today's post is pretty hasty.]

Uh-oh, today's game could get ugly real fast. The Blackhawks have won eight in a row, including the last four on the road where they've outscored opponents 20-5.

TWENTY TO FIVE!!!

Regardless, I'm off to see today's game up close and in person, and co-blogger Rudy Kelly is coming with me (mostly to laugh at the downfall of the Ducks) -- a post-Thanksgiving Row B event! My kid brother is in town from Chicago for the holiday, so he and another pal will complete the foursome. Look for us on TV or at the arena -- I'll likely be the one cursing and Rudy will likely be the one jeering.

Sleek's ~~lucky~~ green shirt (actual) and Rudy's Corey Perry shirt (imagined).

But hey, we may get to see a decade-old Ducks franchise record tied today. From last game (which I still haven't watched):

Corey Perry assisted on Niedermayer’s goal to extend his points streak to 16 games, one game shy of the franchise record set by Selanne in 1999. Perry’s is the longest streak in the NHL this season.

Prediction: Win or lose, Rudy has a great time feasting on Duck fan misery.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday -- Hooray for Outsourcing!

Earl Sleek — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:38:23 -0000

Calgary Flames (13-6-2, t-4th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (7-11-3, 15th in west), 7 pm
Ring, Ring! Anaheim Calling to collect all unused Matchsticks and Gasoline.

Ducks' season is over, but at least we went out with a bang! I've been ~~working~~ ~~drawing~~ planning today for a guest comic for Chamber of Comics, yet to really be inked, but our good pal Spade has BoC-cartooning duties covered for now, in drunken remembrance of Saturday night's Danny K's party.

Click image to enlarge.

Great work, Spade. I'll be more blog-productive later this week -- for now, family's in town.

Go Ducks.

BoC Gameday -- SBN Interactive: Drinking with Spade & Plank tonight!

Earl Sleek — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:55:43 -0000

San Jose Sharks (15-5-4, 1st in west) at Anaheim Ducks (7-10-3, 15th in west), 7 pm
Fear The Fin or Anaheim Calling, you figure out which is which.

Top-ranked Sharks. Bottom-ranked Ducks. Sound familiar?

I can make fun of the Sharks from anywhere in the standings, apparently.

Of course, the spirit of this cartoon probably has it backwards -- it's not really that the Sharks played poorly against bottom-ranked Ducks; it's more that the Ducks have played up to top-seeded competition, or at least they once did. And I don't know if the Sharks will escape my web mockery no matter how successful they play -- not only are they the most recent team that Anaheim has knocked out of the playoffs, it looks as if they'll retain that title for another year at least.

Then again, who knows? The last time Spade and I went to a Ducks-Sharks regular season game, the Ducks lost a close one, I declared our season dead, and then the Ducks went on to nearly win out the remainder of their regular season schedule.

In that same spirit, I suppose, Spade and I are meeting up pre-game tonight with the notorious Mr. Plank and some of his FTF cohorts at Danny K's pool bar in Anaheim (here's Spade's rendition of our first meeting in April). Feel free to stop in and say hello -- I'll be the dude in the lucky green shirt:

0-2 this season, but whatever. I'm stubborn.

As for the game, I really have no idea where in the upper deck we're sitting, but hopefully we'll have a good view of Mike V's seats.

Prediction: Even though all indications are that he's thousands of miles away, more than one person offers a "Shut the fuck up" towards poor James O'Brien. Sorry, O'B -- it's tradition now. Also, Ducks lose a close one; I declare the season dead.

Go Ducks.