More photos » Charles Krupa - AP

FOWL poll indeed.

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ARTHUR:
We're not the biggest fans of polls here at Anaheim Calling. We've had a few, we've even gotten Sleek to vote in a few, but we generally run on an anti-poll platform. As such, my response to SBN's new "Fan Confidence Poll" was fairly predictable; I treated it with the acerbity we've all come to know and love. At the time, I assumed there was nothing I could do about it (beyond my trademark passive aggression), but I recently discovered that not to be the case. I'm actually free to opt out. Humbuwha?!  ^__^   *clicks heels*  Sweet Sueeeee, yes youuuu!

Here's the rub, though. The poll is not actually for me (though they assure me there are things I can do with it), it's for you. Accordingly, only you can prevent forest fires make this decision. You should know that if we keep the poll, I have no intention of doing anything with the information, both because non-Ducks fans are allowed to vote and because I struggle to see the value of a vague percentage gauge of how we're all feeling.  However, you should also know that there are people much smarter and much more industrious than I am who potentially could do something with the information. That's assuming you all intend to use the poll.  I think that brings the 'that's what she said' count to fifteen.  We should end there.  Vote already.

More photos » Dylan Lynch - Getty Images

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ARTHUR:
Puck Daddy ran a story today about a group of NHL teams interested in restricting blogger access on the road i.e. if the visiting team is anti-blogger, then no bloggers can enter the visitors' locker room.  They've even published a leaked draft of what a revised blogger policy will look like.  As the words "SB Nation" were mentioned more than once in the original article, I thought I should comment.

First, let me note that while the story reports Blueshirt Banter as being "associated" with the Fire Sather rally in New York, the SBN site simply covered the event as they would any other relevant happening amongst the fanbase.  I don't doubt Puck Daddy's assertion that the Rangers brass was upset to see Blueshirt Banter amongst the NHL-credentialed SBN coterie at this year's Draft, but that reaction is probably based more on their hope that everyone would pretend the event wasn't happening than it is on any realistic expectations of what constitutes 'responsible media.'  Blueshirt Banter did not organize or sponsor the event in any way.

Reading that, I know that some of you are thinking, 'and what if they did organize and sponsor the event, so what?'  If newspapers hold the credibility that the information will always be correct, then bloggers, as outsiders, hold the credibility that the information will never be controlled.  And using that simplistic dichotomy, I'm sure many of you would demand that a blog foment an initiative to fire your general manager if logic dictated it necessary.  

However, if you have those assumptions about us, then you should know that professional sports teams share them, and that's the problem.  As far as they're concerned, we're engaging in Wild West journalism, motivated by page views and checked by no ethics whatsoever, just Federal and State law and the parties litigious enough to enforce it.  In many ways, they make a strong argument.  In terms of rabble rousing, that's something that the traditional media has, of course, done before, but always under a known quantity of checks and balances.  Namely, if you call for someone's job then you're putting your own on the line.  How many bloggers put their career or their livelihood on the line when they demand that a GM lose his?

Unfortunately, the argument starts to fall apart as you apply your assumptions to bloggers as a collective, assumptions about quality, credibility and accountability.  I'll touch on that after the jump...

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More photos » NIKLAS LARSSON - AP

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ARTHUR:
In the short history of Anaheim Calling, we've managed to rub some people the wrong way.  There was, of course, the time Jen rattled Joffrey Lupul.   Then there was the time Daniel and I claimed Brent Seabrook was complicit in his own concussion after he put a high hit on Corey Perry.  Blackhawks fans loved that one (but my response remains: 'applesauce').  However, our most memorable dust-up, for me at least, came just five days into our existence, when Daniel and I discussed Paul Kariya.  The actual flame war happened on another site, so it's not preserved for posterity as far as I know, but the person (who claimed to be a fan during the 90s) was trying to convince me that Ducks fans were happy with how well Paul Kariya was protected after the Suter incident.  Oh, really?*

What has always irked me about the way Ducks fans hate Paul Kariya is that it's often built around a lot of revisionist history, like a twisted oral tradition.  And apparently, it's irked the OC Register's Randy Youngman as well.   After receiving a letter on Friday that cites the apocryphal "handshake agreement" between Paul Kariya and Bryan Murray in 2003, wherein the star forward supposedly promised to return to Anaheim for less money after not being qualified, Youngman debunked the "original season ticket holder's" assertion that the agreement existed.  What's more, as the story was initially reported in the OC Register, Youngman simply consulted his old notes in order to tell the reader that the story the fan has been repeating for seven years is not the story the reporter wrote.

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More photos » Julian Finney - Getty Images

DEPICTED: the only appreciable value ever created by a Dave Fuller article.

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ARTHUR:
The dust-up between the Toronto Sun and Pension Plan Puppets continues, and I just thought I'd give a brief legal word on translations and whether or not they can result in copyright infringement and plagiarism.  

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ARTHUR:
Anaheim calling to the hockey world...

And now for something completely different.  

Amidst these dog days of the summer NHL news cycle (not to mention rumors that Loops may be out until December), we bring you the long awaited Joffrey Lupul Goal Counter.  And by 'we' I mean Earl Sleek as he put in the only real work in creating the thing.  Thanks, Sleek!  The goal counter will hold the prominent position in our right sidebar, making it even less likely (if that's possible) that anyone will check our Fanshots.

For those that may not remember The Joffrey Lupul Goal Counter, I direct you to a fanshot in May when our staff writer Jen made the following statement:

If [Lupul] reaches 35 goals for the Ducks next season, I will post a picture of myself in a bikini on this website.

Why did Jen lay the bikini gauntlet down on young Joff?  Well, for that, we're going to have to go all the way back to Jen's first post for Anaheim Calling back in April.

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ARTHUR:
Since some of you (*cough-Newport Rebel-cough*) have taken to demanding articles, I've decided to make you regret your request and subject you to the meanderings of my mind.

Twice this week I was reminded of the 2006 documentary In The Crease (covering the California Wave's journey to the AAA national tournament), and the reminders came from a couple of unlikely places.  

First, I tilted my head while I was watching the NHL 11 preview video that runs through the opening sequences for a WHL game in the upcoming EA Sports title.  Plain as day, they had Mitch Wahl as the starting center for the Spokane Chiefs  If you saw In The Crease, you'll remember the curly haired and wide-eyed Wahl as the goal-scoring Seal Beach native who grew up quite the Ducks fan.  Wahl won't be with the Chiefs next year, as he has played four full seasons in the WHL and joined the AHL's Abbotsford Heat this past spring.  The kid is climbing the ladder in the Flames organization, and he may be the highest California-bred Draft pick to play an NHL game this season.

Second, I was reading up on Bollywood news, a hobby of mine that one never expects to intersect with this blog, but lo and behold: Mumbai-star Akshay Kumar is producing a Canadian hockey film called Breakaway, which will be helmed by D3: Mighty Ducks director Robert Lieberman.  The film begins shooting next month, but Alliance Films has already purchased the distribution rights, meaning it could see a rather respectable theater release in the US and Canada.  Starring Vinay Virmani and Emily Van Camp, the movie follows the story of a young hockey player who hails from Canada's rather large South Asian community.  

Of course, I immediately thought of In The Crease's story of Wayne Ravdjee, who hails from Southern California's own rather large South Asian community.  Moving from India and settling in Sylmar, California, the patriarch of the Ravdjee household liked to play the ponies.  And back in the late 80s, horse racing results were often pre-empted by Kings games.  It was a complete accident that he fell in love with the sport and Wayne Gretzky, but as he says in the film, 'watch three hockey games, and you'll be hooked.'  He named his son after The Great One, and Wayne has just completed his first season with the NAHL's Kenai River Brown Bears, not quite on the same trajectory as his former teammate Wahl but still committed to the game.

So, if you haven't seen In The Crease yet, you really should.  I could take or leave the interviews with the pros; the real meat of the film is the California kids.  It's the story of an entire team making the sacrifice to play travel hockey in California.  But it's also the story of Mitch Wahl, who may be the next California-bred NHL regular.  And it's the story of Wayne Ravdjee, an Indian kid who took up hockey, which is apparently unlikely enough to warrant a feel good movie, even in hockey-crazed Canada.  Somewhere, Manny Malhotra is saying, 'he's not so special.'

ARTHUR:
The benefit of having this blog, perhaps the primary motivation for starting it, is that I can make off-the-wall predictions and then have them available in black and white for me to lord over Daniel people.

For example, if the Ducks ice a line of Kariya-Koivu-Selanne next year, I'll be quick to point out that in May of 2009, months before anyone tied Koivu to the Ducks, I said this:

Ideally, Koivu comes in at a discount (3/3.75M) on a one-year deal to play with Selanne.

and in March of 2009, more than a year before anyone tied Kariya to the Ducks, I said this:

I think fate will decide. It's a bit of serendipity that, like they were in 2003, both Kariya and Selanne will be UFA's at the end of next season.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a psychic, and this is my associate, Ovaltine Jenkins.  I've selfishly kept my gift from the world, but I'm determined to make things right.  So, from now on, I will exercise my powers of presti-divination for your amusement.  

I hold in my hand these envelopes.  These envelopes are hermetically sealed.  They've been wrapped in hockey tape in Sluggo's trunk since noon today and NO ONE could possibly know the questions contained in these envelopes.  However, I, using my borderline mystical ways, will ascertain the answers having never before seen the questions.  (Editor's Note:  if you don't remember Carnac, just humor me and pretend you do.  Don't make old people feel old; it cheapens us all.)

We begin after the jump...

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More photos » Chris Carlson - AP

U-F-A! U-F-A!

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ARTHUR:
In breaking down the Bobby Ryan contract negotiations, I've been particularly resistant to repeating the assertion that Ryan's side has lobbied for a three-year deal.  First, because the first appearance of the news came from Bob McKenzie's Twitter, second because Bobby was on record talking about a deal taking him to UFA status and third because the Ducks had formally released their numbers and to juxtapose "three-years" to "five-years" would imply that the former was Bobby's official position as the latter was clearly Anaheim's official position.

However, with Murray stating he plans to go "in a different way" on Ryan negotiations in the next couple of days, Eric Stephens stated rather plainly that Ryan is an RFA looking for no more than three years.  No new quotes were offered, but I suppose this could be an off the record thing that has become common knowledge.  How does a three-year deal achieve Bobby's wishes for UFA?  Stephens explains thusly:

It is believed that Ryan’s camp is of the opinion that the winger can earn more than that $5 million if he were to be free and arbitration eligible in the summer of 2013.

So that's the game according to Stephens.  Not just to get to UFA on schedule, but to go to arbitration in the last year guaranteed a payday, even if it comes from a begrudging Ducks team or results in a sign and trade.  Perhaps the best scenario being that the Ducks are forced to walk away and leave Ryan a UFA one year ahead of schedule.

Ironically, I've seen a juxtaposition of Kariya and Ryan on a few comment boards, probably tied to what would happen to the number 9 if they find themselves teammates.  Plenty of fans point to Kariya taking less money in Colorado as evidence of his evil, and it's not clear to me how many of them are aware that Kariya taking less than the league average was about achieving UFA status before the age of 31, a CBA loophole not all that different from the one Ryan is allegedly playing here.  If Kariya is the devil for that, where do they rank Bobby for not even wanting to wait until he's 27 to leave Southern California?

Again, though, this position hasn't been formally attributed to Ryan.  He hasn't publicly lobbied for it, despite playing a game of full court press early in negotiations.  But it's worth noting that three years is a good business decision for Ryan, the nice, outgoing fan-favorite that the Orange County faithful have recently deified, just as taking one year below the league average was a good business decision for the introverted and tunnel-visioned Kariya, whom the Orange County faithful have since vilified.  And, to me, that says that the siren's song of Unrestricted Free Agency does not test the moral mettle of hockey players as much as it exposes the weaknesses of teams that need the salary cap to maintain a competitive payscale.  

Though, I suppose, heroes and villains are much more convenient.