So I'm trying to figure out what RC is doing (Aren't we all?).

Last night, Lupul and Lapierre were benched for the whole 3rd period and OT. I know that they were on the ice when the Senators scored. However, McMillan was on too, yet he wasn't benched. Parros also didn't play at all in the third (punched to the face??). I just don't exactly understand the reasoning here. I know that RC wants to punish players for giving up goals, but I can tell you that Marchant and Sexton sure weren't doing anything out there either. I think Marchant's wrists are now encased in stone (it's going to eventually spread up to the elbows) and Sexton just continues to skate to the outside accomplishing nothing. If he's going to skate to the outside, he's got to beat guys on the outside. He also continues to just lose the puck along the boards because he's just too small to fend off defenders. And Beleskey wasn't very good either - tons of blue line turnovers.

I agree that the Senators should have never scored the goal that they did and the puck should have been cleared out, but it seems like a mighty short leash to put those players on. They didn't even have a chance to redeem themselves.

Thoughts?

So it turns out the Ducks are going to be playing a whole mess of road games now. In fact, 11 of their next 14 games are on the road. One big plus is that of these 14 games, there are only 2 back to backs; the first two games (this Saturday and Sunday) and the last two games (2/18 and 2/19). There is also the All Star break that happens pretty much in the middle of these games (after game 6).

Even though the Ducks will be playing 11 of their next 14 games on the road, this road trip is looking very promising as far as being able to solidify their standings and be in serious consideration of a playoff spot. The Ducks currently have 52 points. Of those 14 games, only Phoenix, Vancouver, and Washington have more points than the Ducks. Other teams that are close behind are Montreal and Colorado but these teams have games in hand, so it's hard to say they're really behind the Ducks. With that said, the rest of the teams that the Ducks play are all in the bottom half of their respective conferences. Most of these teams also have losing records with the exception of the Sharks, Wild, and Blues.

After these 14 games, the Ducks will nearly have played three quarters of their season. With the relatively easy road schedule, it's going to be imperative that the Ducks play strong over these next several games on the road if they want to ensure that they make the playoffs.

The upcoming schedule for the Ducks and where the respective teams stand as of 1/14/2011 2:00 PM PST:

I see a huge opportunity for the Ducks to establish themselves in the playoff picture over this stretch of games. It's going to take some hard work and definitely some winning, but at this point, I don't think you can ask for a more favorable road schedule.

I know that many of you will be pleased that the Ducks decided to fire extend Carlye. He's signed through the 2011-2012 season.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nhl/news/story?id=5919135

http://ducks.ocregister.com/2010/12/14/ducks-extend-carlyle-mcnab-through-2011-12/51822/

In other semi-related BOC news, Nabokov sucks it up in the KHL too.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=5914905

So it looks like Shane Doan is getting a three game suspension on the hit on Dan Sexton.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=337851

I for one actually think it's pretty excessive. It was definitely a dangerous play and an example of what the league is trying to crack down on, but I was thinking it was going to be more like one game - maybe two max.

As silly as some of you may think I sound, I do think the outcome needs to taken into consideration for suspensions. For example, Hjalmarsson's hit on Pomminville should definitely been given a larger suspension based on what happened to Pomminville. Plus extra because his name is so hard to spell.

The legal system takes into account what happened to the victim and so should the NHL. Breaking and Entering and Theft vs. Robbery; Murder vs. Attempted murder... People who think the action should only be taken into consideration aren't looking at the big picture. It's important that the players we all pay good money to see get to play and not have to sit on the IR.

Anyway, getting off my high horse, I really only wanted to state that Doan was getting three games for the hit. A bit excessive in my mind since nothing really came of the hit. But I suppose the NHL was using this as an example.

Just like your local PBS and NPR stations, it's time to start the pledge drive again so that we can get NHL 11 for Spade. So here's an update on where we're at in trying to reach our nearly insurmountable goal of $60.

As you can see, since my last update from my original posts here and here, nothing has changed. For those of you who are new to this blog, take a look at the original posts as well to see why this is even something we're contemplating.

The NHL 11 release date is quickly approaching (September 7th) so we need your support now!

Without your support, BoC and Spade couldn't bring you such beauties as this, this, this, and this. You can see all of Spade's antics here.

This just in... Amazon.com is selling pre-orders for NHL 11 for only $56.99 with free standard shipping. That means no tax and free shipping!  Don't we all just love buying stuff out of state.  We're now only $35.99 away from reaching our goal!

But that's not all.  Now with your donation of any amount, receive a free gift of Spade's Eternal love!

Please send in your PayPal donations to woo_derek[at]yahoo.com and let's get Spade NHL 11!
If you do not have a PayPal account and don't want to sign up for one but still want to donate, go ahead and email me directly at woo_derek[at]yahoo.com and we'll work something out to get the money in the account.

Disclaimer: Spade's Eternal love subject to Spade's willingness to offer eternal love to you.  There are no guarantees that he will love you, in fact, I highly doubt he will. Any and all donations below the purchase price of NHL 11 will go directly to Spade so that he can hopefully use it towards buying himself NHL 11.  If we reach the actual goal, I'll go ahead and make a direct purchase for Spade and have it shipped to him directly. Any amount above the purchase price will be put up to a vote on BoC to decide what to do with it.

So it looks like Randy Youngman has some interesting insight to provide about Teemu and Kariya.

If you take a look at the comments section in his article about rebuilding the defense, you'll notice two comments - one about Teemu and one about Kariya.  Based on information that Youngman apparently knows, he's stated the following:

On Teemu

takeitnomore - 8:12 AM on August 5, 2010
Teemu won't come back to a team that's Rebuilding, he said so in so many words earlier. I'd be surprised if he returned, although I'd like to see him play one more!

ryoungman - 2:35 PM on August 5, 2010
I'll be surprised if he doesn't come back, based on everything he told me.

On Kariya

hockeychubby - 1:52 PM on August 4, 2010
Thanks Randy. I'd expect Rusty to return because Vancouver may need to retain Bieksa going into this season due to an injured blueline. Paul Kariya will be back in my opinion so our favorite Duck Teemu can play on the same line with his two good friends for the next two years. Bobby Ryan to give up number 9? This adds fuel to Bobby being traded. Your thoughts?

ryoungman - 2:37 PM on August 5, 2010
I'd be surprised if Kariya came back to the Ducks. Last I heard, he was closer to retiring than playing next season.

I'm a bit surprised that Kariya would actually be leaning towards retirement. He definitely can contribute to any team he's on.  I really do think he's still good for 25 goals, which let's be honest, every team could use.

I wonder how much of this we should actually believe.  At least it's from a reporter, right?

Hi all,

If you haven't read my previous post, you'll see that I'm sick and tired of Spade and his talk of having to play NHL 09. So I've put in an effort to try and get him NHL 11 when it comes out. That will give us roughly 6 months to raise about $60-$65.

I'm looking for donations of $1 (more is always welcome, but I'm going to keep my expectations low) from the faithful BoC readers to help us achieve this goal. Send your money via PayPal to woo_derek[at]yahoo.com. I'll be posting status updates with screen shot images so you can follow along. They'll typically get posted when any kinds of funds are received.

As you can see, we currently have a roaring balance of $0.00.  I've already started by making a transfer of $1, although that'll take anywhere from 3-5 business days to show up.

I'm really looking forward to a good turnout here and am hoping to help out one of the most active participants on the BoC (and to get him to shut up about how he still only has NHL 09).

I still haven't decided what to do with any possible extra money we'll have earned from this, but with my low expectations from the BoC crowd, I don't know if that would even happen.  But in any case, I'm thinking we could just split up any extra funds between Sleek, Rudy, and Megalodon to show how much we appreciate their hard work for this blog.

UPDATE: If you want to donate, but don't want to sign up with PayPal, please email me directly at woo_derek[at]yahoo.com and we can work something out (mail a check, meet up, etc...) and I can get that money added to the PayPal account.

I'm tired of hearing about Spade and the fact that he only has NHL 09.  Are you fellow BoC readers at all interested in pitching in to buy this guy NHL 11 when it comes out.  Might as well just skip NHL 10 since the season is practically over.  That'll give us roughly 6 months to collect about $60-$70 (maybe there's tax and/or shipping).  I'd be willing to setup a paypal and keep everyone posted on its status and get that purchased for him when it does come out.

Do you think we could get about 60-70 readers to donate a measly $1.  I think his curse-laden, grammer teacher's worst nightmare, incomprehensible posts are worth about that much.

If I get enough positive feedback here, I'd be willing to set it up.

UPDATE: If you want to send money for this, go this post for details - http://www.battleofcali.com/2010/4/9/1413037/send-your-money-here-to-get-spade

I wanted to pose the following question to Battle of California fans.  Assuming that the Ducks are completely healthy (this includes the return of Joffrey Lupul), would it be wise for the Ducks to attempt to have three scoring lines? I know it's been talked about a lot in the early part of the season, and while that experiment failed, the topic has come back up again with the addition of Jason Blake.  What would your possible line combinations be for these lines? Don't worry about adding the fourth liners for this unless you want to include it.

I honestly believe that Lupul would have to be playing for us to have 3 bonafide scoring lines.  Here's my lousy attempt at coaching with the lines in no particular order:

Jason Blake - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Bobby Ryan - Saku Koivu - Dan Sexton
Joffrey Lupul - Petteri Nokelainen - Teemu Selanne

I think Blake can do well on the top line.  He seems like he'd be sort of like Chris Kunitz.  Hopefully he can agitate, get in on the forecheck, hit, and go to the front of the net.  That would work well with the top line.

I really liked what the Ryan - Koivu - Sexton line was doing, so I have a hard time breaking them up here, although RC has done it a lot lately.

And seriously, when Selanne was back from his first injury, he was playing really well with Nokelainen.  I think they worked well together.

Some other things to note, on the left side, I think all of these players are pretty much interchangeable because they bring different strengths and playing types to all the lines.  Lupul was on an absolute tear when he was on the top line until he decided to stop feeling his legs - so maybe he should be put there.  We all know that Ryan can play on the top line.  The only question is Blake because we haven't seen him yet; but like I stated previously, I think he'd be like Kunitz on that line and fill in quite nicely.

As far as the right side, I think Selanne and Sexton are interchangeable here although I think Sexton will be hurt the most by being moved away from Koivu.

Personally, I like what I've put together, but what do I really know.  I only know that as long as Todd Marchant isn't centering what we're calling a scoring line, then we're in good shape.  I think that was the biggest mistake at the beginning of the season with the 3 scoring line experiment.

What do you think?

Here's a question for you... Now that Drew Miller is on waivers, should we re-acquire him? We practically get first dibs since we're so damn low in the standings right now.

http://ducks.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/10/former-duck-miller-on-waivers/23169/

That would mean we essentially get Evgeny Artyukhin for free.  I still think Miller is a serviceable player and he could be used if those early rumors of a Todd Marchant trade are true.  Although I don't really want to see Marchant traded.

WTF Jiggy??  You'd rather retire than be a back up.  Nice team attitude.  Good job building trade value for yourself.

http://www.dailynews.com/ducks/ci_13751868

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=297862

http://ducks.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/10/giguere-vents-frustration/23195/

Now, I'm a big fan of Giguere, but this makes me think twice about him.  I'm practically thinking "good riddance" now (at least that's what I'd think if he gets traded).

Don't cry Sleek...

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